Hi all going to be starting my outdoor enclosure this week i have a russian tort. I am going to use blocks for the perimeter was wondering how deep I should go into the ground thanks
It has been my experience that they don't do much digging at the fence line. However, when I built my Russian pen, I laid down masonry caps (rectangular stepping stones) on the ground inside and up against the fence. None of my Russian fence goes down into the ground:
This was the only picture I could find. If you give me a couple minutes, I'll go take a better one.
In the above picture, the female Russian is propped up on the fence to take better advantage of the sun's rays.
Here's my masonry caps lining the yard inside the fence:
If a tortoise is going to try to dig under a fence, they go right up next to the fence and start digging. It doesn't occur to them that they have to back up and dig under the masonry caps, but rather, they actually stand on the caps and try digging under the actual fence. But, like I said, none of my Russians have actually tried to dig out.
I have two red shoulder hawks who frequent my redfoots water dishes. The hawks have never messed with them. We do have lots of squirrels, their natural prey. Russians are smaller than rfs so I would be cautious. Shade cloth or mesh cover.