Sulcata enclosure & heated house

[Donutsgranny]

Looking for some ideas. We have 85% finished our Sulcatas enclosure , still need to add some substrate and grass and finalize with some posts to make it more secure and also to look nice. We want to start his house which we will insulate and add heat too for winters. We are in Louisiana but we do get freezing temperatures though not usually for over a week, then a break but still he would need het anyway. Our enclosure is built around a 10 x 5 chainlink dog kennel which sits on a concrete slab. Our plan is to build the house inside the fence on the slab, no wood floors as we feel it will be easier to clean. I'd like to make it about 5 ft high so we can get inside to take care of heaters, lighting etc. We like to make it 4 ft wide and 6 ft long . Hopefully this will take care of him for a long time. HIs indoor housing is one of those zoomed boxes and really he can't move around in it. It may suffice for a night where we have a really cold temperature but we would like to keep him outdoors all the time now. He is out now for the summer and he is very happy. Any ideas would be welcome.

 

[Maggie3fan]

We kinda like photos so we can be really critical...I have 2 Sulcata who live in a 20'x12' heated and insulated shed each with their own pen, basking light, CHE, oh they have Kane heat mats to sleep on...I do have pictures...but the 'Cloud' is keeping them hidden for now...

 

[Yvonne G]

This is where my 100+lb sulcata, Dudley spends his nights:

Dudley's Rebuild

I have a guy that comes to take care of spiders, roaches, ants, etc. and he has sulcatas of his own, so he understands about not poisoning my animals. He called my attention to what he referred to as "salt and pepper" around Dudley's night house. He said it was termite 'leavings.' Since...

tortoiseforum.org

 

[Donutsgranny]

OK pictures of what I have so far.
What I'd like to do is replace that resin dog house with something similar to Dundley's Palace! I don't want to put a floor down though as that is a concrete slab and should be easy to clean. Well easier. All that mulch is now gone.

 

[Donutsgranny]

This is where my 100+lb sulcata, Dudley spends his nights:

Dudley's Rebuild

I have a guy that comes to take care of spiders, roaches, ants, etc. and he has sulcatas of his own, so he understands about not poisoning my animals. He called my attention to what he referred to as "salt and pepper" around Dudley's night house. He said it was termite 'leavings.' Since...

tortoiseforum.org

Now that is similar to what I would like to do but inside of that chain link kennel, because I'm too lazy to take it down, plus it would be to hard to do it.

 

[Yvonne G]

OK pictures of what I have so far.
What I'd like to do is replace that resin dog house with something similar to Dundley's Palace! I don't want to put a floor down though as that is a concrete slab and should be easy to clean. Well easier. All that mulch is now gone.

View attachment 297085View attachment 297086View attachment 297087

Looks like a nice shady spot for the shed, but rethink not covering the concrete floor. Bare concrete would sap the heat right outta the tortoise.

 

[Donutsgranny]

OK no wonder I didn't see anything more, lol I never sent my response. As far as the concrete floor goes, our plan was to use cypress mulch and/or/hay. Or do you think actually building a wood floor then placing the substrate would be better? We were thinking of easier cleaning by just pulling out the old and hosing it down which we couldn't do with work. We are open to all ideas.

 

[Maggie3fan]

OK no wonder I didn't see anything more, lol I never sent my response. As far as the concrete floor goes, our plan was to use cypress mulch and/or/hay. Or do you think actually building a wood floor then placing the substrate would be better? We were thinking of easier cleaning by just pulling out the old and hosing it down which we couldn't do with work. We are open to all ideas.

I have 2 Sulcata, they live in a heated and insulated 20'x12' shed. At the beginning of winter I buy a bale of loose hay and toss it in the shed, for eating, sleeping in, pooping in and just playing. So I clean poop out of the hay as is needed, and now that Spring has rolled around all that's left is hay dust, and I clean it out daily. So to answer your question I vote hay. All Summer and Spring it's a bare wood floor

 

[Yvonne G]

The rubber horse stall mats like I use are 4'x6' and about $40 apiece. The largest sulcata digging machine can't harm them. Whenever I feel like it (sometimes daily, sometimes weekly. . . once I even left it a couple months) I just sweep it into a large dust pan and clean it out. The mat makes a pretty easy job of it. Dudley doesn't seem to pee in the shed so it's usually just dry, broken up poop.

 

[Tom]

What size and age sulcata are we talking about?

 

[Donutsgranny]

He is about 15 !/2-16 inches long now and just about as high, not sure how your suppose to measure them. Haven't weighed him but he is pretty heavy though we can pick him up easy. I'm trying to take advantage of the dog kennel we have in place as its on a concrete slab. My idea is to build, inside the kennel so that the chain link is on the outside of it, a wood house without a floor and take advantage of the concrete, the rubber mat sounds good to me, as I just don't want the wood to rot and it will quickly here in Louisiana and will get termites too. We want it big enough as to not do a lot of carpentry (my daughter n I are not the best) and we don't want to need to do it again for a long time.

