Outside setup question

[Stephenxiii]

hi there,

We’ve moved into a new house with a pretty large garden and I’m planning on getting an outside set up going

I’m looking at building one at around 2m wide and 4m length
I have old railway sleepers I plan on using 2 at the sides one at the bottom and at the top end a rabbit hutch with hide.

Obviously these guys are good escape artists.
Can I just place him in an enclosure with grass or is that a risk? If not

I plan on lifting the turf and putting weed membrane down layering that with 40mm lose stone possibly 1” deep then laying turf back on top

Or is this just over kill

For the sleepers at the top I’ll get extra wood to over hang to prevent escaping
And at the top I’ll line it with chicken coop wire to prevent anything getting in as we have a lot of birds and cats/foxes in our area

It’s worth pointing out that he’ll only be out for a few hours a day 50% of the time it’ll be supervised.

We stay in Scotland so him being out is always weather dependent.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Hello from a fellow uk member! Honestly your plans sound pretty good, though I wouldn’t add any of the loose stones, they can sometimes try to eat them, and I don’t think you need to worry about the weed membrane.

Hopefully these links below will come in useful

For indoor side of things, This thread covers correct equipment(uvb, heating bulbs, lighting etc, definitely double check bulb types, folks unfortunately sold the wrong ones often), correct levels, appropriately maintaining the humidity, safe substrates, there’s lots of visual examples for everything, and the tortoise table link(Really useful tool)

Housing adult Russian and Hermans indoors

Hello there! In this thread I’m going to include some information an example of an appropriate indoor set up for an older Herman/russian. As much as it’s encouraged to have tortoises in a safe outdoor enclosure, I understand being from the uk myself, that some climates make it difficult to...

tortoiseforum.org

This includes lots of inspiration for an adult set up both indoors and out! The indoor bit has some good ideas to tackle indoor space whilst still providing the needed roaming room! The outdoor bit has landscaping ideas, predator/proofing, and lots more! Check comments too, I’m always adding to it, I have a huge back log I need to add.

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

Now that housing thread discusses an open top set up, which is fine for adult tortoises, but I will say, knowing how cold our uk winters get, for those who don’t brumate their temperate species(not sure if you do or not), they can really struggle keeping their temperates where needed, a cover can come in really handy for maintaining your heat, the most efficient closed set ups are melamine/pvc vivs. A place called Southdown aquatics actually does custom sized vivs in the uk If you’re ever considering an upgrade Indoors

Visual inspiration

Hi guys! I’ve had some lovely messages complimenting me on my care sheets I made for all the visuals they include! That makes me so happy because as a visual learner myself, that was my goal🥰 I’ve recently had some requests for some more visual inspiration for set ups that can house babies/...

tortoiseforum.org

Lastly, this one here is good to go over and keep on hand, it’ll help you avoid the wrong bulbs, substrates, housing etc, I always encourage double checking purchases on the forum too before buying

Common keeping errors

Hello everyone! I’d been a long time lurker on this site long before joining just under a year ago now, over that time I’ve seen these husbandry issues come up time and time again, sometimes with dire consequences☹️ I thought this thread might serve as a good visual guide for these common...

tortoiseforum.org

I hope this all helps getting the creative juices flowing, let me know if you ever need uk links to products or anything