What is a Night Box?

mic209

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New to the forums and tortoise keeping and this is my first official post. I searched low and high and I found a lot of threads about night box construction, temperature control, etc. But nothing on what a night boxes purpose is. So my question is, when do you need a night box? Does a night box always need a locking door? Does it always need climate control?
 

Jodie

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A night box is an insulated heated area for night time when your temps are too cold for them to be outside, but they live outside. LOL. Such a simple question, but hard to answer. We lock them to keep predators out. It is always temperature cotroled, that is the point of the night box. A safe temperature controled night box. Hope this helps.
 

TechnoCheese

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Welcome to the forum!
Whether you need one or not depends on the species you have, and how you keep it. Could we see pictures of your tortoise and enclosure?
 

mic209

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AB934915-C02C-448E-9D2E-5977811B9DFB.jpeg My daughter adopted a pair of Russian tortoises for her birthday, we built them an 8x8 outdoor enclosure. We live here in the central coast of California in Arroyo Grande, the person we adopted them from (Bob From Turtle and Tortoise Rescue of Arroyo Grande) doesn’t use any heat in his Russians house.
 

Tom

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mic209

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Thanks for the tip on them living in pairs. From what we know, this pair has lived together for the past 6-7 years before they were dropped off at the tortoise rescue. The rescue place had them in the same quarantine pen and they were doing fine together. What are some things we should look for to know if we need to separate them? What do you think of our enclosure? Should we change anything on their house, like making the opening just big enough for them to enter?
 

EdMurphy

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Thanks for the tip on them living in pairs. From what we know, this pair has lived together for the past 6-7 years before they were dropped off at the tortoise rescue. The rescue place had them in the same quarantine pen and they were doing fine together. What are some things we should look for to know if we need to separate them?

You will want to make the enclosure so that they can't dig under the boards.
As a new owner If you wait till you see the signs they can't be together, there's a good chance it's going to be too late for one of those tortoises.
Just read all the posts from experienced owners, that should really be everything you need to know that they should be separated if you want to have healthy pets.
Check out this thread, it has pictures.
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/w...together-a-lesson-learned-the-hard-way.94114/
Good Luck,
Ed
 

Tom

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What are some things we should look for to know if we need to separate them?

There is just one thing to look for: Two russian tortoise living in the same enclosure. If you see any of that, take action immediately.
 

Yvonne G

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I think you're doing great, and the enclosure looks very nice, however, it's not big enough to support two russian tortoises. It should be two or three times that size. Also, I know it's early on in the game, but you'll need to plant some little shrubs and edible ground cover.

What to look for: following, sleeping close together, sitting on the food. . . those are just a few of the tamer bullying prospects. More overt would be biting at each other, pushing, trying to tip the other over. You don't always see what's going on. They communicate. The more dominant tortoise will tell the submissive tortoise to get out of the territory, but, as you can see in your picture, he can't get out. He's confined. So he/she may stay hidden, stop eating, try her best to keep out of the other's way.
 
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