Outdoor tort enclosure—how to questions from yours truly

Joined
Jan 5, 2019
Messages
48
Location (City and/or State)
Illinois
hi!

I’ve owned my Russian, Delilah, for 5 full months now. I got her from a shelter. It’s unknown how old she is, but she’s a chungus—huge at 9” and about 3-3.5 lbs (need to weigh her but I’m guessing).

I DO know Delilah was kept indoors in a way too small enclosure. She prefers her 8’ by 4’ enclosure now.

I am making her a large enclosed outdoor one however. It’s 10’ by 5’ (a huge blowup kiddie pool w strong vinyl). I cannot let her out in the yard because we spray for weeds. However I bring her out 2-3x a week to the abandoned golf course away from the yard.

I’ve been reading about naturalistic keeping, and I do want to know your opinions.

1. How deep should the sub really be? Is 12” or 14” really enough?

2. Naturalistically speaking I “should” leave her outside heat round and let her hibernate (should she have even deeper digging room). However I live right outside of Chicago. It got to -50 F in January. That temp would surely kill a Russian tort even if she were 4’ in the ground. Correct? I want to let her live her best but I can’t physically leave her outside all the Time!
Plus our weather is notoriously, horribly fickle. It’s been 70 degrees in May—then 30 and snowing. What does everyone think?

3. I used several bags of dirt and cypress and the enclosure isn’t even 1/4 full yet at the depth I want it to be. Do most cheap mulches at hardware stores have toxic pine in them? I’d rather do this cheaply but I’ll do what I need to.

4. I have a few hides, wood and plastic caves for her to hide under, and am also going to plant some stuff in the dirt areas of the enclosure. What else can I do?

Thanks in advance!
 

Tom

The Dog Trainer
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 9, 2010
Messages
63,265
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Southern California
First, stop spraying for the weeds. Those weeds are free tortoise food and better than anything money can buy. Plus those chemicals are toxic to you, your family, and every living thing that comes into contact with it. I pull the bad weeds out by hand and try to re-seed and encourage the "good" weeds.

Your questions:
1. 12-14" is plenty.
2. A 5x10' inflatable kiddie pool is not, and can never be, anything close to "natural". Don't worry about being au naturale, and instead make sure you are providing optimal temperature and conditions in your artificial environment in this land that is foreign to your steppe tortoise. I would keep the indoor 4x8' one going and use the outdoor enclosure for fair weather. If you choose to hibernate, it should be done indoors under the correct controlled conditions. We can talk more about that in early fall. Question: What are you doing for drainage if it rains? A kiddie pool is meant to hold water. If you stop spraying toxic chemical outside, you could build a super cool larger enclosure with a temperature controlled shelter and then leave the tortoise outside on a lot more days.
3. You can use regular dirt if you can find some that isn't tainted with chemicals. Usually I tell people to use the regular outside dirt, but you'll have to find a "clean" source.
4. In addition to what you've already got, I use fallen logs, big rocks, pine boughs and lots of plantings. Plant some hostas, rose of sharon, pumpkin or squashes, etc... for shelter and food.
 
Joined
Jan 5, 2019
Messages
48
Location (City and/or State)
Illinois
First, stop spraying for the weeds. Those weeds are free tortoise food and better than anything money can buy. Plus those chemicals are toxic to you, your family, and every living thing that comes into contact with it. I pull the bad weeds out by hand and try to re-seed and encourage the "good" weeds.

Your questions:
1. 12-14" is plenty.
2. A 5x10' inflatable kiddie pool is not, and can never be, anything close to "natural". Don't worry about being au naturale, and instead make sure you are providing optimal temperature and conditions in your artificial environment in this land that is foreign to your steppe tortoise. I would keep the indoor 4x8' one going and use the outdoor enclosure for fair weather. If you choose to hibernate, it should be done indoors under the correct controlled conditions. We can talk more about that in early fall. Question: What are you doing for drainage if it rains? A kiddie pool is meant to hold water. If you stop spraying toxic chemical outside, you could build a super cool larger enclosure with a temperature controlled shelter and then leave the tortoise outside on a lot more days.
3. You can use regular dirt if you can find some that isn't tainted with chemicals. Usually I tell people to use the regular outside dirt, but you'll have to find a "clean" source.
4. In addition to what you've already got, I use fallen logs, big rocks, pine boughs and lots of plantings. Plant some hostas, rose of sharon, pumpkin or squashes, etc... for shelter and food.

Not sure I can “stop”. It’s my family’s property, not mine. I’m 23 and don’t have money for my own property.

1. Cool.

2. True. I’ve figured out the drainage part though. The pool has a large drainage hole and I’m sloping the substrate massively towards that hole.

3. I get unfertilized dirt from a hardware store, but mulch IS cheaper and I’m on a budget. If I need dirt, I need dirt. If mulch is always going to have some toxic pine in it (if it isn’t expensive reptile mulch), I’ll buy dirt, no questions. I’m just not sure the mulch they label as cypress is actually 100% cypress.

4. Planing on adding plants, pumpkin is a great idea!
 

mark1

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2015
Messages
1,932
Location (City and/or State)
ohio
it's really not safe to try and hibernate a turtle above ground outside , no matter how deep you make the substrate , the air temp will contact the soil on 3 sides , versus one side on natural ground …….. they usually dig down near edges , would possibly put the tortoise within inches of air temp , the entire substrate content of the pool would most likely freeze solid if your winters are anywhere near what we get in northeast ohio ? at best the soil temps would fluctuate much faster than the natural ground .
 
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