Question on Outdoor Wooden Enclosure Walls and Depth

[Oxalis]

We're planning to build an outdoor enclosure for our male Russian tortoise in our backyard now that the dreadful winter has passed! The enclosure will double as a garden for Steve (the tortoise) so he can walk around and eat whatever he wants.

We thought wooden planks as walls would be suitable and cheap, so my first question is: would a preservative, like ACQ/Copper Azole pressure-treated wood, be OK for him? Obviously, it will only be used to contain him and keep him from escaping, but I want to make sure that any chemicals would not hurt him. These chemicals are used to preserve the wood from the outdoor (Michigan) weather, otherwise they could get moldy and need to be replaced. Any alternative materials you can suggest would be great too!

Secondly, how deep should the walls go into the ground to keep him from burrowing out (or rabbits or other animals from burrowing in)? We have not yet purchased anything so I could ask the mighty Tortoise Forum! Thanks in advance for any help you guys can supply!

 

[Yvonne G]

I just lay masonry caps along the inside of the fence line. This is all it takes to keep them from trying to dig out.

I don't know about wood preservatives, but I do remember reading on the World Chelonian Trust's Google list serv that rail road ties that have been treated with creosote should not be used because the creosote will seep into the ground. I don't know if other types of preservatives do this or not.

 

[Len B]

I don't believe you will have any problems with new treated wood. As for how deep to bury the sides if you choose to do so is depeer than you may think. I had a female that dug down 12 inches last winter, nowhere near the sides but still deeper than I expected. I used vinyl soffet material in the same way that Yvonne used the caps, in fact I built the whole enclosure out of vinyl siding with an aluminum cap around the wall tops and the soffet material around the wall bottoms.