Winter Blahs....

[chipperchip]

Hi, I live in NE OH and of course, due to our crazy weather, Chip my RF is in his indoor "condo" from mid-September through June of the year. It is roughly 9 months before he can go outside again.

This past summer was spent searching for Chip the escape artist. Every outdoor enclosure I created for him, he managed to escape. This led me to only let him out when I was at home and could monitor him hourly to make sure he was still safely tucked away. Needless to say, his outdoor time wasn't all that great for him this past summer. Plus I think he was reaching sexual maturity and was trying to get out to look for love.

I am inquiring if anyone has any ideas on how to keep him mentally stimulated through the long winter ahead. He is in a box that is roughly 5' x 2' x 18" tall and has 3 rooms/dividers with different lighting/basking areas. He sleeps in one area, eats and drinks in another and basks in the 3rd area. The substrate is organic cypress mulch that I wet down daily. I put a little rubber ball in there that he moves around and I will also throw an empty plastic water bottle in that he likes to crush. But I also hear him loudly moving around and when I go to check on him he is trying to climb the walls to get out. I feel bad because he is alone with only walls to look at. Is there something I can do to make life a little better for him?

 

[chipperchip]

 

[wellington]

He needs a much bigger home for winter. That is way too small. Have a basement? Get a pop up greenhouse, 10x8 or larger if you can and make that his winter home.

 

[chipperchip]

He needs a much bigger home for winter. That is way too small. Have a basement? Get a pop up greenhouse, 10x8 or larger if you can and make that his winter home.

I like the idea, however, there are a couple concerns. I googled pop up green houses and see that the majority are clear and plastic, which will enable him to look out and proceed to ram the sides in hopes of escaping. During the summer, when I originally made his enclosure with wire fence, he would ram and ram and ram the sides until he pulled up the tent stakes and made an opening large enough to escape. One forum reader suggested I make sides that don't permit him to look out. It helped a little but as you can see by the photo, he also was able to move the sides to escape. The second concern is his basking lamps. The pop ups are plastic and if he manages to move the enclosure so that the lamps are touching the sides of the pop up, it is a fire hazard. I do have a basement that is very damp and mildewy. I sneeze and cough when I go down there, so would it be harmful to his health to live down there? I was thinking of putting plastic down under his table and attaching a light down there and building sides so that he can at least have another space with a different perspective.

 

[chipperchip]

 

[chipperchip]

This is Chip's set up now. Of course he is a lot bigger now and takes up a little more space.

 

[wellington]

I have two large female leopards in a greenhouse in my basement. I tape up a tarp as the floor and bring the sides up on the outside to block the sight from looking out. I use an oil filled radiator portable heater to heat and basking light. It works great. A few adjustments cuz the big one figured out how to get out the zippered door and now she is not able too. Your tort in your basement within a green house would be okay. I wouldn't put her in a opened table in the basement.

 

[chipperchip]

Are you able to post any photos? I would not put him in the basement in an open box. He actually has his own bedroom where I am able to keep the heat a little higher than the rest of the house.

 

[wellington]

Mine has a nesting box in the far left. Notice the brown tarp up along the outsides. The female pictured is the big one that likes to tear things up, but once I blocked the zipper door from being opened she has been contained.

[email protected] Jeremy Thompson
Friend Of N2Torts-helping Sell Torts

 

[wellington]

I have also used one similar to this for my younger leopard. Works good but harder on the human. The larger walk in one is much easier to be able to walk in and do things.