Working progress of outside enclosure

[ScottishFish]

So here is my outdoor enclosure, its 2.4m x 1.2m



It so far has 1 hide, water dish, 1 nice big bit of slate. My hermanns can only get out for an hour at a time unless it is really warm. I will probably never be able to leave my little guy outside overnight without building a heated enclosure.

So since this is only really used for brief periods is there anything else it really needs?

I keep my tort at my Grans house, and I may see if I can get her to let me corden off this whole side of the garden, this would give my little guy a nice roaming area of 3m x 8m


'Or like the snow falls in the river,
A moment white, then melts forever'
~Robert Burns - Tam O' Shanter

0.0.1 Testudo hermanni boettgeri

 

[Terry Allan Hall]

Good start...approx. 4' wide by 8' long is a handy size for a young Hermann's, although, as he/she grows, you may want to enlarge it to perhaps 6' X 10', but it'll do for a while (at least a few years), while you contemplate roomier designs.

Some further ideas:

(1) I'd raise the walls a bit, so as to be able to grow some greenery...maybe a small bush, so the tort''ll have something else to hide under (makes them feel more safe).

(2) How about a log and/or small pile of flat stones, to give them something to climb on top of (towards the center, though, not too close to the walls, unless the walls are high enough to be escape-proof). Mine love to climb to the highest points to sun themselves, and Ptolemy seems to like the foof of the "cave" that I built them best. While the "cave" is up to the corner, the wall is about 2' higher and I have heavy screen and 2" X 4" lids over the entire enclosure
.

(3) Bury a 1-2m piece of ceramic pipe, large enough for a fully-grown European tortoise to crawl through (8 to 10" wide is great), with the openings easily accessed. Or mound some stones and dirt over it, thus combining it with suggestion #2.

Trust me. he/she'll use all of these features and torts're intelligent enough to be bored w/o such "toys".

Also, I'd go with the largest plant saucer you can find for the water dish...that one is pretty small, and you may one day find yourself getting your's a mate or two, and they may want to soak together on warm days.