Making an enclosure on the floor

[hunterk997]

This spring I'm moving into the biggest room in my house, it's basically two rooms put together. I also got my parents to agree to allow me to buy an old bookshelf to make a tortoise enclosure for my 5 inch Russian tortoise. The dimensions of the bookshelf will roughly be, 6 feet by 2.5 feet. But my dad also sparked the idea for me to just run a board from one wall to the other in one part of the room creating a 6.7 feet by about 3.3 feet enclosure. The walls of the room would serve as the other walls of the enclosure. I know a lot of people are against this, but in this situation could it work? The room is upstairs so it's always at least 75 F in all of the rooms. My current room is 85 F so the new one will probably be the same. The floor is carpet, so no "cold floors" can happen, and I was planning to put plastic down anyway if I do this. There are two windows. One is an East facing, the other a South facing. I figured that could be good because I could open them to allow sunlight in if my tortoise couldn't be outside that day for some reason. They are newer windows, and I haven't felt any drafts coming out (one window is in the wall that makes the enclosure). I'm not really sure how to do lighting yet, so if this could work I could use some advice on how to manage the lights. I have a 32 inch tube lamp and then a basking bulb.
So would she be better off in the table, or on the floor enclosure because it's bigger? Also a side note, we are also building her a 10ft by 10ft enclosure this spring, so she will be outside.

 

[wellington]

The floor would be fine. Your building her an enclosure on the floor, not just letting her roam the floor of the whole room. Just remember, the temps in your room, is not the temp on the floor. You will have to make sure you do heat the enclosure and not just use the room heat for doing this. I vote for the floor, it's larger, with heating it separate then just using room temp.

 

[hunterk997]

The floor would be fine. Your building her an enclosure on the floor, not just letting her roam the floor of the whole room. Just remember, the temps in your room, is not the temp on the floor. You will have to make sure you do heat the enclosure and not just use the room heat for doing this. I vote for the floor, it's larger, with heating it separate then just using room temp.

I see what you mean. I used my temp. gun and it read that the floor in that room and specific spot is 71 F. So how could I go about heating it? Some type of under-the-substrate heating? And if she were to be in there during the summer, would I still need heating? The days get in the high 80's and low 90's in the summer and only drop to the 70's at night.

 

[Joanne]

you will ideally still need a basking bulb and a uv bulb, or a mvb which is both basking and uv.

 

[hunterk997]

you will ideally still need a basking bulb and a uv bulb, or a mvb which is both basking and uv.

I know I will still need an UV bulb and basking bulb. I just have to figure out how to set them up.

 

[stinax182]

I've often wish i had this opportunity! if i were you I'd just build the largest plywood box i could, whether it be the entire half of the room or slightly smaller. that way the floor and walls won't be ruined and it'd be a lot easier and less expensive to heat. plus you can cover it better and if you ever have to move you can just take it down and resemble it.

 

[Levi the Leopard]

I vote for the floor length enclosure.

No under substrate heat. Just a basking spot and you'll be fine. With that length, maybe 2 basking spots at opposite ends. You can get a wall bracket (the kind that people use to hold up book shelves) to stick out of the wall a few feet above the floor and hang the basking lamp from that.

I just saw a great idea in another thread. They built a storage shelf and put the tort table on top. They could utilize the whole length of their wall with that storage area underneath.
If yours is on the floor, you loose all the real estate above her.

 

[Yvonne G]

You can build some sort of light stand, or hang the lights/heat from chains and hooks in the ceiling. Do a search for light stand in the GOOGLE custom search box at the top of every page here and it will show you the links where we've talked about light stands here on the Forum.

 

[argus333]

i have a 6ft x 4ft pen that is on floor and half in a closet for small sulcatas.. they love it.

 

[lynnedit]

I vote for the floor too. If it checks out at 71f, Heather is right, you won't need any heat underneath.
You set up the wood sides, then run the liner up and staple. Perhaps a 160w basking light on the warm end and a 75 to 100w midway.
Your 'cool' end would be OK w/o heat with those floor temps.

Once again, what a nice Dad you have!

 

[wellington]

I agree with the temps being fine. Russians like it cooler at night, even down to 65-68 isn't bad for them at night. I would hang the lights if possible from the ceiling. The bracket idea Heather mentioned is good too. I don't like the light stand. I had too use one when I was sitting for two leopards. A double light fixture was hanging from it. If I didn't weigh down the base, it would tip over.

 

[hunterk997]

Thanks for all of the ideas. I really like the wall bracket idea. Except I worry a lot, so is there anything I can do to prevent the lamp from falling and injuring my tortoise if it were to somehow fall? I also like the idea of two basking spots. I will only need to buy two clamp lamps. I think I will use the hooks from the ceiling idea for the UV lighting fixture. I like the idea of building a plywood box of the same dimensions, but I was hoping to be able to do this cheap, because I will be building the outdoor enclosure at relatively the same time, and I'm sure I will have enough money to do that. I think I'll cap the two corners, because I don't want to do a lid with this one. I have dogs, but I can keep my door closed. They don't come into my room now anyways. So 71 F is okay for a Russian tortoise than? I know that they can withstand pretty cool temperatures at night.

 

[FLINTUS]

71 is definitely fine, actually maybe a little too warm at night. I know some people have houses that get down to 50 at night and they are fine as hatchlings. As long as it stays above 50, no supplemental heat is needed.