Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi
I wanted to know if anyone can help me out in doing a out door pen for tortoises. What is the best wood to use and should the bottom have some liner or somthing so they wont dig out? I know I have to make a wire to lid for a door but I don't know what are good woods to use for out door that will last long. How much would it cost to build somthing around 8' x 12'. I will have a divider for now and as the tortoises grow I'll open it up for them. Do anyone have some good ideas or better yet can you also post your out door set up??

Thank you everyone for your time, I hope I can get some help.

DD

Well, first of all, as long as wood is not constantly wet, it will last quite a long time.

For example, if wood is touching the ground (pretty wet around here in MA) even if treated (don't use this stuff) or sealed, water will start soaking in. At that point insects will start drilling into it and the wood breaks down in no time.

What I did is use Trex as the base. Trex is basically a synthetic type wood. Its like plastic blended with sawdust or something. There are lots of other similar products out there as well.
This stuff is pretty expensive, but it lasts forever. Apparently they have a piece in a weather chamber that has undergone the equivalent of 60 years worth of bad weather.

Once I had the base rectagle built, I just used regular wood to build up the walls and the covers.

I actually just used large stones as a barrier for digging. I kinda placed them around like a big jigsaw puzzle leaving big enough holes for water drainage, but small enough to keep torts from escaping. Then I added a ton of dirt over them.

As it is, I also placed a digging box (basically a cooler with sand/bedabeast in it), and piles of timothy hay in the pen, so my guy has never tried digging a hole as he's usually too busy playing.
It also seems to me that enjoys semi-ready-made burrows more than making his own.

Hi Nicodemus
Thanks
Do you have any pics of your set up?? Is it always good to build big?? I want to add new soil to the pen I build and grow grass and weed for the torts in there for them.

I would love to see people tortoises set up. Do anyone have any pics they would like to show??

Thanks
DD

In the files of the Russian Tortoise forum there are lots of pictures of outdoor enclosures (don't know if you have to join the forum to see them) Anyway here is the link (the file is called Outdoor Russian Pen):

Nina
Link

Hi Nina
Is there a way for me to become a member?? I can't go in the site you set..

Thanks
Charlie

Hi,
This is driving me crazy! I can't seem to see how you join the group. I think you first have to have a Yahoo ID, and here is the link to the page that answers some questions about that:

http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/groups/groups-19.html

It's really easy, and once you have a Yahoo ID, you can join all the Yahoo groups (I look at the Russian Tortoise one, the Tortoise Trust, Tortoise Friends, Tortsmad, and Tortoise Keepers groups). It says that if you go to the home page of any group you then just click on 'Register' but I can't find where it says 'Register'. Maybe this is because I am already registered.

Good luck. The various forums all have individual characters, but you learn an awful lot from the discussions that go on.

The home page of the Russian Tortoise group is
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RussianTortoise/
but I don't know if that will work for you either.

Nina

We keep sulcatas outdoors in SE GA in a tortoise pen made by burying 2 feet of the wall of an above ground swimming pool. We dug a circle in the yard, poured a concrete edge (to prevent digging down and under the wall) put the circular pool wall down into the circle and then replaced the dirt. The yard in the center of the pool area was left intact (weeds and all) for the tortoises. We have since added tortoise edible plants and made some other modifications like cutting a door into the wall of the pool so that the torts can walk out and munch on the lawn when we are going to be outside to monitor them. They have pretty much wiped out most of the grass in the enclosure over the years and we reseeded it this winter.
Anyway, here is a pic of the project after we completed it along with a couple of pictures documenting their growth once we got them oudoors and into the sunlight.
Karl H. Betz & The Boss

Hi Buzztail1
That looks great. How much was it to build somthing like that??

Thanks
DD

what a great idea for a large outdoor pen, and your torts look like they're so healthy -- you don't see shell growth like that on sulcatas nearly often enough! congratulations to the both of you!

What a brilliant outdoor enclosure (I think I'd be happy to live in that!), and what beautiful torts. Congratulations.

Nina

What can I use to paint the wood to go out door?? I live in the east so I get snow in the winter. What will work with the weather and will be safe for tortoises??

Thank you so much for all your help, this place is always great..

C

DD, We have no idea what to put for the cost of this enclosure.
We bought the pool secondhand for $500 and used it as a pool for 5 years or so until our kids grew up and we didn't use it much. The liner was getting worn so we came up with the idea of using the wall for the tortoise pen. It was a LOT of work digging it in and everything. The Boss used water seal on the wood (several coats). We don't get snow very often but we do get quite a bit of rain.
unchikun, Thank you. They were bought several years before the first size picture and kept inside under UV lights like the vendor told us to do. We researched more and more online and finally agreed that although they seemed healthy, they needed the sunlight to thrive. Putting them out in that pen with the constant access to sunlight and supplementing their grazing diet with Mazuri has led to some large, healthy and happy tortoises.
Nina, Thanks.
Here are some pictures from the construction. Hope they show up.
Karl H. Betz & The Boss
Digging the trench for the wall was hard on the lower back:

Once we had dug the trench deep enough, we put a base of concrete to prevent tunneling under the wall.

