- Joined
- Nov 25, 2011
- Messages
- 76
Hello everyone!
Im Renee and live in socal. I have a close friend who has two CDTs in need of a home. Our family is excited for the opportunity and I have been reading everything I can to prepare. Naturally, Im feeling nervous/anxious and want to "do this right" and feeling overwhelmed since reading this forum. I started by building a pen(12feet by 8 and a half feet) i choose this spot because its a dry spot(previous full of gravel) and surround by concrete(so they cant dig out) its about 16inches deep now that ive removed all the gravel. The torts are 30ish years old and 1ish years old. the older one being under 11/12" long and the younger about the size of my palm. I added a substrate of playsand, organic topsoil and peatmoss(i bought the ones recommended here in various posts.) I also created a south facing hide box with a plywood bottom and tiled slanted roof. I entended the roof out another foot and narrowed the opening with various size rocks and used galvanized landscape clothe to create a wall surrounding the box and opening(cutting and folding back the wire so they can get in but not on their box) I am constructing a lid with 2x4s and landscape cloth for the top( doing 4 3x8ish frames)
anyway before i saw picture here i thought my pen was just awesome and spacious over the 6ft dog run they live in now. but now im worried its way too small. my plan was to either put a che heater in the box(need to educate myself on where in the box or if this would even be safe) or a heated pet pad. or if I want to bring them in at night and keep them in a christmas tree tote with a sand/soil/moss substrate. ahhhh anyway ive already invensted over 500$ building this pen and am so worried its not going to work. ive layed it out to have a sand soil area/a rock/water area/ and then a small garden where im planting seeds for grasses greens etc and bought some ornamental grasses and suculants to plant(but now ive read i shouldnt use the ones from the nursery) torts were supoosed to move in yesterday but i put it off. someone please gently guide me? what do you think? im here to learn, please be kind
Im Renee and live in socal. I have a close friend who has two CDTs in need of a home. Our family is excited for the opportunity and I have been reading everything I can to prepare. Naturally, Im feeling nervous/anxious and want to "do this right" and feeling overwhelmed since reading this forum. I started by building a pen(12feet by 8 and a half feet) i choose this spot because its a dry spot(previous full of gravel) and surround by concrete(so they cant dig out) its about 16inches deep now that ive removed all the gravel. The torts are 30ish years old and 1ish years old. the older one being under 11/12" long and the younger about the size of my palm. I added a substrate of playsand, organic topsoil and peatmoss(i bought the ones recommended here in various posts.) I also created a south facing hide box with a plywood bottom and tiled slanted roof. I entended the roof out another foot and narrowed the opening with various size rocks and used galvanized landscape clothe to create a wall surrounding the box and opening(cutting and folding back the wire so they can get in but not on their box) I am constructing a lid with 2x4s and landscape cloth for the top( doing 4 3x8ish frames)
anyway before i saw picture here i thought my pen was just awesome and spacious over the 6ft dog run they live in now. but now im worried its way too small. my plan was to either put a che heater in the box(need to educate myself on where in the box or if this would even be safe) or a heated pet pad. or if I want to bring them in at night and keep them in a christmas tree tote with a sand/soil/moss substrate. ahhhh anyway ive already invensted over 500$ building this pen and am so worried its not going to work. ive layed it out to have a sand soil area/a rock/water area/ and then a small garden where im planting seeds for grasses greens etc and bought some ornamental grasses and suculants to plant(but now ive read i shouldnt use the ones from the nursery) torts were supoosed to move in yesterday but i put it off. someone please gently guide me? what do you think? im here to learn, please be kind