taylor was very naughtey lol need your advice please

[jazzywoo]

well taylor has well and truely settled in and she is such a sweetie very active and such a little tinker

today i went to jazzys room only to notice taylor was not in her house but she had escaped and was playing amonst a pile of teddy bears on the floor i picked her up and told her she was very naughty and popped her back in her house removed her plant pot and plant which i think she had used in her great escape im sure she was giving me the evils and she didnt look too impressed



anyway i have made the sides higher with card board for now so she cant do it again and jon has promised jazzy he will make taylor a new house this weekend this is where you come in



what type of wood do you make your tortoise tables out of sides and base ?

how high shall we make the sides taylor is only a little 18mth baby now but we would like this house to last a few years

what do you use to make the base water proof ?

thank you

ann xx

 

[ChiKat]

A lot of people just use cheap plywood. I spent a little extra money on pine, which looks nicer IMO. (I've heard it isn't quite as durable though since it's a soft wood.)
I built a 4 ft x 2 ft enclosure for my 9-month old Russian hatchling. When he's full grown I may add on a second level like others on here have done.

Some people seal their enclosures but I just put plastic beneath the substrate (and up the sides a little- taped or stapled on the top) so that when the substrate gets wet it doesn't effect the wood. I used a plastic tarp but I know others use plastic shower curtain liners.

How high are the sides now? Russians are definitely escape artists!! The sides of Nelson's enclosure are 18 inches. I'm sure 12 inches would have been sufficient but this way I can have deep substrate and possibly add a second story later on. I think it holds the heat it better too.

---

Here is a picture of Nelson's enclosure right after I built it. I have since rearranged it (and added a light to the cold side so it isn't so dark!)

 

[jazzywoo]

thank you the space we have to play with is 41" x25" just over 3x2ft i willget jon to check that im rubbish with a tape measure lol
thats the corner of the room in jazzys bed room where taylor lives
jazzy only has a small room so we dont really have much space to play with

 

[Yvonne G]

Just eyeball how long his back legs are, then measure the straight-line length of his shell. Then figure out about three or four inches of substrate. So lets say for the sake of argument that his legs are three inches long stretched out, the shell is 5 inches and the reach of his front legs is two inches, plus 4 inches of substrate...the sides should be more than 14" tall. Then just be sure not to have anything next to the walls that he can use to climb on.

 

[chadk]

There are places you can go that will cut plexi glass for you. You could raise the walls 4 or 5 inches easily for pretty cheap with some strips of plexi cut to size and screwed in.

 

[jazzywoo]

There are places you can go that will cut plexi glass for you. You could raise the walls 4 or 5 inches easily for pretty cheap with some strips of plexi cut to size and screwed in.

that would have been a good plan but its not our table or we would have just made the sides higher
the tablebelongs to a friend and imsure she willwant it back the way she gave it to us
its not a very big table only 2x2 so we were looking into making a bigger one for for jazzy from santa but we have to do it early now

 

[dmmj]

just cover the corners with wood.

 

[Stephanie Logan]

http://tortoiseforum.org/thread-12295.html

Here is the thread for one cool beans enclosure built by one of your countrymen...I consider it the ideal we should all aspire to...

 

[jazzywoo]

http://tortoiseforum.org/thread-12295.html

Here is the thread for one cool beans enclosure built by one of your countrymen...I consider it the ideal we should all aspire to...

brilliant enclosure
well we have priced up the woodand worked out what we need so hopefully this weekend taylor will have a new house

 

[Yvonne G]

just cover the corners with wood.

Seeing this post reminded me of a quick and easy fix. Just get some boards and lay them around on top of the habitat all around the perimeter of the tort table so that there is a lip all the way around. He can't climb out because of the lip.

 

[jazzywoo]

just cover the corners with wood.

Seeing this post reminded me of a quick and easy fix. Just get some boards and lay them around on top of the habitat all around the perimeter of the tort table so that there is a lip all the way around. He can't climb out because of the lip.

its not my table its on loan so i dont have the right to change it

 

[Yvonne G]

its not my table its on loan so i dont have the right to change it

You don't have to change it. You just lay the wood on top, creating a lip around the inside edge. It doesn't harm the table. It just lays there. You can even use heavy cardboard and tape it down.