pawsplus
Active Member
OK. So building off my "Humidifier Angst" thread . . . I have reworked some things. I still have a humidifier (another brand than the one that leaked) on the way. I can keep the humidity up without it, but if it works, great! If this one leaks too, I will probably give up and just keep pouring and spraying.
But it occurred to me that I can keep both humidity and temp up more easily in my open topped tortoise table with a few tweaks. Note: I am not interested in an enclosed chamber. Please allow us to agree to disagree on this. I think that ventilation is important and, after all, tortoises are not in enclosed chambers in the wild. But by closing off the ROOM I can keep the heat in. The room the enclosure is in is small (7x14) with a very low, slanting ceiling. It is connected via a wide doorway to my open plan LR/kitchen, with high cathedral ceiling, so I imagine that right now, heat leaves the small room and heads up to the ceiling of the big room. See first pic, with enclosure on the left. As you can see, putting in French doors would be impossible and the handyman tells me that pocket doors might or might not work--he won't know until he tears my wall up. So no.
BUT I can put a heavy curtain/drapes in that doorway. I have ordered fabric and have a friend who will make it for me. That way, I can put an oscillating space heater with a thermostat in there, which will enable me to keep the ambient temp where I want it without my usual winter machinations, and without ME sweating all winter LOL That will be welcome. And if the new humidifer works, it will keep much of the humidity in that room as well.
I am also planning an extension of the enclosure, probably for next summer. It is currently 4x6, built around 2x3 concrete mixing tubs. In the drawing, the original pen is on the left. The new addition is on the right. It will add 18 SF, for a total of 42 SF. Please note that Beasley has a 10x40 outdoor pen as well, which she is in 12 hours a day for 5 mos of the year. This is used only at night and during the wintertime. There will not be a lot of room left in that room, but hey, I don't use it for anything else anyway. I gave up using it as a dining room years ago.
I think this will work nicely, and the curtain should be attractive.
But it occurred to me that I can keep both humidity and temp up more easily in my open topped tortoise table with a few tweaks. Note: I am not interested in an enclosed chamber. Please allow us to agree to disagree on this. I think that ventilation is important and, after all, tortoises are not in enclosed chambers in the wild. But by closing off the ROOM I can keep the heat in. The room the enclosure is in is small (7x14) with a very low, slanting ceiling. It is connected via a wide doorway to my open plan LR/kitchen, with high cathedral ceiling, so I imagine that right now, heat leaves the small room and heads up to the ceiling of the big room. See first pic, with enclosure on the left. As you can see, putting in French doors would be impossible and the handyman tells me that pocket doors might or might not work--he won't know until he tears my wall up. So no.
BUT I can put a heavy curtain/drapes in that doorway. I have ordered fabric and have a friend who will make it for me. That way, I can put an oscillating space heater with a thermostat in there, which will enable me to keep the ambient temp where I want it without my usual winter machinations, and without ME sweating all winter LOL That will be welcome. And if the new humidifer works, it will keep much of the humidity in that room as well.
I am also planning an extension of the enclosure, probably for next summer. It is currently 4x6, built around 2x3 concrete mixing tubs. In the drawing, the original pen is on the left. The new addition is on the right. It will add 18 SF, for a total of 42 SF. Please note that Beasley has a 10x40 outdoor pen as well, which she is in 12 hours a day for 5 mos of the year. This is used only at night and during the wintertime. There will not be a lot of room left in that room, but hey, I don't use it for anything else anyway. I gave up using it as a dining room years ago.
I think this will work nicely, and the curtain should be attractive.