3 Toed outdoor enclosure

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Riperoo

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Ok, looking like I am adopting a pair of 3 toed boxies. I have an indoor and out door habitat, but i never considered over wintering out side before, but with the boxies, I know they love to dig and possibly hibernate, my question is, my current out door habitat is strickly a wall above ground. if I was to keep them outside would I need to have a subgterranian (sp?) barrier? And if so how deep would I need to go for Hibernation purposes?? I was thinking like burying a prefab pond or something similar. Would love to hear input from the experts out there. I live in the northeast, a little north of Philly.
 

terryo

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I live in NY, and have some Three Toed's and an Eastern. I'm almost done with their new enclosure. It's 22 ft. x 7 ft. The whole thing is enclosed with stone walls. I don't have a bottom of any kind except dirt. It was a planter on the side of my house. On one side I have a section with a mix of loose compost, dried leaves, soil and peat moss. That's where they mostly dig under for the night. In the Fall I'll add a good 7 or 8 inches of leaf litter to that and make that side into a cave with rocks and slate. That's where they'll hibernate. My old boxie was well over sixty years that I inherited from my Dad, and my Ornate is over 30 years old and this is how I've been doing it, and so far it's been working, and no one has been sick from hibernating. These old guys had the run of my yard which was enclosed with a fence. This will be the first time hibernating for this new group in the new boxie garden. I put lots of ground cover and plants in the enclosure. There's no loose dirt except on the side with the compost. I don't understand the concept of burying the pond. Would that be for hibernating?
 

Riperoo

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For the pond, I was just thinking of barrier below grade that could not be burrowed through. Maybe that isn't needed if they have plenty of good loose burrowing material? I was concerned about them burrowing under and out. Do you have you wall just built on the same level as the turts are on? When they hibernate how deep do they go?
 

terryo

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My wall goes down about 3 feet past the dirt line. They never dig down that far at all. There is only one section of dirt that is loose enough for them to dig under, and in the Fall I add the dried leaves there. When they hibernate they will dig down into the leaves and in the loose soil but you can see the top of their shell..then comes about a good 8 inches of leaves. Do not use any green leaves, green plants, grass clippings, or weeds. Green plant material will generate heat and mold. You do not want to generate heat but rather reduce the penetration of cold and maintain a stable cold temperature. Because I have a lot of plants and ground cover they will hide under a plant during the day to get out of the sun, and when it gets cooler at night they go into the cave where the loose dirt and leaf litter is. This is a small enclosure about 7 x 6 that they are in now. In a week they should be in the new garden. You can see there is a lot of plants and no one really digs down. Can you post a picture of the enclosure that you will keep them in?
021-11.jpg
 

Riperoo

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Wow Terry, that is one heck of an enclosure, talk about Natural looking!!! Mine is still a work in progress, put I will definietly post up progress pictures. Thanks for all the info! And your habitat is awesome.
 
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