- Joined
- Aug 15, 2013
- Messages
- 8
I do not have any tortoises yet, and have no reptile experience. I have however been doing a lot of reading, and I stayed at a H o l iday Inn last night.
I am looking at getting 3 Sulcatas eventually. I would prefer as young as possible, days, or even less…I have not looked into what it would take to hatch viable eggs as of yet, but that would be an option as well as far as I am concerned.
For the long run, if you are concerned, I own 3 acres right now, and that will only ever go up, never down, as I would only move for more land.
I have started to build my tortoise table, frame is complete, size is 8’x4’x16â€(or so) (figured building it around a sheet of plywood would be easiest), and this thing is both heavy and sturdy, with a complete 2x4 frame. The corner posts are 2x2 red oak uprights, with 1x4 red oak connecting the bottom posts along the bottom and 1x3s along the top, providing a full length window on all 4 sides that is about 12†tall. This will be filled with plexi
I am aware that bare wood would rot, so that plan on there is to seal the floor with several coats of polyeurethane or some other sealer. The plexi will be sealed in the corners where it meets, and to the floor, this should create a waterproof tub.
Easy stuff: done
Now for the rest of the design:
I’ve done some reading of Tom’s threads and a few design things he has done over the years. I get, and agree that I should try and maintain high humidity levels to prevent pyramiding. Luckily, I live in Louisiana, and we have a year round high humidity percent (our daily average yearround is never below 45%, average daily high is over 90%, every day of the year.) So this should help in maintaining a humid environment even inside the house, we do not run dehumidifiers inside, so the humidity stays and ambient 75% plus, except when the gas furnace kicks on during the winter, at this point I will need to do something to keep up humidity.
As of right now, I am not planning on a covered table, will be open at the top.
As I have 32 sq ft of floor space, I am thinking of having a decent sized hide, probably front to back (4ft) and about 2ft down the length of the table, so 8 sq ft. roof of hide to be about 8 inches above floor. Planning on a ramp to the roof of the hide, but I need to figure out the correct ramp angle, or rise over run for this. Enterance to the hide I’m thinking will be the 1ft closest to the front, but here is the kicker. Once inside the hide, there will be a wall that goes towards the back, so that the torts would need to go around this wall to get into the hide, this should help to maintain temp, reduce airflow, and maintain very high humidity inside the hide, and reduce light transmission, making it more like their burrows where they have a turn in it to do all these functions.
Thinking substrate should be a mix of the coconut fiber and local topsoil, out of my yard, where I DO NOT use any type of chemicals or fertilizers, probably 2-3 inches deep, and a bit deeper in the hide, possibly have some other form of hay or moss inside the hide to provide an additional burrowing material.
I would be making the hide roof removable, so it may end up being a plain wood surface on top, unless I can figure out a way to have substrate up there as well and not make a mess when I remove it. There will be rails along the ramp and the roof so that no tort can fall off.
I am thinking about getting rather innovative with the water source. I have a lot of fish tanks, and thus a lot of small pumps laying around, I am debating on placing in a shallow water dish, recessed into the table so that it is nearly flush with the level of dirt, and creating flowing water by putting a hose bringing fresh water and a return to a water source under the table, the water dish itself would only have the requisite level of water in it, say ½†or so for a baby tort, and would be able to increase it over time by adjusting the height of the return as they got larger. This should provide cleaner water, and I can keep it warmer this way by having a heater in the sump. Additionally, this could add asthetics in the form of a small waterfall set up, and flowing water would help to add to the local humidity (flowing water contains more energy at same temp than still water, and is thus more readily excited to evaporate in high humidity enviroments)
I would likely attempt to grow a few grasses and such in the table, but the torts may simply eat them faster than they can grow, I will also be growing correct diet outside as much as I can, and supplementing per suggestions.
I am still open to suggestions on other ways of doing things (other than changing the dimensions of the table….except that I can always make it taller by making additional layers so to speak that will rest on the existing frame)
My two problem areas I am having right now are:
Best way to keep the hide warm. My house stays at a chilly 68*F
Best way to set up lighting and heating over such a large area to provide proper gradients while still promoting use of the entire structure.
I will be running this table for a few weeks before I do get any torts so that I can make sure that the temps and humidity stay where I need them to stay. And I will also see if I need to do anything to keep the humidity at the appropriate levels aside from ‘watering’ the table so-to-speak (such as adding in a terrarium fogger or some such)
How do y’all typically keep the hide at 100% or close to that on the humidity? Keeping wet sponges or something in there?
