Outdoor Enclosure with Limited Experience

[p-lizzle]

It was finally warm today! I took Aioki out to explore my old garden area and he had a great time! Since it's supposed to be pretty warm on my days off this week, I wanna start getting his outdoor enclosure together.

I took wood shop in the 7th grade and was pretty good at it. I only ever made a small spice cabinet and a mock floor plan though, but my junior year I took an interior design class. I'm pretty good at crafting things as I'm a cosplayer and have made loads of props, but none in the department of woodworking.

My biggest concern with the enclosure is the amount of strays and wild animals that are in this area. I usually care for stray dogs and cats I find in the neighbourhood, so they all have a habit of coming to my house now. Then there's of course raccoons, skunks, squirrels, even a deer once. Even today while we were walking around the yard a stray cat ran up to us. I never picked him up so fast!

I'm just unsure of where to start with his enclosure. What wood to use, what all to put inside, how to keep unwanted visitors out?

I've attached a picture of the plot of land I plan on using, with Aioki for scale.

 

[wellington]

What kind of tort is this for and how big is he? Chicken wire or hardware cloth/fencing is usually used to ward of wild life.

 

[p-lizzle]

What kind of tort is this for and how big is he? Chicken wire or hardware cloth/fencing is usually used to ward of wild life.

He's a 6" Russian

 

[Yvonne G]

If that's him up against the wall, he's pretty small compared to the plot of land. You can build your fence out of wood or cinderblocks, then figure out a way to cover it with a wire lid to keep the critters out. If you make it too big for a lid, you can make two or three lids to cover the space. Take a look through some of our old enclosure threads - and even do a search for covered outdoor enclosures to get some ideas.

 

[p-lizzle]

If that's him up against the wall, he's pretty small compared to the plot of land. You can build your fence out of wood or cinderblocks, then figure out a way to cover it with a wire lid to keep the critters out. If you make it too big for a lid, you can make two or three lids to cover the space. Take a look through some of our old enclosure threads - and even do a search for covered outdoor enclosures to get some ideas.

Yeah, that's him against the fence. I wanted to give him a lot of space outside because he only has a 40 gallon terrarium for inside (working on the table after his outdoor enclosure ^.^). If I remember correctly, the fence that's there is 12ft long, and I was probably going to bring it out about 5-6 feet because that spot gets the best ratio of sun and shade in a given day.

 

[wellington]

You need to prepare the area so he can't dig out too. I laid fencing down on the ground and put dirt on top of it. It didn't take long for the grass and weeds to grow back up thru it. Then lay the walls on top of the buried fencing.
You can also bury about 6-8-12 inches of the walls instead. I'm not sure how deep it should be as my way was easier so didn't need to know.