Ralph's new casa

[DAC8671]

We are in the process of remodeling Ralph's enclosure. He just got a new house (4x4x4 with a slant shingled roof that can raise for better air flow). He has two soaking tubs but only uses one. This coming weekend we are pulling up the turf and putting fresh dirt down, ready for seeds.

1) What kind of dirt should we put down?
2) We were thinking of throwing some patches of sod down for grazing, but fearful it's not safe.
3) Purchased a lot of seed from Carolina Pet that we will be throwing down. We will be planting an apple tree in the center (putting bricks around as a planter so its inaccessible).
4) We will be planting Romaine in the cinderblocks on the back fence.

5) ****most important to us****
We want to get rid of his soaking tubs and put in a shallow pond. Has anyone done this? What type of filter did you use? Is this (filter) not a good idea? I understand it will have to be a very powerful one, since sulcatas are oh-so-clean.

Ralph is about 12-13 yrs old. Weve had him since he was a 3 month hatchling weighing 28 grams. Currently he is ahout 65 pounds. Main diet is romaine and dandelion from the store, weeds from our yard. An occasional treat of banana, watermelon, or strawberries. Occasional = every 2-4 mos. And not all of the above treats, just a handul.


Constructive criticism and suggestions ALWAYS welcome.

 

[daniellenc]

I vote know as most sod is grown with chemicals. Does he eat hay and grass at all? It should make up a lot of his diet and romaine isn’t super nutritious. Weeds are good though so I’d start cutting the Romain and adding more fiber. His pad is awesome btw and a small pond would rock except I tend to think it’s a ton of maintenance but I’m lazy lol.

 

[Kristy1970]

Your tortoise has a beach resort [emoji41][emoji907][emoji905][emoji950]

 

[Yvonne G]

We are in the process of remodeling Ralph's enclosure. He just got a new house (4x4x4 with a slant shingled roof that can raise for better air flow). He has two soaking tubs but only uses one. This coming weekend we are pulling up the turf and putting fresh dirt down, ready for seeds.

1) What kind of dirt should we put down?
2) We were thinking of throwing some patches of sod down for grazing, but fearful it's not safe.
3) Purchased a lot of seed from Carolina Pet that we will be throwing down. We will be planting an apple tree in the center (putting bricks around as a planter so its inaccessible).
4) We will be planting Romaine in the cinderblocks on the back fence.

5) ****most important to us****
We want to get rid of his soaking tubs and put in a shallow pond. Has anyone done this? What type of filter did you use? Is this (filter) not a good idea? I understand it will have to be a very powerful one, since sulcatas are oh-so-clean.

Ralph is about 12-13 yrs old. Weve had him since he was a 3 month hatchling weighing 28 grams. Currently he is ahout 65 pounds. Main diet is romaine and dandelion from the store, weeds from our yard. An occasional treat of banana, watermelon, or strawberries. Occasional = every 2-4 mos. And not all of the above treats, just a handul.


Constructive criticism and suggestions ALWAYS welcome.

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If you buy sod, be sure to buy the kind that does NOT have plastic mesh woven into the roots. The plastic mesh will eventually come up and the tortoise could get a leg stuck in it.

I have little cement ponds for my box turtles. I scooped out the indentation in the earth, slightly bigger than what I wanted the finished product to be, to allow for the thickness of the cement. Then I mixed up some Redi-mix in the wheel barrow and poured it into the scooped out earth, spreading it all around to cover the whole hole plus a slight apron around the top edge. When I tend to the box turtles in the morning, I carry a broom with me and I just sweep out the dirty water and add fresh.

Be sure to place your waterer in the shade. The sun makes sitting shallow water pretty darned hot.

 

[DAC8671]

If you buy sod, be sure to buy the kind that does NOT have plastic mesh woven into the roots. The plastic mesh will eventually come up and the tortoise could get a leg stuck in it.

I have little cement ponds for my box turtles. I scooped out the indentation in the earth, slightly bigger than what I wanted the finished product to be, to allow for the thickness of the cement. Then I mixed up some Redi-mix in the wheel barrow and poured it into the scooped out earth, spreading it all around to cover the whole hole plus a slight apron around the top edge. When I tend to the box turtles in the morning, I carry a broom with me and I just sweep out the dirty water and add fresh.

Be sure to place your waterer in the shade. The sun makes sitting shallow water pretty darned hot.

We have tried to put it in the shade, but he won't go in it unless its in the sun. On super hot days, we put a sprinkler out and he LOVES it, but won't go near it in the shade. He likes what he likes. LOL

 

[Tom]

We are in the process of remodeling Ralph's enclosure. He just got a new house (4x4x4 with a slant shingled roof that can raise for better air flow). He has two soaking tubs but only uses one. This coming weekend we are pulling up the turf and putting fresh dirt down, ready for seeds.

1) What kind of dirt should we put down?
2) We were thinking of throwing some patches of sod down for grazing, but fearful it's not safe.
3) Purchased a lot of seed from Carolina Pet that we will be throwing down. We will be planting an apple tree in the center (putting bricks around as a planter so its inaccessible).
4) We will be planting Romaine in the cinderblocks on the back fence.

5) ****most important to us****
We want to get rid of his soaking tubs and put in a shallow pond. Has anyone done this? What type of filter did you use? Is this (filter) not a good idea? I understand it will have to be a very powerful one, since sulcatas are oh-so-clean.

Ralph is about 12-13 yrs old. Weve had him since he was a 3 month hatchling weighing 28 grams. Currently he is ahout 65 pounds. Main diet is romaine and dandelion from the store, weeds from our yard. An occasional treat of banana, watermelon, or strawberries. Occasional = every 2-4 mos. And not all of the above treats, just a handul.


