I'm starting to plan my outdoor pancake enclosure. The summers here can have temperatures 80s to low 100s. At night it gets down to 50s to 70s. At what temperature should I bring the tortoise inside at night? I keep the indoor enclosure at 80°. I have read various ideas on the temperatures they can be kept at at night so I was looking for input from those of you who have outdoor enclosures. Thank you for any suggestions.
Outdoor pancake enclosure
- Thread starter leigti
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Berkeley
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When I had my group, I would leave them outside from the first week of April to the first week of October. My threshhold for nighttime lows was 49 degrees. Anything below that and that was when I would bring them in. They can handle a night or two at lower temps, but with a mixed collection of species, that was just the number I stuck to.
--Berkeley
--Berkeley
Thank you. I will usually bring my tortoise in if it gets below 55. But she's a Russian so I wasn't sure what the pancakes tolerance was.
Finally, I have gotten started on the outdoor enclosure. Had a few other projects to get done first. I will update as I go along. As of right now it is 3 x 12'. I used a couple Old raised garden beds. I'm a little short on funds and help this year so I'm making do with what I have.
I put 2 x 4 welded wire underneath and I will put hardware cloth on the top.
It's going to be basically like my Russian tortoise enclosure in the background there. I took out the two middle boards so that I could connect the two boxes, and luckily his nice flat little body fits right through easily.
He actually has a lot more room than that picture shows, I took out a 2 x 4.
I'm thinking I will line the inside of it with rocks, I have a yard full of river rocks. I don't know how much pancakes actually dig but I thought I would be cautious.
I put 2 x 4 welded wire underneath and I will put hardware cloth on the top.
It's going to be basically like my Russian tortoise enclosure in the background there. I took out the two middle boards so that I could connect the two boxes, and luckily his nice flat little body fits right through easily.
He actually has a lot more room than that picture shows, I took out a 2 x 4.
I'm thinking I will line the inside of it with rocks, I have a yard full of river rocks. I don't know how much pancakes actually dig but I thought I would be cautious.
Well, still needs some hinges, plants, and waiting for the weeds to grow in. And I think I'm going to move the water bowl. Otherwise it is functional for now.
The pin gets everything from full sun to full shade throughout the day.
The pin gets everything from full sun to full shade throughout the day.
Well, the plants have grown in pretty well. They're going to keep growing so I will have to trim them soon. It's been too cold for the last week for the tortoises to be out. But hoping I can let them out tomorrow for the rest of the summer.
Jack has already picked his favorite hiding Place and his favorite sun tanning place.
Although the pens look sort of funny painted white, I did it because as my vision gets worse it was harder for me to not
run into them when it started to get dark. Which doesn't feel too good by the way.
it would help if I stop walking around barefoot, oh well.
As a sidenote, I've been going on the assumption that Jack is male, can somebody please confirm this? I can't really tell from pictures.
And just for fun here's a more flattering view.
Jack has already picked his favorite hiding Place and his favorite sun tanning place.
Although the pens look sort of funny painted white, I did it because as my vision gets worse it was harder for me to not
run into them when it started to get dark. Which doesn't feel too good by the way.
it would help if I stop walking around barefoot, oh well.As a sidenote, I've been going on the assumption that Jack is male, can somebody please confirm this? I can't really tell from pictures.
And just for fun here's a more flattering view.
AJK Aquaria
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Awesome stuff!
Any updates?
Any updates?
The plants keep growing, so I take the scissors and trim them and feed them to my other tortoise and my chickens.
Berkeley
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Looks like a male to me! Nice job on the enclosure- the plantings look quite healthy!
--Berkeley
Thanks. I planted seeds from tortoise supply.com and Carolina pet supply.com. And as usual I over planted. But between the tortoises and the chickens they get eaten up.
I'm going with female the tail is a lot smaller then my males and also the ram is the same size as my females. If you have any other questions please ask!!!! its really is looking great lucky pancake you got there!
Ram?
Wasn't clear sorry, their gular scutes is what i meant, my males have bigger ones. Your pancake seems big how much does she weigh?
410 g in January. About 5 1/2 inches long. I will get updated numbers this week sometime. Haven't weighed it lately. I named Jack, am I going to have to start calling it Jackie?
That's some good size she's got, my biggest female is 512 g. You may need to call her Jackie but wait till we get more opinions on her sex. If she is a female I think that Arizona tortoise compound is selling an adult pancake which is a male I think.
