There are dozens of great iguana and snake habitats available for sale, and plans all over the place for fabulous self-misting, self-heating habitats, including a really cool one for some arboreal lizard that did not even bother with cage walls, just using a potted tree as the 'enclosure'.
If we could design an 'ideal' but at least reasonably cost effective habitat for tortoises, what would we look for?
MY list would include...
- easy-clean walls and surfaces that nonetheless looked semi-naturalistic- bark, stone, etc.
- a lighting system that used timed dimmers to slowly start and end the day with white-balanced lighting, then kicked in some heat and UV for the middle of the day
- built-in mist/drain system that kept the place to a preset humidity level (obviously mostly for forest and Red-foot torts)- mist when the sensor says to, drain through an appropriate substrate, collect in a basin, get filtered/treated and heated, then remisted. Should include a simple way to see if more water needs to be added.
- related to the mist system- drippers for the water dish and plants that adds interest and keeps it full. Overflow goes to the above basin.
- speaking of plants, how about a built-in system of raising live plants in the habitat- especially food species- ensuring proper light, moisture, slow-release tort-safe fertilizer, etc.
- power vent system that ensured fresh air and no molding, but also did not suck out all of my heat and humidity
- heating panels, cables, etc. built into the walls and floor that can be set by zones (and possibly a pan of wet sand under everything that acts to filter the water, hold heat, and generate humidity)
I envision this as basically a deep pan that would do most of the work with a control box off to one side and some quick-release tubing connectors. You would set the pan in place, fill the bottom with sand, fill the top with substrate nuggets, assemble the side and top panels you selected, do the simplified plumbing, hang the lights, and go!
So, if no one in their right mind would mass produce something like this, why bother with the list?
Because of people like Balboa and the other creative minds here! I bet that with some thinking, we could come up with some pretty cool, relatively easy ways to accomplish a lot of this.
But the first step is thinking up the ideas- so what would be in YOUR ideal habitat?
If we could design an 'ideal' but at least reasonably cost effective habitat for tortoises, what would we look for?
MY list would include...
- easy-clean walls and surfaces that nonetheless looked semi-naturalistic- bark, stone, etc.
- a lighting system that used timed dimmers to slowly start and end the day with white-balanced lighting, then kicked in some heat and UV for the middle of the day
- built-in mist/drain system that kept the place to a preset humidity level (obviously mostly for forest and Red-foot torts)- mist when the sensor says to, drain through an appropriate substrate, collect in a basin, get filtered/treated and heated, then remisted. Should include a simple way to see if more water needs to be added.
- related to the mist system- drippers for the water dish and plants that adds interest and keeps it full. Overflow goes to the above basin.
- speaking of plants, how about a built-in system of raising live plants in the habitat- especially food species- ensuring proper light, moisture, slow-release tort-safe fertilizer, etc.
- power vent system that ensured fresh air and no molding, but also did not suck out all of my heat and humidity
- heating panels, cables, etc. built into the walls and floor that can be set by zones (and possibly a pan of wet sand under everything that acts to filter the water, hold heat, and generate humidity)
I envision this as basically a deep pan that would do most of the work with a control box off to one side and some quick-release tubing connectors. You would set the pan in place, fill the bottom with sand, fill the top with substrate nuggets, assemble the side and top panels you selected, do the simplified plumbing, hang the lights, and go!
So, if no one in their right mind would mass produce something like this, why bother with the list?
Because of people like Balboa and the other creative minds here! I bet that with some thinking, we could come up with some pretty cool, relatively easy ways to accomplish a lot of this.
But the first step is thinking up the ideas- so what would be in YOUR ideal habitat?