For the diggers... how are you sinking your fence?

[Erik Elvis]

hey guys.

Been going over ideas for outside enclosures. I have a sulcata so have to sink the fence some. Wondering how your doing it and how deep?

Thanks
Erik

 

[Yvonne G]

my sulcata has never offered to dig under a fence. as long as the fence goes clear to the ground with no light showing under it, he probably won't dig under it

 

[JoesMum]

Its bulldozing that's the problem - having a fence/wall strong enough to resist 100lb determined to go in a straight line

And deep burrows. It's burrows they dig rather than tunnels

 

[Gillian M]

A very warm welcome to the forum, @Erik Elvis !

Apologies, I cannot help here. Hope the experts will be able to.

 

[Redfool]

A fence can be reinforced with cut rebar pounded in the ground. If fence is chain link, rebar can be used like tent stakes. Also I have seen patio stones sunken just under the fence and extending into pen/yard. The torts don’t know to start digging at the stones edge before they get to the fence. A good warm hide house should keep them from digging a burrow.

 

[KarenSoCal]

I don't know what kind of fence you have, but we dug a trench and attached sheets of lath to the wood. It only goes down 12 inches, but it's for a desert tort. You can also attach the mesh, then bend it inward into the enclosure and cover with soil. The tort starts digging at the fence, and soon hits the mesh a few inches underground. Don't know if any of this helps with a sulcata...

 

[Maro2Bear]

Heres a nice looking fence, note the nice 12" high board along the footer.

• https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/franklins-new-home.161409/

We used 10 x 10 timbers stacked three high in our Sullys grazing pen. He never tried or wanted to dig.

 

[Erik Elvis]

Thanks guys. I figure I have till spring to figure it out but I see so many different ways to do it I’m trying to see what works best for people without breaking the bank. I’d feel better sinking the fence at least a foot. Figure I could rent a trencher for a day to do the digging.

 

[Hugo's Home]

Here is mine. a backhoe dug the footer/ trench1-2 feet deep. Then laid railroad ties and corrugated roof tin I had left over and attached it all. He hasn't tried to dig at all. I think mine was overkill. I lost the pic on how I did it but here is the thread I started. pics of the fence are right at the beginning.

https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/adult-sulcata-enclosure-build-arizona.158623/

 

[JohnnyB65]

Well I was fortunate to have a concrete block wall around my place but I figure if roots from the neighbors pine tree can come across then my Desert Tortoise could dig out. I had to remove all vegetation within 5 ft from the wall to keep the tree roots from damaging the wall. I used landscaping fabric to keep the weeds out and packed it down with fine crush rock so he doesn’t even try to dig.

My tortoise tries to dig under the gate, but doesn’t do so well because that gravel is packed down so hard from walking on it. I imagine he might be able to get through eventually if left unattended for a few months so I covered the gate with some shade fabric. He can’t see the other side of the gate and he quit digging. He did manage to knock a wooden gate down that went under my Swamp cooler, but it was a dead end and he couldn’t go anywhere.

 

[Tom]

hey guys.

Been going over ideas for outside enclosures. I have a sulcata so have to sink the fence some. Wondering how your doing it and how deep?

Thanks
Erik

No need to bury anything. They don't try to dig out like a dog. Here is mine for reference. The blocks are just stacked on the ground. No rebar or reinforcement.
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/enclosure-expansion.38788/

 

[Erik Elvis]

I’ll likely still put about a foot of chicken wire or some sort of mesh underground. A trencher should do a bulk of the work. The other half for the leopard I won’t do that.

 

[Tom]

Chicken wire won't even slow a large sulcata down.

But it will stop and chickens from getting in there unless they dig down more than a foot!

 

[Arizona Sulcata]

Don't bother doing all that work trenching to just do chicken wire, might as well be dental floss to a Sulcata. I have 2' deep concrete footings around some horse stalls and it took my Sulcatas all of a week to dig under. They won't dig to escape but they certainly will to nest, burrow, and flat out be a pain in the butt. There's really nothing you can do to prevent it. I just have to stay on top of them and do perimeter checks daily. If you stay on top of problem areas and throw in a few cinder blocks here and there to discourage digging you can manage it quite well.