So far it is a tie, one vote for male and one vote for female. I am not interested in breeding tortoises so it would be a shame if it is female. Of course, my Russian is female. There are people here that breed both of those species very well.
Berkeley
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Going back to look, I agree with Gabriel. I was still in a box turtle mentality when I saw the picture for the first time- I had just been asked to sex a group of boxes. I was looking only at the tail. But that is a female pancake- the anal scutes are not flared enough for a male, and Gabriel is correct: a male's tails is much longer and thicker. It will wrap around and nearly touch the bend in the back leg.
My apologies for the confusion. It is a female.
--Berkeley
Female. Her name will stay Jack. I had a great aunt that we always called aunt Jack so it will work.
Just wanted to let people know that Jack has a new home. For the sake of the species I feel it is important that she be able to breed and make captive bred pancake tortoises. But I do not have the resources or experience. She is now with a fellow forum member who has an established breeding group and a great deal of experience and who I feel is not in it for the money but the sake of the tortoises. For their privacy I will not disclose the name, it is up to them if they want to say anything. I am going to miss her, I am glad I was able to have her for a while. This is a great species.
I did the same with a male pancake tortoise I had acquired back in 2006. I had been interested in pancake tortoises since I first saw them as a boy in the Albuquerque Zoo when my old man was stationed there back in the eighties. They had this awesome setup for them that had a big rock wall where they all could wedge themselves in place. To be honest, I'm not sure if it was all that great, given that at the time, I had no idea about pancakes, and my rose colored glasses of childhood make it seem more wonderful than it probably was.
When I got this male, unfortunately, he was incredibly shy. He was also quite good at escaping, able to climb a vertical cinderblock wall with a short overhang. I found this very surprising, given that I placed a series of flat bricks over the top, but he managed to shimmy his way around them, climb up beneath the screen cover, and shimmy his way out. I had to redesign the whole enclosure top after he escaped. Luckily, the wooden fence around my tortoise area and the stone fence with the hot wire beyond that kept him confined. But still, when folks speak to their escapist mentality, it really is something that should be taken very seriously.
Ultimately, I found this guy a little on the shy side. I don't know if that's the norm for this species, but this guy would basically run for cover anytime I walked anywhere near his enclosure. This made observing his behavior extremely difficult. I knew he was grazing, based upon the marks he left on the various succulents I grew in his enclosure. But he would never eat in front of me, and I was never able to watch him with binoculars, given the alcatraz-like nature of his confinement. So, in the end, I did as you did. I handed him over to a friend of mine in Arizona who was working with the species. He's now a daddy eight times over.
Yeah, this guy was very interesting, and surprisingly cold tolerant. Well, they are a montane species, so I suppose it isn't that surprising. The gent I got him from was a snake person from Houston, and he said that he simply allowed the tortoise free run of his backyard, allowing the animal to bed down for the winter beneath his tool shed. I never pushed the guy to this limit, but he certainly didn't seem to mind a chilly evening or two in the sixties. I kind of miss the little fellow, but I think I, like you, made the right choice.
T.G.
When I got this male, unfortunately, he was incredibly shy. He was also quite good at escaping, able to climb a vertical cinderblock wall with a short overhang. I found this very surprising, given that I placed a series of flat bricks over the top, but he managed to shimmy his way around them, climb up beneath the screen cover, and shimmy his way out. I had to redesign the whole enclosure top after he escaped. Luckily, the wooden fence around my tortoise area and the stone fence with the hot wire beyond that kept him confined. But still, when folks speak to their escapist mentality, it really is something that should be taken very seriously.
Ultimately, I found this guy a little on the shy side. I don't know if that's the norm for this species, but this guy would basically run for cover anytime I walked anywhere near his enclosure. This made observing his behavior extremely difficult. I knew he was grazing, based upon the marks he left on the various succulents I grew in his enclosure. But he would never eat in front of me, and I was never able to watch him with binoculars, given the alcatraz-like nature of his confinement. So, in the end, I did as you did. I handed him over to a friend of mine in Arizona who was working with the species. He's now a daddy eight times over.
Yeah, this guy was very interesting, and surprisingly cold tolerant. Well, they are a montane species, so I suppose it isn't that surprising. The gent I got him from was a snake person from Houston, and he said that he simply allowed the tortoise free run of his backyard, allowing the animal to bed down for the winter beneath his tool shed. I never pushed the guy to this limit, but he certainly didn't seem to mind a chilly evening or two in the sixties. I kind of miss the little fellow, but I think I, like you, made the right choice.
T.G.
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