new enclosure

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jobeanator

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well im stumped right now on what i should get for my sulcatas. i want to get something bigger for my 4-5 inch sulcata mortimer and my year old sulcata sheldon. my last enclosure for them seemed to not high enough to keep heat in. should i just build a tortoise table or use a book shelf or what should i do? i want something that keeps heat in also, since i think thats what led mortimer getting a respiratory infection. i wanna find or build something cheap for my tortoises so any help would be great!:D
 

Sulcata Lover

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Hey,
I'll post the pics Friday or Saturday.. I got just about everything at Home Depot and OSH
 

Sulcata Lover

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Hello,
Ok, here are the pics... Sorry for the delay, had some trouble with my camera. The table is 8ft. long by 3ft. wide. As you can see from the pics I have a separator in the middle. I have this because "PEEK A BOO" is about 5lbs bigger than "ROCKY". The Substrate is a 50/50 mix of Eco-Earth, and Sphangum Moss. This seems to hold Humidity at the proper range. Im using 2 90 Watt halogen floods for heat and 2 ZooMed 10.0 UVB Bulbs for UVB. The UVB's are housed in a silver reflective light assembly. Why silver? The rays reflect off it and penetrate further into the enclosure. Get them at Walmart, they are rated for a 250 watt bulb, and are about 10 bucks cheaper. Since the table is so large, I had to get radiant heat to the cool spots to keep the cool areas between 70-80. What I did is get an electric heater from Home Depot and heat the room. We arent using this room for anything so at night I just set the heater to 75 and it holds the temp of the room. If they want to get warmer, they can go bask for awhile. The table has a built in smoke alarm, as well as remote temp sensors. The temp sensor is in the coldest part of the table. As long as this temp doesnt get below 70 Im happy. I have the receiver mounted in the kitchen, so I can see what the temp in the room/and the table is just by looking at the display. This way I dont have to go all the way to back of the house to constantly check.
Let me know what you think!!!

Jeff

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u214/sulcatalover/DSC02224.jpg
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u214/sulcatalover/DSC02225.jpg
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u214/sulcatalover/DSC02226.jpg
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u214/sulcatalover/DSC02227.jpg
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u214/sulcatalover/DSC02148.jpg
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u214/sulcatalover/DSC02152.jpg
 

jobeanator

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jeff,
i absolutley love what you built for your sulcatas!! your tortoises are wayyy bigger than mine, and it seems like they have tons of room to roam around in for excercise and such. im defently doing what you did, since it looks alot better than mine. i should post pics of my enclosure, which is embarassing compared to yours lol. do they bask alot with your lights? mine are always out basking. one thing i want is it to keep in heat, is your enclosure efficient in keeping in heat?
 

Sulcata Lover

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Hey,
Yeah it holds the heat very well. Its so big that I decided to heat the room for the gradiant heat. Since Electricity is cheaper than gas in the winter, I havent seen that much of an impact on my bill yet. The table is very easy to biuld. if you followed that link from an earlier post, you can get the plans. I used 4x4 posts for the legs of the table instead of 2x4's like the plans called for.

Jeff
 

Cam

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Nice build, and great looking torts!
 

K9KidsLove

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Hi...Nice table.
You might want to make another hide with damp "Mosser Lee" sphagnum moss (mine came from Walmart) so they can have a humid hide so they don't continue pyramiding. It looks to be mild now but you should deal with it before it gets bad. You could also plant some grass seed for them to munch on.
Great job
Patsy
 

Sulcata Lover

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Hello,
Im assuming your refering to the larger Sulcata in the photo's (Peek A Boo)
Yes, she does have some minor pyramiding. She was a rescue we took in last summer. Well, we call her a rescue because she was in a 10 gallon tank in a pet store. I have Sea Sponges attatched to the upper inside of thier hide's. I moisten them every other day. This keeps the Humidity in the normal range. That and a proper diet, exercise, and some supplements, we hope to see the pyramiding be less pronounced as she grows. She's only 5lbs. (small for these guys!)
 
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