Miranda Rose
New Member
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2015
- Messages
- 7
Hi,
Working on creating an outdoor enclosure of my Russian Tortoise to use this year as the weather warms up, and I have a few questions.
1. What is the minimum temperature to leave her outdoors at, daytime/nighttime? I have been taking her out in the yard with me when I do chores anytime it is about 60 degrees F or more. Is it okay to have her out in an enclosure all day at that temp?
2. Substrate... indoors, we use coconut coir. Outdoors, the area is just grass right now. I am needing to add a digging barrier, at least around the edges. She does not dig a lot, but I don't want to give her a chance to escape that way. I was thinking of layering up on top of the grass instead of trying to dig out the sod. I would put a layer of chicken wire for security on top of the lawn, then cover with black landscape cloth to kill grass. I would then add a few inches of what? Regular garden soil? Compost? Bark chips? A combo?
She does climb, so two cinderblocks high is a minimum to keep her in, I think.
For night time, I was either going to bring her indoors again, or maybe lock in a "house" made of an animal crate for the night. We don't have coyotes or other large predators, but there could be a cat or raccoon. I think a cat-carrier size crate would keep her safe for just the night time hours (with substrate in it)
here is a picture of the area and a trial set up of the blocks...... Not the final set up. Needs to be measured more accurately so I can fit the blocks in two even layers. Need to fix the substrate. It is around 3 feet wide and 8-10 feet long.
Thanks for your thoughts. I want her to have a safe and healthy place to enjoy the summer weather. (she gets to roam the yard when someone is outside with her).
Working on creating an outdoor enclosure of my Russian Tortoise to use this year as the weather warms up, and I have a few questions.
1. What is the minimum temperature to leave her outdoors at, daytime/nighttime? I have been taking her out in the yard with me when I do chores anytime it is about 60 degrees F or more. Is it okay to have her out in an enclosure all day at that temp?
2. Substrate... indoors, we use coconut coir. Outdoors, the area is just grass right now. I am needing to add a digging barrier, at least around the edges. She does not dig a lot, but I don't want to give her a chance to escape that way. I was thinking of layering up on top of the grass instead of trying to dig out the sod. I would put a layer of chicken wire for security on top of the lawn, then cover with black landscape cloth to kill grass. I would then add a few inches of what? Regular garden soil? Compost? Bark chips? A combo?
She does climb, so two cinderblocks high is a minimum to keep her in, I think.
For night time, I was either going to bring her indoors again, or maybe lock in a "house" made of an animal crate for the night. We don't have coyotes or other large predators, but there could be a cat or raccoon. I think a cat-carrier size crate would keep her safe for just the night time hours (with substrate in it)
here is a picture of the area and a trial set up of the blocks...... Not the final set up. Needs to be measured more accurately so I can fit the blocks in two even layers. Need to fix the substrate. It is around 3 feet wide and 8-10 feet long.
Thanks for your thoughts. I want her to have a safe and healthy place to enjoy the summer weather. (she gets to roam the yard when someone is outside with her).