Well, I finally got around to spend 3 days creating a new indoor enclosure for our mature red foot tortoise, Bubbles. She was previously in a 40 gallon tank which was getting too small for her mature size. I customized our old coffee table into an enclosure! There are two 10.0 UVB fixtures on a 12 hour timer cycle and one 100W red incandescent bulb connected with a rheostat in a dome lamp cut in half mounted inside the enclosure. The floor of the table (under the repti-bark substrate) has been sprayed with 2 coats of Flex Seal, which is a rubberized coating that is waterproof to keep the wood floor from rotting out and leaking. There are openings in the glass on either table end for ventilation and to let me put my hand inside to lift the 2 top glass pieces for maintenance, etc. I have attached pictures; the only thing I still need to do is place a plastic plant in the corner where the wires are showing.
So far, Bubbles seems to be quite happy in her new enclosure as she readily eats, poops and is quite social with the humans occasionally sitting on the couch next to the table! She sometimes migrates directly under the red lamp to bask; a behavior that I did not observe in her previously as the dome lamp used to sit up high on the top of her 40 ga tank.
So, what say you all?
So far, Bubbles seems to be quite happy in her new enclosure as she readily eats, poops and is quite social with the humans occasionally sitting on the couch next to the table! She sometimes migrates directly under the red lamp to bask; a behavior that I did not observe in her previously as the dome lamp used to sit up high on the top of her 40 ga tank.
So, what say you all?