Juvenile Redfoot Tortoise Table Build

TheColossus

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2013
Messages
25
Hello, all!

As promised when I first joined, I'll be sharing all of my projects with you :)

My three Redfooted Tortoises (each are about 8 months old now) are doing good, and have outgrown their starter home, a 55 gallon aquarium. For a while now I've been planning their next home, one that'll hopefully last a much longer time, and a few weeks ago I finally settled on a pair of Zoo Med Tortoise Houses (6 ft long by 2 ft wide by 1 ft high when combined), which will give them 12 sqft of floorspace to roam around. This should last them for quite some time! :D

I've already bought and assembled the two houses, but am waiting on finishing up my design/prepping it before I add the tortoises.

I'll be permanently connecting the two and attaching 6 furniture legs to the bottom for stability, as I want this habitat to be free-standing.

Their setup is going to be very natural, and will include many live tortoise-safe plants such as bromeliads (it's my firm belief that redfoot tortoises feel more secure in habitats with a lot of overhead cover versus just a hide or two and big open spaces), a shallow pond area (I'm thinking of using a paint tray that I'll fill partially with river rock, so I can make it less deep for them since they're still small), a slate feeding area, and much more!

I plan on either replacing the wood in the front panels of both houses and siliconing in glass panels, or doing what I did on my painted turtles above tank basking area and adding in tracks and putting in sliding glass doors. I haven't decided yet.

Right now my plan is to completely paint both tortoise houses, then cover the floor and sides in vinyl stick tiles and run aquarium silicon over any cracks or corners on the inside to protect the wood, but I might change things up a little as I get more into the build.

Sorry I have no pictures yet, those will be coming soon! Tell me what you think so far, and if you have any comments/suggestions! I'll be updating this thread as I get further into this project :3
 

TortsNTurtles

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Dec 12, 2013
Messages
1,325
Location (City and/or State)
North East
I am looking forward to pictures too. Have you searched the forum. There was another member who used the zoo med house for their Redfoots .
 

TheColossus

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2013
Messages
25
Team Gomberg said:
Hmmm, I think I wanna see pictures :D

Can't wait!

Thanks :D

To be honest, I'm not quite sure how to add pictures to a thread or post or whatever on here XD but I'm going to take some tonight, and they'll be up when I figure that out.
 

Yvonne G

Old Timer
TFO Admin
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
93,390
Location (City and/or State)
Clovis, CA
For the reader, the easiest way to view pictures is if you, the poster, first add the pictures to either photobucket.com or tinypic.com (free downloads), then you copy/paste the
 

TheColossus

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2013
Messages
25
Yvonne G said:
For the reader, the easiest way to view pictures is if you, the poster, first add the pictures to either photobucket.com or tinypic.com (free downloads), then you copy/paste the code into your thread. That way, we, the viewers, don't have to click on the picture to make it big enough to see.
[/quote]

[font=Times New Roman][SIZE=4]Thanks so much for telling me! I'll get some photos and copies of my plans put up tonight then (I'll do what you suggested and use Tinypic.)[/SIZE][/font][/LEFT]
 

TheColossus

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2013
Messages
25
(Having some difficulties with the original design for the legs. I have to go back to the drawing board and fix that up. I'll finally get some pictures on here once that's fixed up, unless you all just want to see two plain, empty Zoo Med Tortoise Houses XD)
 

Tom

The Dog Trainer
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 9, 2010
Messages
63,269
Location (City and/or State)
Southern California
What is the temperature and humidity in the room where this enclosure will sit? It can be very difficult to maintain adequate temps and humidity in open topped enclosures.
 

TheColossus

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2013
Messages
25
TortsNTurtles said:
I am looking forward to pictures too. Have you searched the forum. There was another member who used the zoo med house for their Redfoots .

Yes, I saw that thread, and I got really excited because they did basically the same exact thing I'm trying to do, so I sort of know it's going to work now! :D

(this is the thread I'm talking about: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-71354.html)

On the other hand, I feel so unoriginal now XD it's like the same exact plans as mine, from the tiling inside, to the sliding glass front... FOR A MOMENT I THOUGHT I WAS COOL AND INVENTIVE.

I'm making mine freestanding, though, so there's a difference there, I believe they just had theirs sitting on a dresser/table. I'll be sure to take a ton of pictures of how I've set the legs up and attached the two units once that's completed, because I haven't seen any threads yet where anyone has taken these houses and made them completely freestanding.

Plus, I'm going to be making mine more natural, I suppose you could say, because I'll be filling mine with live (tortoise-safe/edible) plants, so that should be fun! :3


Tom said:
What is the temperature and humidity in the room where this enclosure will sit? It can be very difficult to maintain adequate temps and humidity in open topped enclosures.

Tom, trust me I know, I've battled with that so many times with their current enclosure and my ball python's habitat as well.

I've already thought about that! Since roughly 4 ft of the 6 ft is pretty much open top (the top is a large mesh to set lights on, etc.) I'm most likely going to cover the tops in plexi or wood (my first choice) and just leave sections/holes for the heat bulbs and UVB that will sit on top. Really most of it is going to be simple experimentation before I add the torts in, because I can't say for sure for now.

I've got a couple other ideas, I just can't say concretely yet because I'm going to have to experiment once this build is finished and just see what works best. :)


Tom said:
What is the temperature and humidity in the room where this enclosure will sit? It can be very difficult to maintain adequate temps and humidity in open topped enclosures.

Oops, sorry, I forgot to answer your actual question. The room stays about an even 70 degrees Fahrenheit, although I'm in Ohio so with this crazy below zero weather we've had it's gotten down to 67 at times. As for the humidity, I don't know off the top of my head.
 
Top