New enclosure questions!

[amberlee]

So, me and my uncle are going to make my 1 year old sulcata tortoise a new enclosure, because the one he is in now, he is getting too big for. My idea it to make a square enclosure that is 4 foot on all four sides. He is going to have the coconut husk as his bedding, along with some rocks to climb on, I will monitor him the first few days to make sure that he isn't flipping himself over on them, and for the food and water dish, I was thinking about using the terra cotta saucers from underneath the potted plants. the only problem is, I've tried them in there before and kept flipping over in them and I didn't want him to flip over while I was at work. So here re my questions:
1. Why does he always flip over in those bowls, what can I do so he doesn't?
2. What kind of wood do I need to make the enclosure
3. Do I need to seal the wood?
4. Does my idea for my enclosure sound good ?Is there any changes I should make?
Thanks so much, all ideas, comments and sugestions are very much appreciated !!

 

[Jacqui]

Hi! A rectangle is much better then a square enclosure, if you could do that. How big and deep are the saucers you tried using in relationship to your tortoise?

 

[sibi]

The best way to use saucers for water or food that your tort will not flip over is to bury it into the substrate so that the dish is at level with the ground. Remove anything that you know he can flip himself over. I don't think building a 4'x4' box is worth it. He'll just outgrow that one in a few months or before a year. Build bigger...as big as you can because in a year he'll probably need to move outside using an insulated shed. Do you have a big backyard? Have your uncle build an Insulated enclosure like the one Tom built. Check his threads on how to build an enclosure.

 

[amberlee]

Hi! A rectangle is much better then a square enclosure, if you could do that. How big and deep are the saucers you tried using in relationship to your tortoise?

The problem with the rectangle is that my room is quite small and its the only way icould make him a somewhat bug enclosure, and I am not sure of the exact size compared to him, because they are stored up right now, but I would say if I sat him in the middle of it, he would have about 1.5-2 inches around him .

 

[wellington]

I agree with all above. Also, a couple rocks in the water dish will help to give him something to push off of to right himself should he flip again, after taking sibi's suggestion. I also don't think square is as good as rectangle, as Jacqui said.

 

[amberlee]

I plan on moving him out once he gets big enough, and I'm about to be moving, so this is only going to be four months tops.. so its kinda just temporary. The house im at now is 6 acres and I'm moving to no less than 10 so he'll have a huge area when hes big enough.

 

[amberlee]

Im about to be moving, so this is very temporary because i don't know what my new house will be like, so i cant do something to nice and expensive because i don't know how big i can go, so if I do like 5x5x8x8 maybe that wont fit, you know? So I was doing this temporary i live on 6 acres now and im moving somewhere no less than 10 so outside room is no problem. Also, no one is answering about the wood, what kind of wood...?