Coffee table enclosure

Linneke

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Joined
Feb 18, 2021
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9
Location (City and/or State)
Mortsel
Hi

I built this enclosure from a cheap IKEA coffee table (upside down) for my Russian Tortoise. I am pretty happy with it, but need to get a second one asap for a second tortoise.
I turned the tabel upside down and made 3 walls of pvc-plating and the back wall is actually the shelf that was under the table. I hope to built a small extra platform so there is some climbing possibilities.

Any suggestions on how to make it better?

Tortoise enclosure 2.jpgTortoise enclosure.jpg
 

Linneke

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Joined
Feb 18, 2021
Messages
9
Location (City and/or State)
Mortsel
What is MVB and T5 flouro? (not native English speaker)
The bowl are small compressed cubes of dried herbs specially for tortoises. I saw something simular here on the forum.
 

Yossarian

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Nov 21, 2015
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813
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Wales
Mercury vapour bulb and T5 Fluorescent uv tubes
 

Lyn W

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Jul 22, 2014
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23,497
Location (City and/or State)
UK
The T5 fixtures and tubes seem more popular now for UVB, but NO curly or cfl types as they can damage tort eyes.

Mercury Vapor Balanced bulbs (MVB) which give heat light and UVB are convenient but they have been found to dry and damage shells.
Do you have night heat for them? A Ceramic Heat Emitter (CHE) run through a thermostat is a good option as it gives heat but not light because torts need darkness to sleep.

As a teacher myself I know how cold classrooms get overnight and at weekends. I am actually surprised your school lets you keep them because of the possible fire hazard with heating needing to be on day and night.

While you are making improvements you could also replace the water bowls with terracotta plant saucers -they are cheaper and much safer and easier for the torts to access especially if sunk level with the substrate. The one you have is quite steep sided and could cause the torts to tip backwards. and if they get stuck on their back they could drown.
Russians love to dig and climb but I think the rock is rather steep for little torts - if they fall off and get stuck on their back for any length of time they could die and if they are being left in school overnight and weekends that could easily happen so I would move or change anything that they could climb on.

Read the caresheet I linked earlier to see if there are any other changes you could make - maybe with the substrate and make sure your temps are high enough.

The thermometer you have isn't a very reliable type. Most of use digital thermometers/hygrometers with probes at tort level and a digital temp gun is great for spot checking temps in the different areas.

I hope that with a few changes and a place of his own your little tort will soon be better.
 

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