Outdoor box turtle/hermann enclosure

[Mikefitz905]

Hello my names mike,

I live in Toronto Canada, I have a 17x5 garden area I’m thinking about converting to an enclosure for a box turtle or eastern Hermann.

My only concern is I can’t house them properly indoors. I was wondering if anyone had any tips as to ways to either extend the fall and spring months so I only need to Brumaire for a couple months instead of 4 or 5.

 

[Tom]

Hello my names mike,

I live in Toronto Canada, I have a 17x5 garden area I’m thinking about converting to an enclosure for a box turtle or eastern Hermann.

My only concern is I can’t house them properly indoors. I was wondering if anyone had any tips as to ways to either extend the fall and spring months so I only need to Brumaire for a couple months instead of 4 or 5.

Its okay to brumate for 4 months. That is natural for both species.

In this thread I show an outdoor box with heating in it that can get them out earlier in spring and keep them out later into fall, even when the weather isn't cooperating. I'm not sure how well it will work in the frozen North where you are, but these boxes have no problem maintaining 80F degrees (27C) for tropical species all day and night here when night temps are dropping into the 20s F (below zero C). I set the thermostats to around 60F (16C) for my temperate species and the heaters barely even run to do that. I only use the heat lamps if the outside temp is cold and over cast.

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

tortoiseforum.org

Questions are welcome!

 

[Mikefitz905]

Hello my names mike,

I live in Toronto Canada, I have a 17x5 garden area I’m thinking about converting to an enclosure for a box turtle or eastern Hermann.

My only concern is I can’t house them properly indoors. I was wondering if anyone had any tips as to ways to either extend the fall and spring months so I only need to Brumaire for a couple months instead of 4 or 5.

Its okay to brumate for 4 months. That is natural for both species.

In this thread I show an outdoor box with heating in it that can get them out earlier in spring and keep them out later into fall, even when the weather isn't cooperating. I'm not sure how well it will work in the frozen North where you are, but these boxes have no problem maintaining 80F degrees (27C) for tropical species all day and night here when night temps are dropping into the 20s F (below zero C). I set the thermostats to around 60F (16C) for my temperate species and the heaters barely even run to do that. I only use the heat lamps if the outside temp is cold and over cast.

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

tortoiseforum.org

Questions are welcome!

Thank you for the information!

It does get really cold during winter months(-20c a couple days) where I am, however they would be brumating during the worst of it safely indoors. Really like this idea for extending the spring and fall months even by just a couple weeks.