Undergrounds in indoor enclosures

[SarahChelonoidis]

@Tom had an amazing thread back in 2012 where he showed an underground sublayer in a hatching Sulcata habitat: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/indoor-underground-housing.39146/

Have people been trying this since? This seems like a brilliant idea and I want to build one of these - I wonder if any issues come up with an indoor underground layer that I should be aware of?

I'm thinking of doing this in an elongata habitat. They're not borrowers like sulcata, but have been known to spend a substantial part of their time in some seasons occupying the burrows of other animals.

 

[Tom]

@Tom had an amazing thread back in 2012 where he showed an underground sublayer in a hatching Sulcata habitat: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/indoor-underground-housing.39146/

Have people been trying this since? This seems like a brilliant idea and I want to build one of these - I wonder if any issues come up with an indoor underground layer that I should be aware of?

I'm thinking of doing this in an elongata habitat. They're not borrowers like sulcata, but have been known to spend a substantial part of their time in some seasons occupying the burrows of other animals.

My baby sulcatas hardly ever went into the underground portion. I abandoned the idea. It might work just fine with other species, but baby sulcatas avoid any sort of hole in the ground.

 

[SarahChelonoidis]

Good to know; thanks.

 

[Bogie=babyDINO]

I wonder if both levels are well lit and warm if they would utilize the underground space....? I'm getting ready to build a new habitat with toms design and then I saw his two leveled design. I would like to make it this way if my tort would use it. I'm concerned about cleaning also and how difficult it would make it having two levels.

 

[NDevon]

I wonder if both levels are well lit and warm if they would utilize the underground space....? I'm getting ready to build a new habitat with toms design and then I saw his two leveled design. I would like to make it this way if my tort would use it. I'm concerned about cleaning also and how difficult it would make it having two levels.

If they were lit doesn't it then just become a two level enclosure? Not being argumentative, a genuine question. I read Tom's original thread with interest over the weekend, and was considering how it was different to multi-level enclosures, I concluded that it was because it was a dark damp burrow rather than anoer level.

I'm expanding the enclosure for my Cherryheads, it is multi-level so they have more usable space on the same footprint, I'm using as much floor as I can but I have a limit. By making the enclosure vertical as well as horizontal they should have a better quality of life. I'm making the ramps fairly shallow so it's not too unnatural - but let's be honest they are in a wooden box in a house in the UK, it's pretty far from nature anyway.

I have all the vertical space I need, although I don't want it too tall or my daughter won't be able to see in it, but I can stretch it a little. Watching their habits over the past week a little more closely I see that two of them go to the lowest point in the current enclosure, in the cooler darker end and burrow as deep as they can - not very far really. Redfoots are not big hole diggers, but I guess they are bedding down for warmth and security.

So looking at what Tom did I'm looking to have one darker cooler point of the enclosure go down a gently but not insignificant slope with a small overhang above and it will be filled with coco soil and a lot of sphagnum moss. It will be open enough to get plenty of the natural airflow from the rest of the enclosure, and warm enough, but also dark and it will hopefully feel like a burrow. I have a few options I'm looking at, but that's the basics. Ultimately what I'm doing is raising the floor up so a I can then angle it down making a lower level at one end, rather than building up with a lot of substrate so they can dig down into it. They will have plenty of depth to dig in, but assisted by he way I build it will feel like they have more of a burrow.

I've done a really bad job of explaining that. I will be taking pics of the progress and sharing them so people can see. I think it will be sued, just because of where I observe them trying to find a comfortable secure place to sleep currently. In the enclosure they have several places to hide that I have built in, but find their own natural hides in undergrowth and substrate. The extension will add around 5 times the usable space for them and many more places to hide out.

 

[Bogie=babyDINO]

That sounds really cool! Definitely post pictures. I suppose you are right about putting light on each level does just make it a multi leveled enclosure and doesn't give the feeling of a natural burrow. I just think it's strange why toms hatchlings didn't use it very much. Funny little/big/huge creatures they can be! I'm still deciding whether to make my sully's new enclosure two levels or not. I like the benefits but it also seems like it would be a lot harder to clean.

 

[NDevon]

Cleaning and access is something that's really guiding my new build. It's too easy to make a hide that you then can't get to, currently I have 4 babies in a vivarium and when it's time to soak them there is an area they all love to hide away and I really struggle to reach them. That's probably why they hide there, but it's made me realise I need to make it accessible.

I will post pics once it's underway, not sure it's anything like Tom's idea, I guess it has elements of it, you can all decide when you see it.