Multi-Species outdoor enclosure with heated house! PIC HEAVY

[terryo]

Fantastic!

 

[lynnedit]

Amazing and well thought out! Looking forward to seeing more pics as plants grow, etc.

 

[nickpanzee]

I'll definitely keep updating with pics.

I was actually going to make it smaller than this, but I decided not to. I'm glad too. But since I'm going to put a fence around it and a top, I had to make it a size that wasn't humongous When the leopards get much bigger, I will wall off some larger part of the yard for them and not enclose it with fence, but for now, they're happy. And I have 8 acres, so space is not an issue

Cinder blocks are very heavy, but they're easy to work with. I hurt my elbow from moving so many. Hopefully taking a break from moving them will allow it to heal. We'll see.

Thanks for all the compliments! I'm impressed that I was able to do this

 

[Yellow Turtle]

I really like what you've done for the enclosure. They are great, tidy and I love it!!!!

Not to go off topic, but I'm really curious here for people here who are really against mixing species. With this enclosure as an example, what's the difference with putting all species into 1 big enclosure? This big enclosure is just divided by cinder blocks for each species area and I can see parasites easily crossing the perimeters.

 

[Yvonne G]

The only thing I worry about are things that have to contact either poop or saliva. This design keeps the poop and saliva segregated. I doubt there are any airborne pathogens, but there may be. If you're careful to not step from one pen to the next wearing the same shoes, it should be ok too.

 

[Yellow Turtle]

The only thing I worry about are things that have to contact either poop or saliva. This design keeps the poop and saliva segregated. I doubt there are any airborne pathogens, but there may be. If you're careful to not step from one pen to the next wearing the same shoes, it should be ok too.

That might work, but I might not see it as the best precaution. I imagine rainy days when those parasites easily transferred through water. Must be my only silly thought though and I personally don't worry too much of cross pathogen. I just imagine whether this enclosure is ideal for the concept of not mixing species together.

 

[TortTopper]

Tortoise love is strong in this one -Darth Vader

Heh Heh anyway, love all the work you put into it!

 

[acrantophis]

Great enclosure! One thing though. I have a similar enclosure for my sulcata. When she exits and enters her hide she scrapes her shell on the edges of the concrete. After a while it got pretty scuffed up. I glued little wooden strips that wrap around the edges of the blocks and that seemed to do the trick! Also since sulcatas like to do laps, I glued long planks of wood along the walls where she would rub the most.

 

[janevicki]

Great enclosure, I love your plan and all the tortoise housing your created.

 

[Levi the Leopard]

i had a hard time telling how your enclosure was set up from the pictures... but once you posted the written blue print, i can see it all now.

i like it.

good work.

updated pictures??

 

[sibi]

Your plan looks great! I do have a few questions about your heater. What kind of heater is it? How do you get the heater to transfer heat to all the pens? Do you have air ducts to blow heat into each pen? Is the whole structure covered sp as to hold the heat in. Exactly, how does it work?

 

[biochemnerd808]

This is amazing! I wish I had 8 acres to work with...

Sibi, if you look at some of the earlier pics, the hot house is enclosed, with the heater in the middle, and wooden partitions (but the air is shared, so all get the warmth). Each of the outdoor pens has a little opening that goes into the hot house.

Your plan looks great! I do have a few questions about your heater. What kind of heater is it? How do you get the heater to transfer heat to all the pens? Do you have air ducts to blow heat into each pen? Is the whole structure covered sp as to hold the heat in. Exactly, how does it work?

 

[Laura]

is that just the heated areas and the enclosures will be expanded from that?

 

[nickpanzee]

This is my redfoots' enclosure. My chickens got in there when the plants were small and devoured a lot of the non-grass plants. I'm going to have to block off areas and re-seed them with leafy things.

And this is my leopards' enclosure.... They are most certainly devourers of all things green. I have 3 leopards and 5 redfoots.

Here are my leopards, ready for bed.

One chilly day, I think I was weighing and measuring my torts and I found this:

Can you see it? It's small.

Here's a closer look:

A little scorpion was perfectly content to nestle down next to my largest leopard's butt! What's up with that?


Here's my young male Greeks:

And all of my redfoots chowing down:

---

I am thinking that my leopards need a much larger area so they don't eat EVERYTHING before it has a chance to grow back. If only I took a picture every day from the same spot. It would have been amusing to see how much they mowed down in one day. I definitely need to block off and re-seed and let it grow back. I'm thinking of making the leopards a different enclosure for the summer that is larger and this can be their winter home, or something.

All of the tortoises sleep next to the heater, which is an oil filled radiator style heater. We used that kind of heater in the animals inside quarters when I worked at the SA Zoo. Everybody has access to one side of the heater through hardware cloth. Eventually, I'd like to get quartz or another type of radiant heater that will hang above each tortoise area. I don't plan to do that in this heated house though. It has served its purpose for this winter and kept my tortoises warm enough. It kept my tortoises at about 60 on the coldest nights. It isn't as energy efficient as I'd like to eventually have. It doesn't seem efficient at all, too many cracks.

I kept tabs on the temps with 2 wireless probed thermometers. They weren't expensive and they worked well.

 

[FLGirl41]

I've enjoyed reading this thread. I love the design of your enclosures, and am very envious of your tortoise collection!

 

[nickpanzee]

I've enjoyed reading this thread. I love the design of your enclosures, and am very envious of your tortoise collection!

Thanks


I broke ground today for phase 2: the leopards' lair. I'm making a huge area for my leopard tortoises, aka devourers. It's going to be a couple of large areas with removable walls if needed. I'm going to do this area out of wood instead of cinder blocks. The 2 areas I'm currently planning are going to be 42 ft x 31 ft and 24 ft x 21 ft. I will add on to that as needed. I'm going to water it and put down some seeds for tasty food for them and let that establish before they mow it.

I don't know if I will get anymore leopard tortoises, but the 3 I have devour for sure. There's a reason I named my oldest one Vorax, which is Latin for voracious (or glutton or ravenous, etc.) I am going to keep my smallest leopard tortoise by itself so it can get bigger. It's obvious to me now that the others eat way more than that one because of the great size difference.

 

[l0velesly]

Impressive setup!

 

[bigred]

Looks good, I know that was alot of work

 

[Levi the Leopard]

I have to ask you about that scorpion. It's freaking me out.

Did it hurt your leopard? Could it have hurt him?
"shudder"..... I'm now itchy thinking about finding a scorpion on my tortoise!

Btw, nice pens

 

[nickpanzee]

The scorpion did not hurt my leopard, it was just using her as a warm hide It could have stung her, but it had no reason to. You probably won't find a scorpion on your tortoise. I just happened to be checking out my tortoises and saw it. I will probably never see that again (I hope).

Thanks for all the compliments! It was hard work. I'm not finished yet, but the new areas I have planned should be easier to do.