Tropical Butterfly house.

[Anyfoot]

Hi all.

I went to our local Tropical butterfly house yesterday. Haven't been for a couple of years. Its an old farm open to the public. The farm have a huge tropical butterfly house, really good with all sorts of animals and plant life in there, loads of turtles/terrapins,birds and reptiles. I went to get some ideas for my new enclosure. This place is great and its getting bigger by the year and the animal variety is growing with it. This time they had 4 species of torts there. The Sulcata had plenty of space like most of their animals. They had 7 juvenile Hermanns that could do with more space, however they had 1 male redfoot and what I think is a marginated. These 2 were really crammed in, and none of the torts had hides or correct substrate. Could someone please confirm the species of these 2 torts please.
Everyone must have thought I was a nutter when I kept going outside and picking weeds for these 2 torts. lol
These may be in quarintine.
The tropical house is perfect for the redfoot to live in. 25deg c at 91% humidity.
I have about 200 photos of this place, all took with my phone, but decent and full of ideas. Is there an easy way to load that many photos onto here.

Thanks

Craig

 

[newCH]

They dont have much room. Looks very small. Surprized they would be shown to the public like that.

 

[Anyfoot]

They dont have much room. Looks very small. Surprized they would be shown to the public like that.

That's what I thought. I am quite impressed generally with how this place looks after there animals. But as always I don't think people realise what tortoises require. They need educating. These torts have probably been donated. I bet they put them on wood chips for ease of cleaning, and as for space, they have no excuse because they have acres and acres of land. Maybe it's work in progress. I will contact them and see what there plans are.

 

[Anyfoot]

Here are the hermanns.

 

[Anyfoot]

Some of the actual tropical house.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Thanks for sharing.
i'm sure you're right about the torts.
It's just a lack of knowledge, rather than not caring.

 

[wellington]

Looks like a great place. However, all the tortoises have too small of an enclousre. The Hermannis, I don't think can get to those upper levels. Though it looks big, the tortoises space really isn't. You could go back and give them some pointers or call/mail/email them the proper info and your concern for the tortoises enclosure. Everyone else seems to have proper space, the torts deserve it too.

 

[Yellow Turtle01]

Direct them here
That melanistic slider is gorgeous. Very nice place, but I wish they did better for the torts.

 

[Anyfoot]

Looks like a great place. However, all the tortoises have too small of an enclousre. The Hermannis, I don't think can get to those upper levels. Though it looks big, the tortoises space really isn't. You could go back and give them some pointers or call/mail/email them the proper info and your concern for the tortoises enclosure. Everyone else seems to have proper space, the torts deserve it too.

It is a very nice place, I love going, but when I saw the torts today it deflated me a bit. I plan on contacting them, but 1st I need an ID on the 1st photo. They also have a pond outside with fish,turtles and black swans on. I was going to mention this forum to them, if they are going to go into tortoises this would be a good place for them to gain knowledge. They have a lot to do with private and school parties to, so its educational for children from the very basic frog/toad and newt ponds,rabbits,guinea pigs,farm animals up to trained bird of prey , parrot shows,and various small monkeys .
Here is there otter enclosure to show you an example of how good they are at providing.

 

[Anyfoot]

Direct them here
That melanistic slider is gorgeous. Very nice place, but I wish they did better for the torts.

Direct them here
That melanistic slider is gorgeous. Very nice place, but I wish they did better for the torts.

I'm not familiar with turtles. I think i saw 4 different types, which one is the melanistic slider. What is that one that looks like a WW1 German helmet on the log. Here 2 that came up to us nosing. Are these also known as terrapins. Can they cope with water that freezes. I once caught one whilst I was fishing when I was about 14yrs old, the fishing bailiff said it was a pet that someone had released into the pond, so this means they can survive with UK climate. They are curios creatures, I love them. Spent ages yesterday watching then.
Oh yeah nearly forgot, why is that small one getting a piggyback ride on the larger one.

 

[Yvonne G]

It's neat that they've been able to recreate a tropical paradise in gloomy olde England! Very nice. Thanks for sharing. I truly enjoyed the pictures. Makes me wonder if I put up a greenhouse in the shade if I could make something like that. It's much too hot here for life in a greenhouse. What was that behind the wire?

 

[Anyfoot]

It's neat that they've been able to recreate a tropical paradise in gloomy olde England! Very nice. Thanks for sharing. I truly enjoyed the pictures. Makes me wonder if I put up a greenhouse in the shade if I could make something like that. It's much too hot here for life in a greenhouse. What was that behind the wire?

Hi. Yvonne. Those behind the wire were leaf stick insects. They have all sorts of creepy crawleys to see if you take the time to look amongst the plant life. We spend ages in there. Some of the butterflies are amazing. They have there own breeding programme too. If you can find them there are iguanas in the tree too, and An immense amount of bird life. Truely amazing. I would like to create something like that on a small scale. How hot does it get where you live.

 

[Yellow Turtle01]

Th

I'm not familiar with turtles. I think i saw 4 different types, which one is the melanistic slider. What is that one that looks like a WW1 German helmet on the log. Here 2 that came up to us nosing. Are these also known as terrapins. Can they cope with water that freezes. I once caught one whilst I was fishing when I was about 14yrs old, the fishing bailiff said it was a pet that someone had released into the pond, so this means they can survive with UK climate. They are curios creatures, I love them. Spent ages yesterday watching then.
Oh yeah nearly forgot, why is that small one getting a piggyback ride on the larger one.

View attachment 134288 View attachment 134289

ose look like yellow bellied sliders to me They can/do hibernate, yes.
I'm afraid I don't what the helmet is
The little guy's got a good vantage point!!

 

[Anyfoot]

We went back to our local butterfly house today.
I actually wanted to see what was going on with the tortoises they have after seeing them last time in unsuitable conditions. Nothing changed, if anything it was worse.
We are going to contact them and politely make suggestions. This place is not short on land, they just are not using it correctly IMO.
I'll post pictures of the torts they have, any suggestions from you guys that I can pass on will be much appreciated. I need as much ammo as possible please.
Walked away from here today on a real downer. The actual butterfly house is great, but they keep the torts in a seperate building with gunipigs,rabbits etc.
This room is about 10°c/ 50f.
Look closely at the juvenile sullies enclosure, there seems to be what looks like the rear end of a hermanns in there too.