Extending the tortoise enclosure...

[idcowden]

HI all,
I have just finished spring cleaning my tortoise enclosure as Coco and Esio have finished brumating.


(Coco and Esio went off to hide whilst the giant was tarting up the enclosure)
Anyway, I'm moving to Tom's point of view that Coco and Esio are not sharing nicely. So with that in mind I'm considering an extension. The plan will be to partition the cold frame and to build a new pen that goes along the wall. The main complication is the apple tree and the wisteria. This pen will be a bit more shady, but I can swap the two of them over occasionally so that they get a bit of a change. Any ideas as to how I can enclose the top around the trunk of the little apple tree and the wisteria?

 

[Yvonne G]

Nice!

 

[wellington]

Glad you are separating them. Will be so much better for their health.
What if you either cover that portion of the tortoise enclosure with screen or cover the trees with screen or shade cloth?
Even if there is a small spot that gets full sun, they will use it to bask. They can still get filtered uvb through shade as long as it's not solid shade cover.

 

[idcowden]

Glad you are separating them. Will be so much better for their health.
What if you either cover that portion of the tortoise enclosure with screen or cover the trees with screen or shade cloth?
Even if there is a small spot that gets full sun, they will use it to bask. They can still get filtered uvb through shade as long as it's not solid shade cover.

The cover is to stop foxes and cats really. We get a lot of fox visitors. Theres quite a few local cats also that might have a go at a tortoise. They certainly sit on the existing netting.

 

[wellington]

At night, your tortoises should be locked up in a hide box and let out the next morning. That should take care of the fox and cats at night. Any showing up during the day, chicken wire or hardware cloth fencing should work.

 

[idcowden]

At night, your tortoises should be locked up in a hide box and let out the next morning. That should take care of the fox and cats at night. Any showing up during the day, chicken wire or hardware cloth fencing should work.

That's effectively what the cold frame is. The current pen has a chickenwire lid. My challenge is to work out a way to build a removable chicken wire lid that will go around the trunk of the apple tree and around the wisteria trunk.

I think I've worked out a plan though. I'm not going to be able to do semi circles, so I'm thinking to leave a gap for the trunk and then make a couple of wood flaps that will cover most of the length of the gap. The wisteria I can probably box round.

 

[wellington]

Be sure to share when you get it done. Others may be a similar situation and not sure what to do.