Indoor enclosure questions

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tofuqueen

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Happy 2010! So my Pablo (Russian Tortoise) is living indoors for the winter. We live in MA. He's currently in a 3.5' by roughly 1.5' plastic tote. It's only January 1st, and he'll probably be inside for several months, and I think he needs more space. So I'm weighing two options right now:

#1 Buy a Christmas Tree Tote at Walmart, which would give him about an extra foot or so of length. I have two concerns with the tote... one is if it's deep enough. It's about 14'' deep and I keep his substrate about 6-8 inches deep. The other concern is that the tote is opaque. I know clear enclosures are a no-no... but is opaque okay for him?

#2 Buy an additional tote to match the one I have now, or a slightly smaller tote since space is limited, and try to connect the totes by cutting a hole in both of them. Right now my one tote is on top of two end tables that are pushed together. It's just wide enough for the one tote, so if I connect an additional tote I would have to probably put the totes on the floor. There's no door near by, so would it be okay to put the totes directly on the floor? I'm worried about drafts.

I just want to give him more space for the indoor winter months. This is my first winter with him, so I didn't want to hibernate him. He LOVES his big outdoor enclosure, so it's kind of a bummer he has to be indoors for the winter. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you!!
 

terryo

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I don't have a Russian, but I do have a Redfoot, and for his first year outside I used the Christmas Tree storage Tote. It was really great, and I know a lot of people on the forum use them. I never bothered covering the sides and he wasn't interesting in looking out. Now I have it inside for a little RES that I rescued.
There's plenty of room in there, and it even has weels on one side to move it around. This is how I set it up for outside, but maybe someone will come along and show you their indoor set up.
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derekdehaas

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WOW! you sure went crazy putting all those stuff in that tote and your tort sure love that life i bet. Good job on that one!:)
 

-ryan-

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The Christmas tree tote is a good idea, but I understand your dilemma. I don't think that the opaque sides are going to be a problem. I have used opaque sided bins with some of my tortoises, and I have even used glass sides with some of them. It depends on the tortoise and how he/she takes it.

The height can be a concern. I use about 8" of soil in my main russian enclosure, however that is for breeding purposes. For the smaller enclosures I usually use about 3" of soil and put things on top that the tortoises can dig under (like pieces of cork bark). It is a matter of preference though. One thing I have thought about in the past is taking two Christmas tree totes, and using one as the substrate-holding base, and the other would be flipped on top of that and attached with zip ties to provide more headroom. Then you could cut a hole of whatever size you prefer in the top of the enclosure (which would be the bottom of the second tote). I'm not sure if that makes sense to anyone else but me, but it was something that I was thinking about a while ago when I was considering moving into an apartment. I figured I would need to house almost all of my animals in lightweight storage bins so that I could more easily sneak them into a complex, and this seemed like a relatively good idea for the tortoises.

Luckily for the tortoises though, I decided to wait it out a couple more years :)
 

webskipper

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I was wondering how you got all those plants to thrive like that. It's outdoors! Nice. Try some Frogwort in the mini pond. Fast growing surface plant.

Targette and the PX have the massive ones on sale.

To solve the height issue, you may as well build a Tort Table because you are in this for the long haul.

I would not be concerned with Apartments. Tort table are just like Bird cages and Aquariums. You can contain the mess.
 

terryo

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You can also buy a bookcase, and take out the shelves. Many people on here have done that with great success.
 

tofuqueen

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Wow Terryo!! That enclosure looks amazing! I debated the bookshelf idea too. I think I'm going to go pick up that Christmas tote while they still have them out. There's an Ikea not that far from me too... so maybe I'll go check out the bookcases there.

Thanks everyone for your tips and advice! I appreciate it! :)
 

dmmj

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Check CL and freecycle for people who no longer want bookcases, they make a pretty good tort enclosure.
 
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