Let me know your ideas, thoughts, etc.
Thank you,
JD
I am looking at getting 3 Sulcatas eventually. I would prefer as young as possible, days, or even less…I have not looked into what it would take to hatch viable eggs as of yet, but that would be an option as well as far as I am concerned.
For the long run, if you are concerned, I own 3 acres right now, and that will only ever go up, never down, as I would only move for more land.
I have started to build my tortoise table, frame is complete, size is 8’x4’x16â€(or so) (figured building it around a sheet of plywood would be easiest), and this thing is both heavy and sturdy, with a complete 2x4 frame. The corner posts are 2x2 red oak uprights, with 1x4 red oak connecting the bottom posts along the bottom and 1x3s along the top, providing a full length window on all 4 sides that is about 12†tall. This will be filled with plexi
I am aware that bare wood would rot, so that plan on there is to seal the floor with several coats of polyeurethane or some other sealer. The plexi will be sealed in the corners where it meets, and to the floor, this should create a waterproof tub.
Easy stuff: done
Now for the rest of the design:
I’ve done some reading of Tom’s threads and a few design things he has done over the years. I get, and agree that I should try and maintain high humidity levels to prevent pyramiding. Luckily, I live in Louisiana, and we have a year round high humidity percent (our daily average yearround is never below 45%, average daily high is over 90%, every day of the year.) So this should help in maintaining a humid environment even inside the house, we do not run dehumidifiers inside, so the humidity stays and ambient 75% plus, except when the gas furnace kicks on during the winter, at this point I will need to do something to keep up humidity.
As of right now, I am not planning on a covered table, will be open at the top.
As I have 32 sq ft of floor space, I am thinking of having a decent sized hide, probably front to back (4ft) and about 2ft down the length of the table, so 8 sq ft. roof of hide to be about 8 inches above floor. Planning on a ramp to the roof of the hide, but I need to figure out the correct ramp angle, or rise over run for this. Enterance to the hide I’m thinking will be the 1ft closest to the front, but here is the kicker. Once inside the hide, there will be a wall that goes towards the back, so that the torts would need to go around this wall to get into the hide, this should help to maintain temp, reduce airflow, and maintain very high humidity inside the hide, and reduce light transmission, making it more like their burrows where they have a turn in it to do all these functions.
Thinking substrate should be a mix of the coconut fiber and local topsoil, out of my yard, where I DO NOT use any type of chemicals or fertilizers, probably 2-3 inches deep, and a bit deeper in the hide, possibly have some other form of hay or moss inside the hide to provide an additional burrowing material.
I would be making the hide roof removable, so it may end up being a plain wood surface on top, unless I can figure out a way to have substrate up there as well and not make a mess when I remove it. There will be rails along the ramp and the roof so that no tort can fall off.
I am thinking about getting rather innovative with the water source. I have a lot of fish tanks, and thus a lot of small pumps laying around, I am debating on placing in a shallow water dish, recessed into the table so that it is nearly flush with the level of dirt, and creating flowing water by putting a hose bringing fresh water and a return to a water source under the table, the water dish itself would only have the requisite level of water in it, say ½†or so for a baby tort, and would be able to increase it over time by adjusting the height of the return as they got larger. This should provide cleaner water, and I can keep it warmer this way by having a heater in the sump. Additionally, this could add asthetics in the form of a small waterfall set up, and flowing water would help to add to the local humidity (flowing water contains more energy at same temp than still water, and is thus more readily excited to evaporate in high humidity enviroments)
I would likely attempt to grow a few grasses and such in the table, but the torts may simply eat them faster than they can grow, I will also be growing correct diet outside as much as I can, and supplementing per suggestions.
I am still open to suggestions on other ways of doing things (other than changing the dimensions of the table….except that I can always make it taller by making additional layers so to speak that will rest on the existing frame)
My two problem areas I am having right now are:
Best way to keep the hide warm. My house stays at a chilly 68*F
Best way to set up lighting and heating over such a large area to provide proper gradients while still promoting use of the entire structure.
I will be running this table for a few weeks before I do get any torts so that I can make sure that the temps and humidity stay where I need them to stay. And I will also see if I need to do anything to keep the humidity at the appropriate levels aside from ‘watering’ the table so-to-speak (such as adding in a terrarium fogger or some such)
How do y’all typically keep the hide at 100% or close to that on the humidity? Keeping wet sponges or something in there?
Let me know your ideas, thoughts, etc.
Thank you,
JD
