Indoor tortoise pens

[jumper]

My Russians are outside now, but I use indoor pens during winter if they are under weight or show signs of illness. It's also a good place for new additions to the group to be seperate for a while.

I have a pen on the front porch if we have those 2 or 3 day rains.

My main interest is leopard geckos but I sure love these little guys.

 

[Haroldo]

Nice pens for sure! I've toyed with the idea of keeping various tortoise species, but their care/needs diverge too much from what I already keep. Care to share the approximate dimensions of the pens pictured?

 

[jumper]

I have russians, golden greek and hermanns. Their care is about the same and they all stay small. I like the mediterranean tortoises.
First one is 10' x 12', the others are 4' x 5' sections that stand alone or connect with others.
The one on the porch is 8' x 8'.

 

[Tony C]

First one is 10' x 12',

Holy crap, that pen is bigger than my herp room. :shocked:

 

[reptinut]

NICE! Glad to see some other tortoise enthusiasts! How many tortoises do you have? If you are interested in selling me any future hatchlings, a PM is welcome!

 

[jumper]

This spring I will have 4 female and 2 male russians hopefully breeding. It will be their second year in the same outdoor pen and they will be coming out of a 3 month hibernation. So odds are good there will be young ones.
I will also have 2 female and 1 male golden greek together.
I think that if folks like me and others who keep and breed tortoises can offer them to the public at a cost less than (most) petshops then there will be less of a demand to go out in the fields for the W/C tortoises. I am not totaly against importing.........but these guys go through hell being shipped in large crates.
I love these little guys.

 

[reptinut]

Are the tortoises you have imported? I'm debating on whether I should expand my Russian Tortoise collection, or sell them and buy a colony of some type of box turtle.

 

[jumper]

I have 1 male and 1 female russian C/B the rest W/C.
1 female greek C/B.......the other female and a male are W/C.
My young Hermanns are C/B
People really hang onto their adults that are C/B.
Each year more C/B young are available out there....it's good to see.

 

[reptinut]

Say, did you hear about the russian tortoise ranching in Uzbekistan? That's what I like to see - healthy, CB tortois es with good genetics, and a "pedigree" of sorts.

 

[jumper]

I think that helps. A place where they are not harvested, but raised to breed, I think more care would go into their shipping. They would be less likely to have that "as long as a percentage of them make it alive" mentality.

 

[goReptiles]

what did you use to make the enclosures?
I'm curious how often you clean those enclosures?


If I had more room, I'd love another female Russian or 2. They're fun to watch when together in groups

 

[jumper]

Made with 1" x 12" and 1" plywood. Covered with peel and stick floor tile.
When in use they are raked every other day and every 45 days I remove and replace top 2" of soil.

 

[goReptiles]

hmm.. sounds like a project... ha. how dod you make hem connectable or stand alone? Do you have instructions or just saw to size, wood glue and nail together, stick on floor tile, add stuff, and go? With appropriate dry and settling time in-between? Did you use any sort or sealer or just carefully place tile side by side so wood doesn't show?

 

[jumper]

The plywood bottoms are 4' x 5'. The sides are the 1" x 12". Everything is held together with wood dowels (not glued) to allow breaking them down or expanding. As long as all the holes you drill for the dowels are in the same place on each end of the walls...... it allows them to create corners or end to end for more length. Same with the how the walls connect to bottom....as long as the holes line up everything fits into place.
After the pieces are made I put on a thin coat of cheap paint, bare wood is a little to porous to hold tiles well.
Sorry, no plans or pictures of assembly.

 

[goReptiles]

sounds simple enough though. I didn't even think about dowels. Did you use acrylic paint?

How heavy are the single 4x5 enclosures? I'm thinking about making one, but not sure if for 1) I have room and for 2) if it'd be easy to move. I'm hoping to move within a year or so, not sure if my dad and/or boyfriend would be happy to move it, and I sure couldn't. Do you think that by adding wheels to it would help moveability within the room (if needed)? Or would it be too heavy to be able to support wheels?