My husband and I are looking for help with making our spare bedroom into an enclosure for our 6 year old leopard tortoise. I've learned so much from all the kind people on the forum and respect you all very much. We adopted Reggie 2 years ago when our grandson lost interest in him. We had begun caring for him a few years prior for vacations and - just like that - the little guy wiggled into our hearts. Conditions are less than ideal but we have done our best to give Reggie a good life. He is very social with us and seems happy. Our house is in a subdivision in Northern Indiana with a rather small yard so an outdoor enclosure isn't possible. When temps are 80 degrees or above we take Reggie outside, which is mid-May through maybe September. Winters here are very cold.
The bedroom we would like to convert to Reggie's room is 10 x 10 and is on the second floor of our house. We are hoping to get some insight from the group here to make the best decisions. His enclosure is in that same room now. We would be tripling Reggie's space if the whole room was his enclosure. We keep his enclosure at 80- 85 degrees with 5 thermostatically controlled CHE bulbs and a flood bulb for basking. Is there another way to safely elevate the heat in the room? The CHE's increase our electric bill significantly! I hope not to triple the CHE's if there's another way. For flooring, I've seen the threads here about using Flex Seal. Would this work if we used plywood flooring? Is there another flooring that would work better? I also saw a thread about using horse stall mats but wonder how we would make the seams between the mats waterproof. Does it make any sense to construct a greenhouse of lucite or acrylic inside the room to better control the environment? It seems like the room would be its own environment but we're looking for information from those with more experience and know-how.
Thank you for your help!
The bedroom we would like to convert to Reggie's room is 10 x 10 and is on the second floor of our house. We are hoping to get some insight from the group here to make the best decisions. His enclosure is in that same room now. We would be tripling Reggie's space if the whole room was his enclosure. We keep his enclosure at 80- 85 degrees with 5 thermostatically controlled CHE bulbs and a flood bulb for basking. Is there another way to safely elevate the heat in the room? The CHE's increase our electric bill significantly! I hope not to triple the CHE's if there's another way. For flooring, I've seen the threads here about using Flex Seal. Would this work if we used plywood flooring? Is there another flooring that would work better? I also saw a thread about using horse stall mats but wonder how we would make the seams between the mats waterproof. Does it make any sense to construct a greenhouse of lucite or acrylic inside the room to better control the environment? It seems like the room would be its own environment but we're looking for information from those with more experience and know-how.
Thank you for your help!