Pics of Tonys room..

[Tony the tank]

Here are some pics of my tort room.. Still needs to be finished.. Need more UVB bulbs.. Waiting on the glass storm door..

And maybe a heat mat.. ( if it's safe to put with hay?)

All the lights and heater is chained to the ceiling..

Thoughts, opinions.. Recommendations..






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[ascott]

No pics are here???

 

[Tony the tank]

Pics should be there now...The ipad app seems to have some flaws

 

[FranklinTturtle]

That looks great. You have got them spoil now. Do have photo of the outside of the building?

 

[Tony the tank]

Its not a Shed..Its a room I built in my basement..I didnt get a picture but The room has its own door for them to walk right out to the yard..

I thought about a Shed..But then I would have to go out in the cold and check and feed them... Not to mention I would always be concerned if the heaters failed.. I have ducted the house heat into the Room..And have the Oil radiator for supplemental heat..

I will be installing a Glass storm door.. So I can check on them without actually bothering them..

The floor is raised to keep them off the cold concrete..

 

[FranklinTturtle]

Oh that sound prefect for both you and them. That a win win situation. Your tortoise's got lucky when you pick them out.

 

[ascott]

Very awesome

 

[Torty Mom]

Woo hooo looks awesome! You did an fabulous job! LOVE IT!!!

 

[Timmytort]

Looks nice, what are the dimensions and where are you located. The bigger one is really smooth, not that the smaller isn't good looking also but the bigger one is probably one of the smoothest captive raised I've seen. How big are they?

 

[Turtle Guru]

Looks great

 

[AnthonyC]

Looks great! Makes me wish I had a room to spare!!

 

[Maggie Cummings]

Both torts look pretty good. The smaller one as I'm sure you know is slightly pyramided, but the bigger one is nice and smooth, good job!
Your lights look too far away. They should be 12 to 18 inches away from the highest point on the tortoises carapace. And I think you'll be sorry about having hay spread all over the floor. That means you will be forever picking up wet hay or poopie hay or hay in the poop. Haha. It looks nice, I'd be interested in seeing what the rest of the room looks like. Are you going to put a pig blanket in the sleeping box? It looks kinda like Bob's box only smaller...anyhow, good job it looks great.

 

[Tony the tank]

Maggie.. The lights are 22" from the floor.. So would put it in the 12" a 10" from the shell...As for the hide..I borrowed the idea from you( hope you don't mind)..the hide is 26" deep and 35" wide..as for the hay.. I find it really simple and easier clean up... Just before lights out I go down and scoop out the droppings... Takes less than a minute..best part is it doesn't get smeared all over the place and they like to borrow in it... (I brought 3 bales of Timothy hay and 2 bales of 2nd cut...that should get me through a complete change every month for a while..)

As for the pig blanket.. Would like to..just not sure how hot it gets considering the hay substrate??

Timmytort.. The was going to be 15x20... After discussing it with the wife(did I tell you I have to finish the other side of the basement now ;() it ended up being 13x17...

Tony is 9yrs old and 48lbs..The girl is 4yrs old and 11lbs.. She is pyramided but not as bad as you would expect considering the person I adopted it from kept her loose in the house 24/7 and fed her just romaine when she would show herself..

I need to do some more work..more UVB lights and I need to find a light controller that will bring the lights up gradually in the morning(like the sunrise).. instead of bang all on..and an easier way of maintaining humidity..

 

[CtTortoiseMom]

Wow, great job!! They are lucky tort's!!

 

[lynnedit]

I think mercury vapor UVB bulbs are all on or all off because they are ballasted. They can't be dimmed. One option is to have them on timers and have one come on first, then the second 1/2 to 1 hour later. Plain basking lights can be on a dimmerstat.
You can verify the temps in their basking area with a temp gun, and adjust the light heights accordingly.
I think pig blankets are great for larger torts, but you don't want substrate or hay on top of them, I believe. Maggie or Yvonne should have more information on this. You could just keep the hay away from inside and around the outside of the hide, of course they will drag a bit in and out, now and then. I guess the other option is to install the pig blanket on the inside wall of the hide.
It looks really good!
Great idea to have it in the basement and then you can get to them w/o freezing!

 

[Tony the tank]

I have timers now... 1 room light comes on at 6am.. Second room light comes on 20 minutes later.. Basking lights come on 6:30..

I had a system installed about 9 yrs ago for my parrots that would mimic dawn bringing the room lights on gradually and at nite it would dim them slowly giving the birds time to settle in... It even had a function for moonlight ...

If I can't find the same setup was thinking of installing large UVB lights on the ceiling( found a place that sells the ones for the zoos).. Then installing 3 other circuits with low wattage 40-60 100 bulbs that would go on one by one before the large UVB bulbs kick in... Thus creating the dawn effect and the shut off reversed causing the dusk effect..[/i]

 

[lynnedit]

Wow. If you do that, we need a video, sounds amazing.
Come to think of it, it already looks amazing

 

[Yvonne G]

Wow! Nice job!! I love the way you capitalized the "R" when you talk about Tony's Room! the Room.