Outdoor enclosure questions

[SusannaH]

Hello all!
I have had my Russian tortoise for 15 years, and she has lived most of her life in a 6'x2' indoor enclosure. I have always hoped to build her a larger, hopefully outdoor enclosure, but being a student and moving frequently for most of those years prevented this. Now, I am in a rental house with a large fenced in garden in the back, and have just gotten permission to convert the 12' x 3' planter box pictured here into a tortoise home. I am so excited to give her a bigger space, and am planning on making into a tortoise enclosure by extending the wall height by 10-12" and putting in a mesh top (probably with an overlay of wood to provide shade over part of the enclosure). She already eats a planted grassland tortoise seed mix, so I'm planning on planting that directly in the enclosure. I did have a couple of questions which I would love help with:
1) The current soil is mostly clay and dirt. Is this a suitable substrate or should I replace it?
2) Where I live, lows are consistently in the 40s-50s year round and highs range from the 60s in the winter months to 70s in the summer months. It is sunny almost year round. Is it suitable to leave her outside without an alternative heat source, or should I provide some type of heating? Another option would be to have her live in her current indoor cage during the winter or at night, and put her in the outdoor enclosure during the day.
3) Is it actually necessary to provide a mesh lid on the enclosure? The location of the planter box is inaccessible to coyotes or other animals, but birds could get in. I'm not sure if birds pose a threat to an adult Russian?
Thank you so much for your advice! Grateful for your help with these questions and any other tips/advice!

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Hello! I would call @SinLA, @DoubleD1996! and @Tom for opinions as I don't keep Russian tortoises.

1. If soil is well drained and "burrowable" you can use it. I often see that "yard dirt" is fine but without details on composition.
2. 40s, I believe, is too cold, even for Russian tortoises - they brumate in 38-39F. So you will need a heated nightbox or a cold frame (greenhouse). Greenhouse can be covered with UV-transparent plastic so tortoise can get UVB from sunlight. And you can choose to brumate her during winter.
3. Perhaps, rodents are your main enemy.

 

[Tom]

Hello all!
I have had my Russian tortoise for 15 years, and she has lived most of her life in a 6'x2' indoor enclosure. I have always hoped to build her a larger, hopefully outdoor enclosure, but being a student and moving frequently for most of those years prevented this. Now, I am in a rental house with a large fenced in garden in the back, and have just gotten permission to convert the 12' x 3' planter box pictured here into a tortoise home. I am so excited to give her a bigger space, and am planning on making into a tortoise enclosure by extending the wall height by 10-12" and putting in a mesh top (probably with an overlay of wood to provide shade over part of the enclosure). She already eats a planted grassland tortoise seed mix, so I'm planning on planting that directly in the enclosure. I did have a couple of questions which I would love help with:
1) The current soil is mostly clay and dirt. Is this a suitable substrate or should I replace it?
2) Where I live, lows are consistently in the 40s-50s year round and highs range from the 60s in the winter months to 70s in the summer months. It is sunny almost year round. Is it suitable to leave her outside without an alternative heat source, or should I provide some type of heating? Another option would be to have her live in her current indoor cage during the winter or at night, and put her in the outdoor enclosure during the day.
3) Is it actually necessary to provide a mesh lid on the enclosure? The location of the planter box is inaccessible to coyotes or other animals, but birds could get in. I'm not sure if birds pose a threat to an adult Russian?
Thank you so much for your advice! Grateful for your help with these questions and any other tips/advice!

Outside will be great. Here are my thoughts:
1. Russians aren't grass eaters, so a grassland seed mix isn't appropriate for them. They can hide in tufts of grass, and grass won't hurt them, but you'd be much better off planting a "testudo seed mix", and a variety of other good stuff like squash or pumpkin in spring. Pansies, gazanias, nasturtiums, etc... You also need some deep shade. Plywood as a lid might get too hot on a summer day.
2. The native dirt should be fine. Bought-in-a-bag soil from the store is not safe. Dirt from your yard should be.
3. Predators aren't really a problem during the day, and if the tortoise is living outside full time, it will need a temperature controlled shelter to sleep in at night. What can be a problem with this species, is escape. A lid would help prevent this, but if you add an inward overhanging lip to the top of the wall, a lid shouldn't be necessary.
4. Indoors at night and on cold days, and outdoors during ice weather works great. Ideally, the tortoise should be brumated in winter, but that is not "required"

Questions are welcome.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Hopefully you might find some different inspiration in here!

