Newly Finished Indoor EBT Enclosure for Winters

Status
Not open for further replies.

stillframeband

Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Aug 22, 2012
Messages
48
Location (City and/or State)
Arkansas
Ok, I was trying to wait until the grass had grown in, but I couldn’t stand it! So, here’s my 6 x 2 x 2 indoor enclosure for winters.

First, here’s some pics of Bug, my 4 yr old EBT:
Bug1.jpg


Bug2resize.jpg


And, here’s some pics of the finished enclosure:
viv9resize.jpg


viv12REDO.jpg


I did a hydroton pellet/mesh base, with 4-6” of eco-earth/orchid bark/leaf litter (sterilized), and added an isopod colony to help keep things clean (I hope they breed faster than he finds em ! ). The base layer seems to be helping out greatly with humidity and soil aridity, so far!
The background is GreatStuff expanding foam & the same substrates I used for the bedding; the same technique the frog people typically use .
The tub is the TurtleTub III from turtletub.com, with a Marineland C-160 filtering the water. I’d initially planned to make a waterfall, but had too many problems with leaking, so the waterfall in the corner got repurposed into a planter .
The hide and waterfa…er, planter!...I made from Styrofoam, grout, and Shields-All sealer, using the techniques on lizard-landscapes.com. As for the enclosure itself, it’s an almagamation of a design plan I found online for snake enclosures, plus some extra things I wanted to add in (the mesh top/ hinged lid, 8” litter dam/view obstruction from the plexi, ect.). The whole box is ¾” plywood, and I put a pond liner in the entire base before everything else went in just to make sure I didn’t have issues with the moisture affecting the wood.
For lighting, I’m running 2 ReptiSun 5.0’s, a 150W bask (w/dimmer so I can regulate it), and a 75W moonlight bulb. After some fiddling, I think I’ve got it dialed in just right; the bask sits at 95F, thermal gradient goes down to 80F on the hide end, and the hide itself is staying around 78F.
It’s probably overkill, but I figure that it’s due to get 50 + years worth of use, and I wanted something that would look nice since it had to take up so much room!! He’ll still spend summers outside, but hopefully this solves winter from here on out . What do you guys think?


Didn't wanna overload the post limit, here's some more:

viv2.jpg


viv10.jpg


It wasn't planted yet here, but it shows the hood off and the lid:
viv1.jpg


:)
 

stillframeband

Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Aug 22, 2012
Messages
48
Location (City and/or State)
Arkansas
Mky2k said:
That is awesome! All that for just one turtle? He's gonna love it! :D

Thanks!! Kinda overkill, I know; I just figured it'd be cheaper to do it once all the way than to keep coming up with different setups...at least that was the initial idea anyway, haha! I think the grasses will take enough to let him check it out this weekend; he may bulldoze it all flat, but I'm hoping the size of it will let one part heal while he's tearing up another :)
 

Yvonne G

Old Timer
TFO Admin
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
93,389
Location (City and/or State)
Clovis, CA
That is so pretty! Very inventive and natural-looking.
 

webskipper

Member
Tortoise Club
5 Year Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2009
Messages
641
Location (City and/or State)
AZ
Cool. Are those real plants?
 

stillframeband

Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Aug 22, 2012
Messages
48
Location (City and/or State)
Arkansas
webskipper said:
Cool. Are those real plants?

Thanks! Yes, all of the big ones are Petco specials :), the $2 ones that are safe for reptiles; I've just had them for about a year so they've grown up a bit. I also planted some tortoise grazing mix sporadically all over it; it's coming up pretty nicely so far! I don't know how much of that he'll actually eat (not much I'm guessing), but I wanted some cover over all of it and figured that was my safest bet. I still have a couple hanging plants to add, I just haven't split them yet! :)
 

Moozillion

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Apr 26, 2012
Messages
10,744
Location (City and/or State)
Louisiana, USA
And live the pics of Bug- looks like a little attitude there! :)

That should be "I love" the pics, not "live" the pics! :p
 

terryo

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Aug 24, 2007
Messages
8,975
Location (City and/or State)
Staten Island, New York
I think that would look fine in any living room. As for a Winter home for a Box Turtle, it's FANTASTIC!! Absolutely beautiful, and your little Eastern is growing just beautifully. I'm very impressed!
 

stillframeband

Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Aug 22, 2012
Messages
48
Location (City and/or State)
Arkansas
Thanks very much everyone, I really appreciate it! :)

I'll post some more pics in a day or so when the grass fills in more...does anyone have any tips on that, by chance? It's coming up really quickly but I think it's a little sparse right now; think I should try re-seeding it, or will it bulk out on its own?

It's the 'tortoise grazing mix' from Carolina Pet Supply, btw; really nice stuff so far, if anyone has a need for forage seed I'd recommend it highly!
 

stillframeband

Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Aug 22, 2012
Messages
48
Location (City and/or State)
Arkansas
Just an update now that the grass has grown in a little:

grass1.jpg


grass3.jpg


grass4.jpg


grass2.jpg




I think that next spring I might try to plant honeysuckle along the back wall to fill it in, but I'll have to research that; I don't know anything about how it well it would do...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

New Posts

Top