 

[Tom]

He is about 15 !/2-16 inches long now and just about as high, not sure how your suppose to measure them. Haven't weighed him but he is pretty heavy though we can pick him up easy. I'm trying to take advantage of the dog kennel we have in place as its on a concrete slab. My idea is to build, inside the kennel so that the chain link is on the outside of it, a wood house without a floor and take advantage of the concrete, the rubber mat sounds good to me, as I just don't want the wood to rot and it will quickly here in Louisiana and will get termites too. We want it big enough as to not do a lot of carpentry (my daughter n I are not the best) and we don't want to need to do it again for a long time.

There are a couple of points I'd like to make. The concrete floor is a bad idea because of the heat transfer that Yvonne mentioned, but also because it is too abrasive for tortoise feet and plastrons to live on. Its fine if they occasionally walk on some concrete, but sleeping on it and walking on it in the way you wanted to do it would eventually lead to bloody feet and an eroded plastron. The rubber mat solves the abrasion problem, but I'm not sure its going to solve the heat sink problem. Only your thermometer will be able to tell you that. I've tried a variety of things over the years, and the only thing that has worked well for me was a well insulated wood floor. Its easy to clean and last for many year even with poop and pee every day.

The rubber mat idea might work if you also run a Kane heat mat in a corner, in addition to a radiant oil heater to warm the ambient temp to up over 80 degrees. The Kane mat will make a warm spot on the floor so that the tortoise isn't losing heat through its plastron into conductive materials.

 

[Donutsgranny]

OK thank you all that pretty well sums it up. We will build his new house with a insulated wood floor. That way it will sit on the concrete but he won't be sleeping on it. Only concrete will be when he walks into or out of the pen. Any other suggestions? Might as well do it as correctly as possible the first time.

 

[Maggie3fan]

OK thank you all that pretty well sums it up. We will build his new house with a insulated wood floor. That way it will sit on the concrete but he won't be sleeping on it. Only concrete will be when he walks into or out of the pen. Any other suggestions? Might as well do it as correctly as possible the first time.

My contractor laid a wood floor, then laid down sheets of styrofoam insulation, then the plywood floor. He used that pink fuzzy insolation in the ceiling and walls. All winter my tort shed stays at an ambient temp 80 to 85 degrees with summer temps at 90 to 95. My basking lights are 100 watt flood types. and are on timers for a 12 hr day. Both my Sulcata have doggie doors I open daily, rain, snow, sleet, ice, and sun lol

My tort shed and Knobby

 

[Maro2Bear]

One additional “thing” you can do during your build is to just add one extra piece of plywood flooring down loose. This is what I did in my Sullys heated night boxes. Make the box, but then fitted one extra piece of flooring in that takes the brunt of any & all excrement. In the far “left” side i have an 18x18 kane heating mat. The rest of the “floor” has a nice layer of cypress mulch that our Sully digs all about in at night to get secure. The exit/entrance is far right. The kane mat stays clean of mulch.

The extra piece of flooring can easily be lifted out in a a few years and a new piece added in (if needed).

Definitely put a floor in. And I like the mulch that so easily absorbs everything. Every month or so I’ll add another bucket of mulch. It’s all very clean & tidy.

 

[Maggie3fan]

One additional “thing” you can do during your build is to just add one extra piece of plywood flooring down loose. This is what I did in my Sullys heated night boxes. Make the box, but then fitted one extra piece of flooring in that takes the brunt of any & all excrement. In the far “left” side i have an 18x18 kane heating mat. The rest of the “floor” has a nice layer of cypress mulch that our Sully digs all about in at night to get secure. The exit/entrance is far right. The kane mat stays clean of mulch.

The extra piece of flooring can easily be lifted out in a a few years and a new piece added in (if needed).

Definitely put a floor in. And I like the mulch that so easily absorbs everything. Every month or so I’ll add another bucket of mulch. It’s all very clean & tidy.

But I can tell you from my experience in trying to find orchid bark, or cypress mulch in the PNW for 15 years, there ain't none. We are a state whose main industry is timber, pine and cedar.
I spent 10 years going to see my sister in Calif (1600 mi round trip), and getting a load of orchid bark and tortoises to bring home. Now that my Sulcata are bigger, they make less mess, poop size is bigger and much easier to pick up. And I use hay. I can't imagine how much money it would cost to put cypress mulch in my shed. Locally grown grass hay is hunkered down in, slept in, eaten, pooped in and it works great for me, and my roses and garden benefit from a mix of tortoise poop and hay.