Outdoor Tortoise Enclosure

[DoctorPotterWho]

Hi, everyone! My husband and I are almost finished with our outdoor enclosure. We originally started a 5 x 5 enclosure for our late tortoise Flash, but was informed that it was much too small. So we added 8 more feet to it. Flash unfortunately passed away due to an upper resp. infection. We sanitized everything after he passed and educated ourselves a bit more. We spoke to a breeder/keeper recently and was told that since we only had him for a couple of months, chances were he was already infected as it can take a few months to get bad. Flash died within a week and a 1/2 of symptoms showing.

We have adopted a new Cherry Head and named him Harold. He is a lot bigger than what Flash was even though he is 5 months. (We believe we were told Flash was 6 months old, when in reality he was a lot younger).

The top of the enclosure is hardware wire. One side will be hinged while the other tops are removable. All will have locks. I just added some seeds to the enclosure and have been speaking to a local nursery that specializes in dart frog vivarium plants which are non fertilized so I can add some nice lush plants for Harold to shade with and graze on.

The enclosure gets partial shade on one end, and full light on the other until around noon to 1 and then it shades completely. Temps are staying around 90 to upper 80's in the morning on that side of the house and go down to around 80 at night and then the 70's.

We will only be keeping Harold outside for a few hours a day with supervisio until he gets older.

The plant beside the enclosure is a Guava tree.

 

[Gillian M]

Hi, everyone! My husband and I are almost finished with our outdoor enclosure. We originally started a 5 x 5 enclosure for our late tortoise Flash, but was informed that it was much too small. So we added 8 more feet to it. Flash unfortunately passed away due to an upper resp. infection. We sanitized everything after he passed and educated ourselves a bit more. We spoke to a breeder/keeper recently and was told that since we only had him for a couple of months, chances were he was already infected as it can take a few months to get bad. Flash died within a week and a 1/2 of symptoms showing.

We have adopted a new Cherry Head and named him Harold. He is a lot bigger than what Flash was even though he is 5 months. (We believe we were told Flash was 6 months old, when in reality he was a lot younger).

The top of the enclosure is hardware wire. One side will be hinged while the other tops are removable. All will have locks. I just added some seeds to the enclosure and have been speaking to a local nursery that specializes in dart frog vivarium plants which are non fertilized so I can add some nice lush plants for Harold to shade with and graze on.

The enclosure gets partial shade on one end, and full light on the other until around noon to 1 and then it shades completely. Temps are staying around 90 to upper 80's in the morning on that side of the house and go down to around 80 at night and then the 70's.

We will only be keeping Harold outside for a few hours a day with supervisio until he gets older.

The plant beside the enclosure is a Guava tree.

A gorgeous tort. GOD bless.

 

[DoctorPotterWho]

A gorgeous tort. GOD bless.

Thank you, Gillian! God bless <3

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I like the looks of that thing!
Just keep in mind that Redfoot are fond of shade and not full, blasting sunlight. They get overheated easily.
If y'all ever make a larger, taller enclosure, I have two larger tortoise "dog houses" I don't need. I'm in S.E Broward.
Truth is I've been trying to give one or both of them away for a while. They are just too cool to throw away.
If interested, I could post a photo.

 

[DoctorPotterWho]

I like the looks of that thing!
Just keep in mind that Redfoot are fond of shade and not full, blasting sunlight. They get overheated easily.
If y'all ever make a larger, taller enclosure, I have two larger tortoise "dog houses" I don't need. I'm in S.E Broward.
Truth is I've been trying to give one or both of them away for a while. They are just too cool to throw away.
If interested, I could post a photo.

Thank you!! I am hopefully going to get some safe plants this week and he will have lots of shade in there. I also cover part of the area where he goes just in case. Today he checked out only half of the enclosure for the hour we were outside.

We aren't able to build up too high due to annoying HOA. We are looking for property now so we can do more. If we ever find the right place I will let you know. I would love to eventually do a larger species too. =)

 

[klawran1]

I really like this! Great work.

 

[DoctorPotterWho]

I really like this! Great work.

Thank you!! It took a lot of work, but was well worth it!

 

[Turtlebuster16]

Looking good

 

[DoctorPotterWho]

Looking good

Thank you =)

 

[PJay]

Looks good, that's one lucky cherryhead!

 

[DoctorPotterWho]

Looks good, that's one lucky cherryhead!

Thank you, PJay!

 

[Robber]

My redfoot has never left a half buried pot in place as intended. She always dugs under from the back(outside) and it ends up uprooted from the half buried position - I will be curious to see if yours does the same(it will probably have to grow some first).

 

[DoctorPotterWho]

My redfoot has never left a half buried pot in place as intended. She always dugs under from the back(outside) and it ends up uprooted from the half buried position - I will be curious to see if yours does the same(it will probably have to grow some first).

HAHA. I have a friend whose tort does something similar with it's log lol. It was shocking to me at first to see how strong they are. =)