A comparison shot of the torts at the time we built against the trench for the wall. They start out deceivingly small.

Then we put up the wall on its base of buried concrete. It is actually bigger than some zoo enclosures that we have seen.

Once completed, all that was left was to add places to hide and things to eat.

Hope you enjoyed the construction,
Karl H. Betz & The Boss

Hi Karl and The Boss,

Those pictures were great, and you've built a little paradise for your torts!

Nina

Beautiful pen. I sometimes wish I lived in Georgia instead of Connecticut as my guys only get out from May until Sept. I am in the exact same position as you. 26 foot diameter above ground pool with a 13 year old liner broken filter and kids who have outgrown it. I am planning to do the same thing except we have a 400 square foot deck next to the pool whcih because of the way the ground slopes begins at ground level and ends at pool level. So I am planning to leave the pool the same height above ground and simply secure the rim from tunneling. I haven't had much problem with my redfoots or leopards digging as long as I give them leaves or mulch to burrow into they don't seem interested in digging. I have three different species so mine is being broken up into sort of pizza slices. One section dry (leopards) one slice more ground cover (redfoots) and the last section very wet (emys). I figure the deck will be the viewing area and I'll leave the ladder in place to enter and exit. Your idea of the door in the side openning to the lawn is great. My wife wasn't too keen on the idea but now that she has seen yours its an easier sell. Thanks, Tom

Hey Karl & The Boss
Thanks for the help and tip. I will get the water seal tomorrow and I'll get to work on it. Your pics help big time to get an idea. Is that water seal you used is non toxic??

Thanks again for everything.

DD

The water seal that we used said that it was non toxic once it had dried. Read the label to be safe.
Karl & The Boss

That is so nice! What a great idea!!
Now you have me on the hunt for a used pool. LOL
We have bricks left over from building a cinderblock fence for our sulcata last spring. When they built the fence they had to tear down my box turtle pen. We've planned to use the left over bricks for the new turtle pen but wow these photos are so impressive.. now I don't know if I want to have a new pen made of brick.
If I could find a good deal on a used pool we could always use those left over bricks for something else.

Thanks for posting those pictures, I love it!
-----
PHRatz

We learned a lot by putting together that tortoise pen.
A lot of people keep both turtles and tortoises so I am adding this outdoor pen for your review.
We found the metal flashing at a local hardware store.
It actually keeps the turtles from climbing the fence (many turtles, including box turtles, can and will climb chain link and other fence materials). We buried the bottom edge to discourage digging under it.
The pond is a tarpaulin from the local Wal-Mart.
We dug a pit with sloping sides. Lined it with the tarpaulin. Buried the edges of the tarp. Added rocks for the turtles to grip when climbing out. Added water and hide spots. Voila! An outdoor turtle pen.
It may not look like much but with a deep enough mulch pile, our Chinese Box Turtles winter outside and produced eggs, which we did not find in their pen. The eggs hatched and The Boss was delighted to find 2 baby Chinese Box Turtles in the pen this past fall.
A couple of other helpful hints. The water hyacinths filter the water naturally. Mosquito Fish eat mosquito larvae (we supplement with fish food). Plants added to the pen provide additional hiding places and make a more natural looking habitat.
This picture was taken right after the pen was created. The rest of the plants grew in later. I will try to get some updated pictures of all of our pens when I visit my home in April.
Whenever possible, I believe that turtles and tortoises benefit from living outdoors (at least in the southeastern US).
Karl H. Betz & The Boss

Great! Thanks for posting the turtle pen photos too.
I am once again emailing your post with picture to husband so he can see this too.

Even though we have cinderblocks left over from last year's fence, if we go that route with the turtle pen we're still going to have to buy a stack of a different sized flat brick or flat garden rock to top off the fencing in order to create a lip to prevent the turtles from climbing out.
Going another way could be what we need to do.
The husband is in charge of construction around here though lol so I don't what he will end up doing.

This is one reason why I love to see other people's photos, I get so many good ideas.
Thanks again!
-----
PHRatz

Thanks for the help..

DD

This is a picture of my Red-footed Tortoise pen/enclosure. The grass is tropical carpet grass, to the far left corner is a hiding spot behind the tree stump (covered with pothos and orchids), the small palm trees provide some shade along the back, between the palms and the grass are some succulents for snacking, to the far right are ferns for more concealment, behind the ferns is a muddy area for soaking. The pool area is only accessable in one area and is a very shallow graduation to the semi aquatic turtle area. In the pool there are basking sites so the different turtles rarely ever come into contact with each other (they don't like the long shallow graduation to the deep water. The netting is needed because of the intense tropical sun which would cook the turtles, tortoises and fish, but they still receive about 3-4 hours of sunlight a day- morning sun.

Cheers,
Michael

can be found at gus rentfro's website, www.riobravoreptiles.com, hope this helps, john yocum