Building a Winter Enclosure 100 square foot

RescuedSulcata

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Aug 15, 2019
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Glorieta, NM
I am looking for "help" building (quickly) my winter shelter for my newly rescued sulcata. He has a dogloo (actually 2), 3 heated pads and 4 lamps, all as required for him for basking and uva, uvb, but it is already too cool for him to want to be outside his dogloo except to eat. I put his food under his sun lamp and he eats it, basks for maybe 20 minutes and heads back in. It gets very cold where I live at 8000 feet elevation and I live in a yurt so it is hard enough to keep that warm. I want his space to be a minimum of 100 square feet. I was going to get a shed and insulate it but my road is not passable for the trucks with trailer until the end of the month when it is repaired, not up to me, a neighbor picked that date. I am female and someone attacked someone on another site for mentioning that, but it is relevant as I have tiny hands, women do have less upper body strength, I have no help, and zero construction experience. I have a lot of large pallets and my current idea is to use the pallets as my walls and roof and stuff them with insulation and tack on sheets of plywood and propanel. I also have quick cement and 4x4s and 8 foot cedar latillas. These are all found materials I already have. I was considering the mylar type sheets on the inside. I want to make the ceiling low so it is easier to heat but I am tall and I need to be able to get in there without crawling so I am thinking the roof needs to be hinged. Floor: I am going to put down used straw from the goat barn (the nitrogen will create more heat) and put concrete pavers on top. Ideas welcome, criticism not. His outdoor area is about 150 square feet and grassed with large flat rocks and the dogloo with a door and timothy hay he uses to burrow. He is between 15 and 20 pounds.
 

Yvonne G

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Sounds like you've got your work cut out for you. The size is great, and as long as the building materials will hold in heat, I say go for it! I too use accumulated building materials and scrap lumber. One thing to remember - hot lights WILL burn the new growth on the top shell, so be sure to not hang the heat/lights low enough to burn his shell. I'd love to see a few pictures as this project unfolds.
 

Tom

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Heat mats are fine under your tortoise in this situation, but like Yvonne mentioned, I wouldn't use the heat lamps. They will "slow-burn" the top of the carapace on a larger tortoise.

You still need the big insulated shed for winter at 8000 feet, but something like this can get you through:
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/h...g-of-toms-night-box-with-exploded-view.97697/
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/what-youll-need-to-build-a-night-box.171435/
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/double-door-night-box.129054/

No cedar. It emits toxic fumes in a closed space.
 

RescuedSulcata

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Aug 15, 2019
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Location (City and/or State)
Glorieta, NM
He's inside. It was 12 degrees last night, early winter and the windchill was 6. I didn't have time to build him a proper insulated structure. If we get a warm spell I'll get back to work. He is the only one with a warm room in my yurt!
 

Maro2Bear

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He's inside. It was 12 degrees last night, early winter and the windchill was 6. I didn't have time to build him a proper insulated structure. If we get a warm spell I'll get back to work. He is the only one with a warm room in my yurt!


Hey! When the PIX are fixed, send in some pix of your yurt. Sounds like your tort will be warmer than you. The latills feally won’t help much. Your living conditions are not very compatible with a hot weather reptile, but, maybe some solar panels will help! I know you have SUNSHINE in New Mexico! The SUNSHINE site.
 
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