Percy's Winter Enclosure

[janiedough]

My house has a side utility shed where the gas water heater is. The room is always a bit warmer than the outside, but the only thing the wall is made of is thin boards. It's not very insulated and the cracks between the peices of wood are not sealed so it still gets cold.

I put an old door on that side of the inside of the shed and then I lined it with tin peices. I put just a regular basking light in there.

My questions: do I have to put something on the floor if I don't care how nasty it gets? should I be worried if there is some dust in that room - I cleaned it out as much as I could, but it still smells musty.

Do yall think he will be able to drink out of this water container?

Do yall think that basking light will be enough for him?


There is a doggy door in the room that leads outside. Right now, tonight, I have it blocked off because I want him to get accustomed to being in that room at night. BUT I need to build a ramp from the doggy door to the outside. Any ideas??? I was going to use that tile turned over for the rough side, but should I worry about him falling off of it?

Thanks ahead of time. My roommate joked that I was posting this for approval, but it's true - I want approval, tips, etc!

 

[mctlong]

Percy's a very lucky tortoise.

 

[tortoisenerd]

Does the floor feel cold? If so, some vinyl tile could warm it up again and be even more easy to wipe. I don't know about Sulcatas drinking from bowls. I would test him if you could as I think it could vary. What is the temperature gradient? Looking good! Do you want both a warm hide and a cool hide, or is that hide his preferred temperature? I don't think you should worry about him falling off the tile. It's not high enough to hurt him from what I can see (how high is it though?). I would just attach something securely so it can't get bumped. Not sure if the tile meets that criteria. Best wishes.

 

[janiedough]

Does the floor feel cold? If so, some vinyl tile could warm it up again and be even more easy to wipe. I don't know about Sulcatas drinking from bowls. I would test him if you could as I think it could vary. What is the temperature gradient? Looking good! Do you want both a warm hide and a cool hide, or is that hide his preferred temperature? I don't think you should worry about him falling off the tile. It's not high enough to hurt him from what I can see (how high is it though?). I would just attach something securely so it can't get bumped. Not sure if the tile meets that criteria. Best wishes.

Thanks!

I asked the people at the hardware place if they thought vinyl floor would make the floor any warmer and they told me no - which makes sense to me...i just assumed people put it down to protect their floor.

that and it is so humid here that the floor would curl up.

i mean what do most of yall use to provide a heat source outside - besides those pig blanket things??

 

[Yvonne G]

You could find a plastic or rubber runner that fits the floor. I don't use substrate inside my tortoise sheds because its easier for me to pick up the poop on a bare floor (rubber mat). But if you used something that would absorb the urine, it would be much better than a bare floor. I'm really seriously considering a substrate for my Aldabran shed. I can't hose it out because I made a mistake and have a 4x4 across the doorway and the shed is built on that 4x4. So the inside gets pretty wet with urine. I'm thinking of maybe trying the aspen bedding on their floor.

I use lights to heat up the sheds. They DO have pig blankets, and a certain amount of heat comes off of them, but the lights do a fine job of heating the air.

Maggie has a oil-filled radiator-type electric heater in her shed. It has two settings, and on the lower setting its pretty economical to run. You just have to protect it from the tortoise.

Yvonne

 

[janiedough]

You could find a plastic or rubber runner that fits the floor. I don't use substrate inside my tortoise sheds because its easier for me to pick up the poop on a bare floor (rubber mat). But if you used something that would absorb the urine, it would be much better than a bare floor. I'm really seriously considering a substrate for my Aldabran shed. I can't hose it out because I made a mistake and have a 4x4 across the doorway and the shed is built on that 4x4. So the inside gets pretty wet with urine. I'm thinking of maybe trying the aspen bedding on their floor.

I use lights to heat up the sheds. They DO have pig blankets, and a certain amount of heat comes off of them, but the lights do a fine job of heating the air.

Maggie has a oil-filled radiator-type electric heater in her shed. It has two settings, and on the lower setting its pretty economical to run. You just have to protect it from the tortoise.

Yvonne

thanks! where do you get that rubber mat type stuff? i went to lowes but it was like $150 for a 6'x4' mat

it is inside a shed so i was thinking maybe putting a space heater in there.

yvonne - any criticism from you or maggie i will listen to. you guys tell me!

 

[Yvonne G]

I buy my horse stall rubber mat at a feed supply place just outside of town. Its about 6' x4' and only $40 a mat. Its 3/4 of an inch thick and very hard to cut. I've used a circular saw to cut it, but it binds and smokes BAD!!

I like your inventiveness in using the shed for your sulcata. The only thing I would have done differently is to put up the styrofoam insulation sheets all around the inside walls.

Yvonne

 

[janiedough]

I buy my horse stall rubber mat at a feed supply place just outside of town. Its about 6' x4' and only $40 a mat. Its 3/4 of an inch thick and very hard to cut. I've used a circular saw to cut it, but it binds and smokes BAD!!

I like your inventiveness in using the shed for your sulcata. The only thing I would have done differently is to put up the styrofoam insulation sheets all around the inside walls.

Yvonne

ok - I am going to have to go hunt down some of that rubber mat - I wanted some I just couldn't find the right thing

I had some Styrofoam ready to use but my landlord was worried it might be too flammable considering there is a water heater in there...don't know how much merit there is in that, but I didn't want to **** her off.


What about the water bowl?

 

[Maggie Cummings]

Take that styrofoam insulation and line the shed with it. Then cut a piece of plywood and put that around the bottom where Percy has access to the styrofoam, because I promise you he will bite and eat it. Bob did.
So if you line the walls with that styrofoam then with plywood that should help some with the heat. Then I'd get a pig blanket... Bob sleeps on his every night and when I moved it to a different corner (Bob's is a triangle) he panicked when his mat was moved, it took him some to figure it out. Also just leave the water bowl there, it might take him some time, but he will figure that out and he'll drink when he gets thirsty. It took Bob a couple of weeks to figure that out too. If I were you I would go out there about 8PM and stand on his floor in your bare feet and see if it feels cold to your feet. Then if it does you will need to try to invent something to make a warmer floor. I would put old plywood on the floor trying to warm it up some. I hope we have helped you, the heater is a DeLonghi. Right now my Home Depot has them on sale for $35. I swear by this heater I love it, I just had to put it up so Bob couldn't bump it over. You may need to chain it to the wall or protect it somehow...

 

[janiedough]

You may need to chain it to the wall or protect it somehow...

LOL! aren't sulcatas the best???

thanks Maggie! I am going to see about a pig blanket. Although I was thinking of getting another bulb - like a heat emitter or something instead.

But you guys would go with a pig blanket?

I know Yvonne said something about the little ones not knowing to get off of it...??

Also I am not sure what to build to get him to go in and out of the shed. For these first few days I decided just to make him stay in there most the day and night so he would get used to it. But now I want him to know he can go in and out.

---

he has to stay about 60* right?

It got down to 40* but the coldest it got in the shed was 58*.

 

[janiedough]

so he got through the winter! he is moving around fast and growing!

thank yall so much!!!

I do regret cleaning out the banana leaves because when I cut ours down after the winter during the spring he LIVED in them and he ate most of them, so I definitely think I will try to keep some in there next winter.

 

[reptylefreek]

very glad to hear he had a good winter... so there is a before pic of him in the begining of the thread... how about an after pic? would love to see him now!

 

[Shelly]

I buy my horse stall rubber mat at a feed supply place..... I've used a circular saw to cut it, but it binds and smokes BAD!!

Try using a box cutter/razor blade.