Hello, and a very warm welcome to Tortoise Forum to you and your little battalion of leopards!!
Leopard Males NOT Breeding
- Thread starter Boydleon
- Start date
Speedy-1
Well-Known Member
Hi and welcome to you and the gang ! 
Boydleon
New Member
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2014
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- 12
Since you asked. Like I said, nothing too crazy. A better more permanent structure will happen in the spring. The ceramic lamp on left is pretty much on all day, the red heat lamp is on a thermostat and usually on most the night. When I build the bigger structure ill be hanging an oil filled heater.
Should I change anything on this soon or is it gunna get the job done this winter?
I would not trust that to keep my tortoises warm enough on a night in the 30s or 40s. The lack of insulation and door is going to let all the heat out. Plus being in contact with the ground with suck their heat away.
Another issue is the abrasiveness of the cinder block. I think its fine to use for enclosure walls because they don't touch it all that often, but in the night box they will dig into the corners and scrape against that block all night.
At the very least I would line the walls with some thin plywood. A single $15 dollar sheet can be cut into four 12" strips and this would do your whole structure with some left over. That and a door would help.
Here are some examples of how I like to do it:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/double-door-night-box.129054/
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/my-best-night-box-design-yet.66867/
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/another-night-box-thread.88966/
Another issue is the abrasiveness of the cinder block. I think its fine to use for enclosure walls because they don't touch it all that often, but in the night box they will dig into the corners and scrape against that block all night.
At the very least I would line the walls with some thin plywood. A single $15 dollar sheet can be cut into four 12" strips and this would do your whole structure with some left over. That and a door would help.
Here are some examples of how I like to do it:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/double-door-night-box.129054/
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/my-best-night-box-design-yet.66867/
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/another-night-box-thread.88966/
Boydleon
New Member
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2014
- Messages
- 12
Love it. Thanks Tom. Ya....this setup was always meant to be temporary. Those links gave me some pretty good ideas for my permanent one. I should atleast line this temporary one with wood tho.
I used to have something very similar to your block house, but switched it out for an all wood enclosure a few years ago. I used foam insulation on the interior and I lined up the gaps on the sides of the cinder blocks stacked 4 high and slid a 3/4 inch piece of plywood in between the gaps for a door. It works well for Arizona. I did not like the amount of space that the blocks took up and I did not want to keep the tortoise house against the block wall anymore, so I switched it out for a wood house with 3" thick walls that I can move around to a more ideal location.
Like Neal, the cinderblock housing was my original design, but I soon realized it wasn't really good enough. This is what I used to have:
It is lined with rigid foam insulation then plywood to protect the foam from the tortoises. My "expensive" weather seal between the walls and roof - crinkled up plastic bags! I first put down a sheet of rigid foam on the floor, then a sheet of plywood, then built the structure on top of that. There is also a 3 or 4" layer of substrate. This unit still serves as a winter house for any tortoise that I can't allow to hibernate. But it stands empty most of the time. I'm able to keep it quite warm and toasty inside with a pig blanket at one end, a black light for night time and a MVB during the day.
If you line your floor and walls with insulation then plywood, and cover the doorway, you should be able to get by until you can build a more permanent structure.
It is lined with rigid foam insulation then plywood to protect the foam from the tortoises. My "expensive" weather seal between the walls and roof - crinkled up plastic bags! I first put down a sheet of rigid foam on the floor, then a sheet of plywood, then built the structure on top of that. There is also a 3 or 4" layer of substrate. This unit still serves as a winter house for any tortoise that I can't allow to hibernate. But it stands empty most of the time. I'm able to keep it quite warm and toasty inside with a pig blanket at one end, a black light for night time and a MVB during the day.
If you line your floor and walls with insulation then plywood, and cover the doorway, you should be able to get by until you can build a more permanent structure.
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