Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a pair of adult redfoots that are now too large to keep indoors in the winter. I live in East Tennessee where we have winter temps below freezing and occasional snow. I would like to build a heated winter house for them that would be large enough to house up to four adults. I am trying to do all this on a budget and would really appreciate any suggestions from other tortoise owners who have built heated housing. Thanks!

Carol

I would highly suggest looking into a small greenhouse which you can open up into a larger area in the good time weather. There are many people in the UK that do this and I'm really surprised that it is not more popular here in the states.
You can do a nice one for under $1000.00 (which I know sounds like alot...)(because it is) but if you plan on keeping the animals for any length of time it would be well worth the investment to avoid heart aches and vet bills. They'll probably breed too and you'll eventually make back the money.
Ed

I plan to use a greenhouse design as I will be relocated from sunny (but cool) San Francisco to Connecticut where I will get both hot and cold extremes. I'd love to hear anyone who has done this successfully in the NE climate.

I keep two tropicals and many temperates that will hibernate.

I know little about greenhouses but will be researching my options. Would love to know if you built custom housing or bought pre-design kits and want to know about different heating options.

Paul

You need to talk to some of the people on Slowcoach, Tortoise Trust, Tortoise Friends and any other UK based group. I know there are a good deal of folks there that use green houses with great success.
Ed

I'll check em out. Thanks Ed.

Paul

I trust you've seen my posts further down of my tortoise "cottage".
EJ's right, it would be worth it to make something decent that will
last. Our tortoise cottage is big enough to walk into - making
something smaller and cheaper would be difficult to clean or
check on the animals without letting all the heat out and the
cold in. I'm in south east of NC and we have some snow and ice
around here too (yuck!) so this was my problem with my sulcata
being too big (and stinky) to keep indoors (summer or winter,phew).