Help for indoor enclosure for poorly Asia minor tortoise

[jhider]

My Asia minor tort has been diagnosed with severe pneumonia as mentioned in my previous posts and is under strict instruction to be housed indoor until fully recovered. She has always had full roam of our garden so setting up an enclosure is new to me.

She's 9inches long (2.8kg) so will need quite a large amount of room. I'm buying an old bookcase, removing the shelves and laying it flat as a base for her enclosure. i've bought a basking lamp, and a night time heat lamp with a thermostat. I've been told that she will need a separate night time spot to sleep under her night lamp but not sure how to set it up. I'm unsure of what substrate to use too.

Any help/images of your own set ups would be greatly appreciated

 

[Fredkas]

Can you post the picture of your tortoise? Soon there will be alot of advises from other senior members.

 

[Lyn W]

My Asia minor tort has been diagnosed with severe pneumonia as mentioned in my previous posts and is under strict instruction to be housed indoor until fully recovered. She has always had full roam of our garden so setting up an enclosure is new to me.

She's 9inches long (2.8kg) so will need quite a large amount of room. I'm buying an old bookcase, removing the shelves and laying it flat as a base for her enclosure. i've bought a basking lamp, and a night time heat lamp with a thermostat. I've been told that she will need a separate night time spot to sleep under her night lamp but not sure how to set it up. I'm unsure of what substrate to use too.

Any help/images of your own set ups would be greatly appreciated

Hi and welcome. Sorry to hear your tort is ill. I use a covered cat litter tray for my 11 inch leopard - the removable cover (with the door flap removed as it gets stuck when he goes in) makes a good hide and the tray is his bath. He has his own adapted heated room as well as his lamps.

I don't know anything about your species but with other torts the advice is to keep sick torts warm and even raise temps a little, (but a keeper of the same species will be able to advise you on that), so you may need to add posts to the corners of your book case and cross bars to support something like plastic - like a tent - high and wide enough to safely house the lamps, CHE etc and contain the heat. Some use mini hreenhouses/ cold frames. The Enclosures thread has some great ideas.

You'll need a reliable thermometer to make sure it isn't too hot for him. Digital temp guns are great for spot checking your 4 temps and a digital temp/humidity gauge with a probe are more reliable for reading temps at tort level than the dial sort that pets stores sell.

There may be a caresheet for your species which will advise about temps humidity diet substrate etc. and the Beginners Mistakes thread (link below) will help you avoid mistakes made by others.
Hope he is better soon

 

[Gillian M]

Sorry to have just read that your tort is ill; and wishes for a speedy recovery.

A very warm welcome to the forum!