Enclosure inspiration

Howdy folks! Hope everyone is well! As you all know, I’m a big fan of making threads that cater more towards visual learners like myself, I’ve really been wanting to create a thread full of adult enclosure inspiration for a while now, I’ve managed to find some great references over time! I do...

tortoiseforum.org

 

[144 Grandpa Turtle]

Hello all!
I have had my Russian tortoise for 15 years, and she has lived most of her life in a 6'x2' indoor enclosure. I have always hoped to build her a larger, hopefully outdoor enclosure, but being a student and moving frequently for most of those years prevented this. Now, I am in a rental house with a large fenced in garden in the back, and have just gotten permission to convert the 12' x 3' planter box pictured here into a tortoise home. I am so excited to give her a bigger space, and am planning on making into a tortoise enclosure by extending the wall height by 10-12" and putting in a mesh top (probably with an overlay of wood to provide shade over part of the enclosure). She already eats a planted grassland tortoise seed mix, so I'm planning on planting that directly in the enclosure. I did have a couple of questions which I would love help with:
1) The current soil is mostly clay and dirt. Is this a suitable substrate or should I replace it?
2) Where I live, lows are consistently in the 40s-50s year round and highs range from the 60s in the winter months to 70s in the summer months. It is sunny almost year round. Is it suitable to leave her outside without an alternative heat source, or should I provide some type of heating? Another option would be to have her live in her current indoor cage during the winter or at night, and put her in the outdoor enclosure during the day.
3) Is it actually necessary to provide a mesh lid on the enclosure? The location of the planter box is inaccessible to coyotes or other animals, but birds could get in. I'm not sure if birds pose a threat to an adult Russian?
Thank you so much for your advice! Grateful for your help with these questions and any other tips/advice!

Don't Under Esa mate a coyotes. we had one jump up on our 6 foot wall and walk around the yard on the wall !

 

[Ilimburg]

Hello all!
I have had my Russian tortoise for 15 years, and she has lived most of her life in a 6'x2' indoor enclosure. I have always hoped to build her a larger, hopefully outdoor enclosure, but being a student and moving frequently for most of those years prevented this. Now, I am in a rental house with a large fenced in garden in the back, and have just gotten permission to convert the 12' x 3' planter box pictured here into a tortoise home. I am so excited to give her a bigger space, and am planning on making into a tortoise enclosure by extending the wall height by 10-12" and putting in a mesh top (probably with an overlay of wood to provide shade over part of the enclosure). She already eats a planted grassland tortoise seed mix, so I'm planning on planting that directly in the enclosure. I did have a couple of questions which I would love help with:
1) The current soil is mostly clay and dirt. Is this a suitable substrate or should I replace it?
2) Where I live, lows are consistently in the 40s-50s year round and highs range from the 60s in the winter months to 70s in the summer months. It is sunny almost year round. Is it suitable to leave her outside without an alternative heat source, or should I provide some type of heating? Another option would be to have her live in her current indoor cage during the winter or at night, and put her in the outdoor enclosure during the day.
3) Is it actually necessary to provide a mesh lid on the enclosure? The location of the planter box is inaccessible to coyotes or other animals, but birds could get in. I'm not sure if birds pose a threat to an adult Russian?
Thank you so much for your advice! Grateful for your help with these questions and any other tips/advice!

That planter box is huge that’s great!

 

[SusannaH]

Hi everyone, thank you so much for your responses! They are so helpful and I truly appreciate the advice. It sounds like the consensus is that the dirt/clay that's already in the planter box is a suitable substrate, that I should probably cover the enclosure (we have rodents and many coyotes in the area). I do like the idea of a temperature controlled night box long term, but in the short term I will probably follow Tom's advice and use it as a daytime enclosure and just bring her inside for nights and cold/rainy weather. Also, I misspoke about the grassland seed mix - this is the seed mix that I've been growing for her (she also eats Zoo Med grassland tortoise food, so I think that's where I got the grassland confusion from). Is this a suitable seed mix?
A few other questions that come to mind:
1) Tom, I know you mentioned brumation. I have never brumated her, but I have noticed that in the winter months she gets relatively inactive, eats less, and seems to want to brumate. I have never been confident in my abilities to successfully brumate her, and I know that research is limited on this, but is there any consensus as to whether not brumating causes any specific health issues or a decrease in longevity?
2) I would like to plant some larger plants/small bushes in the enclosure so that she can have shade and places to dig. Any suggestions for suitable plants that are safe for her to eat but she won't completely destroy?
3) I know it was mentioned that plywood might not be enough for deep shade -would a tarp be a better idea? I noticed a tarp in several of the other enclosure inspiration pictures. (I love that thread by the way - thank you for attaching!)
That's all for now! Thank you all again for your help! I'm excited to post pictures of my tort when she's all set up in her new daytime home.

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

1. Unfortunately, there is no experimental evidence on effects of keeping tortoise awake during winter. This requires a really long history (decades) of observations with top-notch husbandry and control groups. There are some hormonal changes related to brumation, metabolism slows down as well - these can be beneficial for health. However, short-term observations don't show negative effects of keeping tortoises awake. "Fridge method" of brumation is relatively safe and Tom has a detailed guide on brumation.

2. A lot of plants can be used for shade and are safe to nibble (check thetortoisetable.org.uk for examples). Hosta, carex, spider plants etc. Hibiscus bush. But you have to check what's suitable for your climatic zone.

3. Deep shade is a multi-layered shade. E.g. a shade cloth or tarp over plywood lid or a half-pot under dense bush.

 

[144 Grandpa Turtle]

I have had my tortoises for 24 years and I bromate Mine very year it helps if I over feed them to lose the weight .

 

[RobertFlak]

I created a similar outdoor pen for my Herman so he could get real sunlight during the day, but I always took him inside at night.
A camera I had in pen with motion detect showed a rat entering the pen in the early morning hours- so not a place I'd want to leave tortoise overnight.