How important is width

[swatsx]

Of a tortoise table? The Russians that are coming to me this week (m and f) come with a table of 6x3 I have a bunch of scrap wood but it's cut to 2x8 so I was thinking of making a L shape table with a removable divider Incase the happy couple don't get a long I can turn it from one big table to two smaller ones both with heat lamps, water food etc... Now if all is said and done and my wife is cool with it and I do have to put up the wall will one tort be worse off because they lose a foot in width? Yea it's two total feet sq but how bad is it

So how important is tortoise table width

 

[wellington]

It not being wide enough will make it harder for you alng with the torts. You don't want them to be walking through the dishes all the time. The water dish should be big enough for them to get into. Most use the clay saucers. Can you join the wood together to make it 4x8?

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Wellington is correct. I have an "L" shaped enclosure that I seldom use because of exactly THAT. Tortoises always want to walk laps all the way around the enclosure and always through the water and food bowls in this shape pen. Mine is 17' X 2'. Far too narrow for anything larger than a yearling. You'll want it wide enough that a tortoise can walk the edges and still have room in the center.
I plan to use it as a nursery if in fact I hatch any eggs....or even GET any eggs for that matter.

 

[biochemnerd808]

I have an L-shaped stacked set of enclosures that is built into heavy duty garage shelving. Each level is 2ft x 8ft, and it works great (so each 'piece' is 2ft x 4ft, and then screwed together to make the full L). I have a square pyrex baking dish as the water dish on one end, and I have a basking light in each of the 2 parts of the "L", with the 'cool end' being the 'elbow' of the L.
One of them is for juveniles, so it has a hot humid hide on one end (with a CHE) and the basking spot in the 'elbow' and then the 'cool end' in the short part of the "L"...
I have had no problems with this kind of set-up. My one complaint is that with the 14" high walls, and the narrow width, I have to crane my neck or hover right above each level to see in. Adding windows might be a good option... although if you don't have other layers right above, it might not be a problem.
Here is a quick view of the 3 stacked L enclosures (I am short... so I use that step ladder to access the top 2 levels):

 

[biochemnerd808]

I should add that the above L-shaped enclosure is used only from the time it gets too cold for outdoor time towards the end of September until the torts go down for brumation at the end of Nov- March in the tort fridge... and then again for about 4 weeks in the Spring. Our torts are outdoors the rest of the time. So it "works" for us because the tortoise in each L-enclosure only spends a few weeks per year in there. This is an OK space for a single tortoise per level.

btw, The 'tort walking through the water dish' issue is easily solved though by placing a square dish at one end, rather than somewhere in the middle.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Mine would walk right through the square dish to reach the border and keep walking...