I'm curious to see some ideas that others have to give their tortoises some relief from the heat of summer. Here is what I have going on with my Indian Stars.
Their pen is in the northwest corner of my lot, so they get the brunt of the afternoon heat.
Their favorite spot is right smack in the middle. In between all the fountain grass plants in the middle is a cave burried in dirt.
Here's the shot from behind, you can see it a lot better. So far it's worked great, but we havn't had any measurable rainfall since I made this, so we'll see how well the dirt stays on it in the rain. The walls and top are made out of those concrete top peices, not sure what they're called, but you can see them in the next picture. to the side, you can see a big peice of flagstone, it provides them a little more room. I can go into a little more detail on how I made them secure and and all that if anyone wants.
This is how well it's working.
I believe it was 104 out when I took this picture, here is the ground temperature just outside the cave.
And I actually pointed this at the shell of one of the tortoises inside.
Another idea I had got from a few other people and it's something I used back in my box turtle days, is the sprinkler box. It works well but I hate how it uglies up my pen. I'm hoping those elephant food plants growing next to it get big fast and cover it up. I imagine I will have more problems when the monsoon comes and the torts inside get flooded out.
The tortoises like it.
Bye Bye
Another hide using the concrete top pieces under a shade clothe.
Then I have a drinking pool, I'm going to move it cuz uglies things up too.
Other than those the plants are placed in a way so they won't have to walk to far to get out of the direct sunlight. I hope they will take off and grow faster soon. The fountain grass is really great stuff for shading tortoises.
Their pen is in the northwest corner of my lot, so they get the brunt of the afternoon heat.
Their favorite spot is right smack in the middle. In between all the fountain grass plants in the middle is a cave burried in dirt.
Here's the shot from behind, you can see it a lot better. So far it's worked great, but we havn't had any measurable rainfall since I made this, so we'll see how well the dirt stays on it in the rain. The walls and top are made out of those concrete top peices, not sure what they're called, but you can see them in the next picture. to the side, you can see a big peice of flagstone, it provides them a little more room. I can go into a little more detail on how I made them secure and and all that if anyone wants.
This is how well it's working.
I believe it was 104 out when I took this picture, here is the ground temperature just outside the cave.
And I actually pointed this at the shell of one of the tortoises inside.
Another idea I had got from a few other people and it's something I used back in my box turtle days, is the sprinkler box. It works well but I hate how it uglies up my pen. I'm hoping those elephant food plants growing next to it get big fast and cover it up. I imagine I will have more problems when the monsoon comes and the torts inside get flooded out.
The tortoises like it.
Bye Bye
Another hide using the concrete top pieces under a shade clothe.
Then I have a drinking pool, I'm going to move it cuz uglies things up too.
Other than those the plants are placed in a way so they won't have to walk to far to get out of the direct sunlight. I hope they will take off and grow faster soon. The fountain grass is really great stuff for shading tortoises.
