When doing an outside enclosure, is it ok to use pressure treated wood? I have to bury it about a foot and want something that will hold up.
Outside enclosure
- Thread starter Cheryl Hills
- Start date
Cheryl,
I believe it to be fine. Although if your outside enclosure is large enough, it’s not very likely your russians will try to dig out. Corners can be problematic, but you could just lay a small piece of plywood down to cover that spot. Is this enclosure for y’alls russian tortoise or different specie ?
I believe it to be fine. Although if your outside enclosure is large enough, it’s not very likely your russians will try to dig out. Corners can be problematic, but you could just lay a small piece of plywood down to cover that spot. Is this enclosure for y’alls russian tortoise or different specie ?
It is for the Russians. I have an enclosure made with plastic panels but I am about to acquire four more females and will have to exstend another section for them. Now I will have 6 females and 2 males. For the time being they have to stay separate. I don’t have any more of the panels so I am going to use wood. My panels were from an old Rubbermaid she’d. They go about a foot into the ground and at least 2 1/2 feet to 3 feet above ground.
You’re doing good to keep them separate for awhile as a quarantine time while making sure the new ones are clean health wise. With your current setup are you seeing any digging happening at the sides of the enclosure? If not, just go say, 4” underground. That should be deep enough. At one time I had over 15 russians of mixed sexes in the same outdoor enclosure. I made sure to provide plenty of line of sight barriers to help all out.
here you can see that I used the ultimate line of sight barrier, my garage. Then lots of odds and ends in the center to provide obvious opportunities for making their own shelters. This made the evening collection times very easy.
Once they are quarantined I will try to put them all together but I have a really aggressive male right now. He is separate from my other three. But I am hoping, with more females, it might work. If not, he will have his own section. I went down 12inches just to be safe. And yes, they did try to dig but were not secsesfull thank goodness. I did have the ones I have all together in my outdoor enclosure and they did ok. We will see what happens this spring or summer. They will not be introduced together until then. Gives me plenty time to check them out and make sure they are not sick. I will probably go at least 6inches deep on the enclosure, maybe more.
Ms. Hills,
I hope y’all have good enough meetings when the time comes. I’m mulling over in my noggin the various scenarios and how to make the introductions. If the outdoor enclosure is large enough you could possibly release all the others in the enclosure for a week or so first and then release the pushy male away from all the others. Then he may just come upon the others while eating before he established a mental territory. If that’s the case, he may be less inclined to attack. As I said, I hope it works out great for you and all of your tortoises.
