Outdoor enclosure for cold temperature zones

[julietteq]

View attachment 110520 View attachment 110521 Hi there,

I have 2 leopards and use to have them inside on an open table. However, they have been growing fast and I can no longer offer them enough space inside my house, I thus made them an outdoor enclosure on my Balcony in NYC. It is made up out of 2 styrofoam boxes that are connected to eachother. The "lower" box has heatpanels against the walls and the "higher" box has 2 heatlights inside. The inside area is temperature controlled and has a temp between 87 - 85 degrees F. The styrofoam boxes are great insulation and even with the coldest storm the temperature holds !

As an outside area I used this plastic greenhouse I got on Amazon for $35. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000NCTGQE/?tag=exoticpetnetw-20
I put the greenhouse on its side, with the opening on top. I filled up the greenhouse with soil, spaghnum moss and seeded it with grass and weeds from the carolina tortoise supply.

Inside the greenhouse I have 2 ceramic heat emitters and 2 UV-B basking lights. It keeps it nice and warm all winter long!

The total costs for this enclosure without the lights and ceramic heat emitters is around $75 which I feel is very reasonable. In summer I take out the lights and heating elements and zip open the top of the greenhouse to let the sun come in !

Hope you can get ideas from this and wishing everybody a happy holiday season and a great 2015 !]

 

[Yvonne G]

That's great. I would have liked to have seen the tortoises too, though. You should fix the lights so they shine straight down. You lose quite a bit of heat from them when they point sideways, and if they're the Mercury Vapor Bulbs, you shorten the life of the bulb unless they're pointing straight down.

So the styrofoam boxes are the hiding place? You are very inventive. That seems to work very well in a small space. I never would have thought to use one of those greenhouse thingeys in that manner.

 

[julietteq]

That's great. I would have liked to have seen the tortoises too, though. You should fix the lights so they shine straight down. You lose quite a bit of heat from them when they point sideways, and if they're the Mercury Vapor Bulbs, you shorten the life of the bulb unless they're pointing straight down.

The reason I did that is because otherwise they came down too low and it was too hot to bask. I cover them with tim foil on the top so the heat goes down again. I put the light across from eachother so in the "middle" the rays meet and create a really nice baskingplace for them.

So the styrofoam boxes are the hiding place? You are very inventive. That seems to work very well in a small space. I never would have thought to use one of those greenhouse thingeys in that manner.

Thank you for the compliment !

I will take pics of the torts tomorrow and add them to the link