Labyrinth/Maze Garden?

i have an idea of putting a maze in my leopard tortoise grazing pen. i think that with this, the torts will have to walk/explore more, rather than just making a beeline for whaterver they fancy. with daily observation, i have noted that they each have favorite spots, and they seldom walk the entire length and width of their grazing pen despite it's less than ideal size. the most walked area is along the walls, so i thought why not add more walls to encourage more walking.

of course i'll be providing some shade, water and food along the way so the torts have enrything they need wherever they are in the maze.

so any cons about my idea? will narrow passages stress them out?
with the price of lumber, this won't be a cheap project, so i prefer not to experiment then have to scrap any materials in case it doesn't work.

YES! GO FOR IT!!! My vegetable garden is made of pretty tall raised beds. The beds are raised enough that there is always spots of shade in the narrow walkways between the paths, and there is even a small section that is shaded during the noon hour. This summer, I blocked off access to the garden paths and put my young sulcata in. It created a similar effect to what I believe you are wanting to produce. I stashed different types of food down the ends of different pathways and even included several water dishes for her. I think it worked out great! I still let her out into the yard to wander in the grass and among the other gardens as she pleased, but I think the garden paths were a nice little exploratory exercise for her and provided an additional outdoor experience for her to enjoy.

Be sure to post pictures when you create your masterpiece!

Tortoises have incredible memories.

Do it.

I'm a huge fan of extra walls in an enclosure. It gives them sight barriers and, like you said, more walking perimeter.
Post pictures when you do it.

Thank you very much for the encouragement. I think I will go ahead with this project.

The raised plant boxes is a great idea. I was planning on mini hedges just like on the usual garden mazes, but the torts will probably gobble their way right through the edible wall. having plant boxes for walls may provide a similar green effect as hedges.

I think this is an excellent idea! Be sure to take pictures for us.

When I saw leopards in the wild in South Africa, the environment where they were was very maze like. It was scrub land with all sorts of plants and bushes that were knee to waist high. Often it was in long rows with out a break. They moved around freely within these "channels". I think your idea will simulate this to some degree. Love to see pics as it comes along.

lol I had one or two enclosures end up like that without meaning too. lol The worse thing I have found is it can make it hard to locate your tortoise. I can't wait to see your pictures.

Sounds really fun! I love your idea!

@Tom , I will be using cinder blocks much like the way you used it for the baby pens. it's the quickest way to do this and i can move around the blocks to reconfigure the maze. the hollow parts will be very useful since i can fill it with dirt and plant some green stuff, perhaps something that crawls to make it more hedgelike.

J.P. said:

@Tom , I will be using cinder blocks much like the way you used it for the baby pens. it's the quickest way to do this and i can move around the blocks to reconfigure the maze. the hollow parts will be very useful since i can fill it with dirt and plant some green stuff, perhaps something that crawls to make it more hedgelike.

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Sounds good to me.

Great idea! Can't wait to see the results