Making A New Tortoise Yard

Yvonne G

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There are four male tortoises and three females living in my backyard. The backyard is separated into two yards with one of them having a greenhouse and large yard while the other has basically been my backyard with no tortoises in it. The greenhouse and yard housed one male and the three females, then when the weather warmed up enough for the other three males to have to be put outside, the only place for them was the backyard where they have lived not quite so peacefully for the past two months. I realized I was going to have to separate them before something bad happened, as the pushing, circling and shoving has gotten a bit worse this past week. So I've ordered lumber and supplies from Lowe's which were delivered today.

My friend is coming to town this week-end to help me partition off the back yard and to build two divided night houses. It's not easy to get the whole area in one picture, so I've taken two, with me standing in the same spot, just moving the camera. Here's the area I'm working with, and I'll update this thread as work progresses:

Building a new yard a.jpgBuilding a new yard b.jpg
 

Yvonne G

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The yards are almost complete. I still have to put some plants in and my friend took the lumber home to build the two divided night houses at his home. He'll bring them back towards the end of summer.

The front fence is two feet tall because when the street widening project happens and they move my driveway over into Dudley's yard, Dudley will have to be moved over here to the backyard. The portion of the yard in front of the 2' fence has access to a heated shelter that's on the car port. So Dudley will spend the winter here.

The other sections just have large dog crates for now, and I still have to dig down a bit under each fence and put in the broken concrete sections to fill the space between the bottom board and the ground. I probably don't need to do that because it's not nearly big enough for the tortoises to get under, and I've never seen them trying to dig, but it makes me feel better to do that. I KNOW that if Dudley sees daylight under the fence he WILL dig under.

building a new yard c.jpgbuilding a new yard d.jpgbuilding a new yard e.jpgbuilding a new yard f.jpgbuilding a new yard g.jpg

Once the plants I've ordered arrive and are placed around I'll attach more pictures, then when the night houses get here I'll show that to you too.
 

Yvonne G

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Dang Yvonne spending them big bucks buying wood now! A dang 2x4x8 at home despot is $10
Just 4x4s and grass boards, along with the very expensive plywood to make the night houses. But I LOVE Kraft mac and cheese. I haven't had to stoop to cat or dog food yet (Misty chases me away from her food bowl!!).
 

MenagerieGrl

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Wow, Yvonne, did you rob a bank? Looks like 2"x12"x( x'), and Redwood. That must have been a small fortune. Oh, the lengths we go through for our kids.... ?
 
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