Redfoot Outdoor Enclosure, Swedish Style...

[Geochelone_Carbonaria]

All planning and drawing has now been made for one of my (two large) spring/summer projects. Have the day off tomorrow and am going to spend three days in my garden and build the frame and fence, so the RF family can enjoy the sun as soon as possible here. The rest will be built as my time allows to... (The other project will be a new "Redfoot Terrarium Room", and I can do that one if there is bad weather, and post it in a separate thread).

I will be posting some more pics later on as the work progress.

Sorry for the drawing scale, it's all made the "metric" way, but the frame will be approx 14 x 25 ft = 320 sqft ish

What do you think of this out there ?

 

[Jessicap]

Wow!!! It looks awesome. Can't wait to see the pictures when you're finished.

 

[CtTortoiseMom]

Wow, amazingly wonderful!!

 

[matt41gb]

I like it! What are your average temperatures in Sweden? How long will your red-foots be able to enjoy the warm weather?

-Matt

 

[harris]

I see you are from the Southern part of Sweden. Are you anywhere near Goteberg? That is where I'm originally from.

 

[Balboa]

Very thorough and well thought out, typically swedish.

About the only thing I can think of adding at this point is a window to the house. I imagine you've already thought of that as it will be situated perfectly for a southern window.

Great Job!

 

[terryo]

I can't wait to see this. It looks like it's going to be spectacular!

 

[luke]

this one should be good.

dont forget the pics!

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

Swedish style looks outstanding!

 

[Jacqui]

Looks great! Can't wait to see it as a finished project. The only thing I might question is, am I seeing your going to put 3 apple trees? I have an apple tree in one of my old enclosures and I really thought about it before I decided to keep the tree, when I started updating that four plex. With apples being something to kinda watch out for with tortoises, I decided it would be okay with my Hingebacks, who would only eat a small bite of any fruit that fell on the ground. Not sure I would want three apple trees dropping fruit to worry about myself in with my redfoots (but then I tend to look for trouble and try to avoid it happening ) Of course if your watchful, it would not be such a big deal either. It was just a tiny concern, but thought I would share it with you.

 

[N2TORTS]

Geo Man, very nicely done! .... The building of hardscapes for out shelled buddys is very rewarding and tons of fun! Looks as though your will have a great "compund*

JD~

 

[dmarcus]

The plans look good, can't wait to see pics of the completed outdoor enclosure.

 

[Geochelone_Carbonaria]

I like it! What are your average temperatures in Sweden? How long will your red-foots be able to enjoy the warm weather?

-Matt

Thanks Matt !

Well, they usually can enjoy the spring, summer and fall rather a lot here, so at least from may to september, but I had the whole family out during the weekend since the sun was very enjoyable and the temp was more than 15 C. So the RF's did enjoy the sunny parts were it was at least 20-25 C !

Since we actually have a lot of all four seasons here, and it also has become more "extreme" weather the last years. It can vary from less than -20 C wintertime and up to more than +30 C during the summer !

But once again as my mentor said, the largest RF's have no problem to stay oudoors down to +10 C, with a weight of 3 kilograms.

And one of my males did actually survive a whole winter outside Gothenburg, since he escaped from the family where he lived before I got him. The family lost him in september and didn't find him until april next year, and a Swedish winter can be a real pain !

But Since I've been building now for three days before the fence was done, I was thinking about making two "houses", with heat lamps. So the RF's can go inside and heat up if they need to ?

Anyway, I have NEVER had my RF's outside during the night, and there is no way I'm going to either without a secure net on top of them !

---

Firstly, I want to thank you all for all your nice words !

Friday was a real pain here, especially since I took the day off to start this thingy. It was cold, very windy and nearly a storm during the morning. But that didn't stop the Swedish Viking from getting up at six o'clock to build a new home for the sleeping RF's in the garage...

Saturday was more comfortable, with lots of sun and 16-17 C here, and soon I was working wearing a t-shirt.

But it was hard labour during friday and saturday for normally an office database administrator ! But I enjoyd this a lot, I can assure you that !!!

When the fence was nearly done, I just had to bring out the RF's for them to enjoy the sun and try it out. And they liked it so much that they even started to enjoy each other (see picture)

Next thing to do is some "shelter house(s)", a cave and a bath. Some hills to climb and and and...

---

I see you are from the Southern part of Sweden. Are you anywhere near Goteberg? That is where I'm originally from.

Sorry to dissapoint you, but I live as far as you can go to the south in Sweden, even south of Malmoe. It's a 300 kilometer drive for me to Gothenburg !

---

Looks great! Can't wait to see it as a finished project. The only thing I might question is, am I seeing your going to put 3 apple trees? I have an apple tree in one of my old enclosures and I really thought about it before I decided to keep the tree, when I started updating that four plex. With apples being something to kinda watch out for with tortoises, I decided it would be okay with my Hingebacks, who would only eat a small bite of any fruit that fell on the ground. Not sure I would want three apple trees dropping fruit to worry about myself in with my redfoots (but then I tend to look for trouble and try to avoid it happening ) Of course if your watchful, it would not be such a big deal either. It was just a tiny concern, but thought I would share it with you.

Good point !

These apple trees are quite old, so they don't give us any fruit anymore, and that's one of the reasons that we decided to place the RF enclosure around them. You can see on the pics that the one to the right is already "gone", and that is where the other ones will go too sooner or later.

Thanks for letting me know !

 

[HLogic]

Very nice job! I really like the alternating pattern. Mine look like plywood & 4x4's - oh wait, they are plywood & 4x4's...

 

[Geochelone_Carbonaria]

Thanks ! With the right tool, you can do anything...

Now, I've just bought a concrete pipe (is that what you call it in U.S?) that I'm going to pick up tomorrow with the horse trailer. The diameter is 20 inches and the length is 40-50 inches. I'm going to bury it half way in the enclosure, so it will be the start of the cave. Then loads of soil on top of it.

There is just ONE BIG PROBLEM that I didn't think of :

How the h--- am I going to get it over my newly built fence ? It probably weigh over half a ton kilograms... Hahaha

This really gave me something to think about during this (probably) sleepless night ?

 

[Yvonne G]

Uh-oh! Looks like you'll have to tear down a section of fence to get that culvert pipe in there. But what a good idea for a hide entrance. They'll love it.

 

[Balboa]

LOL

Don't you love those little unforseen "oopses"

My solution, a couple friends and a couple beers.

 

[Geochelone_Carbonaria]

Uh-oh! Looks like you'll have to tear down a section of fence to get that culvert pipe in there. But what a good idea for a hide entrance. They'll love it.

Yep, that's probably the way I'll do. I'm glad I'm a proud owner of three electrical screwdrivers !

Thanks, I thought they could need something to cool down in, my garage sounds like a chicken farm at the moment. I think spring (or love) is in the air ? :-D

---

LOL

Don't you love those little unforseen "oopses"

My solution, a couple friends and a couple beers.

That sounds like a much easier solution, so now I have even more things to consider, thanks !

 

[Jacqui]

The fence is really pretty. I'd vote for trying the friends. I mean, didn't you really want to show it off to them any how?

 

[Geochelone_Carbonaria]

The fence is really pretty. I'd vote for trying the friends. I mean, didn't you really want to show it off to them any how?

Thanks, and yes I would, but not YET ! But it will be much more fun, than me doing it solo ?