Help! I have recently moved house and unexpectedly become the owner of a marginated tortoise which weighs in at 1640g and is about 2.5 years old.
At the moment, he / she?? is in my garage with a heat / light lamp and has been like this for a few days (pic attached) but i need to get my act together so would really appreciate views.
MY PLAN
Phase 1: By the end of today it will be moved to the large cardboard box which i am about to go out to buy lots of earth stuff to put in it. Picture is attached. sorry it's upside down
Phase 2: Eventually (how urgently will depend upon responses) she / he will be put outside into the 'forever' home - picture attached.
So - there is work to do. My thoughts on which i really need some expert guidance are: Re Phase 1:
At the moment, he / she?? is in my garage with a heat / light lamp and has been like this for a few days (pic attached) but i need to get my act together so would really appreciate views.
MY PLAN
Phase 1: By the end of today it will be moved to the large cardboard box which i am about to go out to buy lots of earth stuff to put in it. Picture is attached. sorry it's upside down
Phase 2: Eventually (how urgently will depend upon responses) she / he will be put outside into the 'forever' home - picture attached.
So - there is work to do. My thoughts on which i really need some expert guidance are: Re Phase 1:
- Is this cardboard box in any way acceptable for the reasonable short term or do i need to almost immediately get cracking on the outdoor enclosure. Please note I am in Exeter, it's wet and cold and will get worse over winter. YIt will not be easy to put phase 2 in motion right now but equally i appreciate i have animal welfare responsibilities.
- if the box is acceptable in short term, other than several bags of earth marked as suitable for tortoises (which i am going to buy now) and some rock-like things to break it up a bit, a heat / UV lamp what else will it need? Can it live in the garage in this box? If so, do i need to buy heat pads and extra UV lights for her to do so? Moving her outside on sunny days is easy but remember i'm not living anywhere sunny. The box is pretty big but if the garage is out of the question I can move it to my living room but it would be tricky and i'd rather not. Welfare is important however so I will if necessary.
- I am happy to put time and effort and money into the outdoor enclosure. It is where she will spend the rest of (my) life and I would like it to be perfect. Glazing, heat lamps, security, everything - tell me what would you do if you had a (reasonably) unlimited budget. Things I can't change: in exeter there is a lot of rain, it's not massively cold, occasional snow but the garden is due south facing.