Constructive criticism and suggestions ALWAYS welcome.

First: Where are you? Please go into your User Profile and add a location for us. Different advice for West Palm Beach FL vs. Seattle WA.

• I wouldn't bring in any dirt. Too much risk of contamination from chemicals, or glass, or screws/nails, etc… I use the native dirt and amend it as needed with the right kind of soil from HD or Lowes. No pertlite, vermiculite, "water enhancers", guano, or fertilizers. Kellogs makes a good one. Churn up the dirt and mix in the good stuff. Then you have to keep the big boy off of it until the grass grows, gets cut a few times and matures a bit. I would not even bother to do this inside his enclosure, unless you can block of sections. Let him graze one section at a time while the other sections recover and grow. If he has access to the newly planted area, the seeds will not make it.
• Sod should never be used. It is grown with all sorts of chemicals and the plastic netting that Yvonne mentioned. Don't risk it. You are right to be fearful, and correct that it is not safe.
• There are other seed mixes that work better than the Carolina one here in the SoCal desert. I've tried lots of them. When those ones are used up, come back and ask and I'll link you to the other ones.
• Apple tree leaves and seeds are toxic. Apples themselves are not toxic, but really bad for sulcatas to be eating due to the high sugar content, and some will fall into the enclosure. It will really mess with his intestinal flora and fauna in a bad way. Wrong type of tree. Plant a fruitless mulberry instead. Great shade in summer and the leaves are excellent tortoise food. If a regular mulberry is too large, they have weeping and dwarf varieties that stay much smaller. A lavatera bush would also work instead of the apple tree. Or hibiscus, depending on where you are.
• Romaine is a terrible tortoise food. Its not toxic, but it really doesn't meet their nutritional needs. The vast majority of what they eat should be grass or grass hay. If you want to grow something for him back there, plant some spineless opuntia pads. Very easy to plant and grow and super good tortoise food. And unlike lettuce, it will keep producing pads year after year for you. If you must plant something more lettuce-like and temporary, plant endive and escarole, not lettuce. Both of these grow the same way as lettuce, but they are better for your tortoise. If you start feeding him this sort of thing on a bed of grass hay, he'll start eating the grass hay too, which would be very good for him.
• Skip the fruit treats. If its so bad that you can only feed a small amount once in a great while, why feed it at all? Feed him a treat that is good for him like hibiscus flowers, or an opuntia pad, or some dandelion greens, or some squash or pumpkin, etc…
• A pond is a great idea! make it no more than about 10 inches deep at the deepest point and simply install a drain under it with a pipe and valve running to a low spot for drainage. Drain it, rinse it out with the hose, close the valve and refill it, as needed. Easy! If it gets nasty you can scrub it out with a deck brush and bleach it. Then just rinse and refill. If you do this, PLEASE take lots of pics and do a thread on it here on the forum for all to see. Its a great idea, but I've never done it and I'm looking for inspiration.

Please feel free to question all of this. Let's talk tortoises!

 

[2wgasa]

DAC8671. The first and only house I made is very similar to yours with a door on hinges that drops down as a ramp when he decides to come out in the morning. I did change out CHE's for a wall mounted heat pad and an oil filled space heater with external thermostat that everyone recommends. The electricity is on dawn to dusk unless it's cold & overcast or raining then I turn it on manually. Only mentioning because I didn't see any heating equipment in your picture. A previous post indicates you might still be in San Diego area. I know it's pretty mild here, but I actually think Bomber likes the extra heat at night although he hasn't mentioned anything. My floor is dirt that's higher than surrounds, which is why the door is also a ramp and maybe the reason I want to make sure it's warm. He'll get a new 4x8x2 enclosure this summer to conserve heat (I hope) and to make it easier for cleaning, although I plan to keep a raised dirt floor. G'Day.

ps My electrical is not elegant, e.g. buried conduit with breakers. It's a long extension cord suspended between posts to his house.

 

[Kristy1970]

DAC8671. The first and only house I made is very similar to yours with a door on hinges that drops down as a ramp when he decides to come out in the morning. I did change out CHE's for a wall mounted heat pad and an oil filled space heater with external thermostat that everyone recommends. The electricity is on dawn to dusk unless it's cold & overcast or raining then I turn it on manually. Only mentioning because I didn't see any heating equipment in your picture. A previous post indicates you might still be in San Diego area. I know it's pretty mild here, but I actually think Bomber likes the extra heat at night although he hasn't mentioned anything. My floor is dirt that's higher than surrounds, which is why the door is also a ramp and maybe the reason I want to make sure it's warm. He'll get a new 4x8x2 enclosure this summer to conserve heat (I hope) and to make it easier for cleaning, although I plan to keep a raised dirt floor. G'Day.

ps My electrical is not elegant, e.g. buried conduit with breakers. It's a long extension cord suspended between posts to his house.

We are saving to buy tons of dirt to build up elevation on the land we just bought in the county... lots of friends with good connections, and dirt will be on land 2 years before we move, one dirt is hauled, I’m going to spray my nematodes all over the entire property and we will state the sulcata enclosure... we are going big for 100 pounds. I don’t want to do it small then have to spend money to redo it, I’m a bargain shopper [emoji12]

 

[Kristy1970]

I’m also going to start garage/yard sale shopping as often as possible to hoard up for new place!

 

[mturtleb]

We found a calf birthing hutch for sale much cheaper than new....we hung plastic at the doorway cut into strips so Zipzap can go through, but it keeps rain out. Also has a venting area near the top for her heat/sun lamps in winter. She LOVES her house! Thanks for the pictures of your setup, I am looking at doing similar in our yard, but unsure of how much room she needs.