Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Can you guys post a pic of your outdoor pen?

I am looking for ideas, and want to include an area in the space to grow herbs and greens, a soaking area, and two shady spots.

I have trillions of earthworms in my soil, so I want them to have access to all the grubs, and things I have growing there too. I do not want to close the bottom, and fill with soil, but perhaps close with some 1" - 1-1/2" chicken wire.

Thanks,

Wanda

Mine was completed around the end of Aug. or first part of Sept. I didn't get it planted yet & the girls came inside for winter sooo I don't have much to show you.
I can't even remember what size the thing is...I've lost my mind!! sheesh I think it's 38x54.

I plan to put in a lot of plants, they already know that the watering hole is next to the tree.
here's the only pics I have so far the sulcata is walking along the outside of it.

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PHRatz

you just had to post!
looks great though, nice sulcata to, nice smooth growth.

>>you just had to post!
>>looks great though, nice sulcata to, nice smooth growth.

Well you know what they say: everything's bigger in Texas LOL

Thanks for what you said about my sulcata. When we took her in she was terribly pyramided so the day she got here one of the first things I did was research what her diet is supposed to be.
I ended up basically not feeding her, I don't need to because our lawn has what she needs. She grazes on her own gets a little bit of cactus from me, I'll go outside the fence sometimes to pick fresh greens otherwise we basically leave her be.

As she's grown the pyramids have diminished but you can still see that she's not normal. I ought to take a pic of her from above because when I stand over her I can see how some of her scutes have grown crooked-- I think bullets caused that.
She was so pitiful in July 2002, but she's done so well since then it makes me very proud of her. She's a very sweet animal.
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PHRatz

Don't you think that's a bit small for Box turtles??? LOL. Wow, that thing is pretty impressive. My enclosure for my Galapagos torts is not that big.
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John Vandegrift

Hehehe... I am not too sure about the size of that Revolutionary War fort... Oh, I mean, turtle pen. Do you think it is big enough for a boxie, and a red footed?

Post more ideas, guys!

Wanda

>>Hehehe... I am not too sure about the size of that Revolutionary War fort... Oh, I mean, turtle pen. Do you think it is big enough for a boxie, and a red footed?

Bwahahahha when the Wicked Witch to the East of us caused every person on this street problems in 2004 with her complaints to Animal Services, the city code office, the police, she did that when we were building the new fence. My 60 year old neighbor who owns the horses 3 doors down was over here talking to my husband & he suggested that they use the rest of the bricks that were stacked up in the corner to build a fort so they can lob stuff at her house.

60 year old man still thinking like a 6 year old.. cracked me up!!

Yes I think a red foot would fit in that size pen. I had a TX gopher tortoise here for a weekend once.. I so wanted to get the permit to keep him, he would've been great in that pen.. but they carry Mycoplasma and I didn't want him spreading disease around here so he went to the game warden & was taken to South TX where he belongs.
He was about the size of a redfoot, I think a pen like mine would be great for a smaller tortoise.
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PHRatz

>>Don't you think that's a bit small for Box turtles??? LOL. Wow, that thing is pretty impressive. My enclosure for my Galapagos torts is not that big.

Yes it's just too small lol.
I'll tell ya the reason why we made it so big is because that area used to be outside our fence. In 2004 when we had the new cinder block fence built my original box turtle pen was torn down. Then I ended up taking in more turtles & thought hey we never used that space anyway.. why not do this?
Now I have an excuse to take in more boxies when more injured ones fall into my hands which based on recent history, I think it will happen.
The large pen is all part of my evil plan. hee hee
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PHRatz

this is mine, I did a little more planting after the pic was taken and tossed some hosta seeds in so hopefully it'll be a little greener this coming summer.
it's 8'x8'
there are three rock hide spots, a rock wall, a hill, two logs that grow mushrooms and a strawberry patch, all three of my adults bask on the logs.

Humble and resourceful.. I like it. Did you use brick, or wood all around? Hard to tell what the light-color rectangles are

Wanda

it's brick and wood, it goes down 10 inches and is 11 inches above, the bricks are slender 3 hole cinder blocks, the wood is secured at the corners

That's a great looking pen Rouen.
I need to landscape mine so badly.. I like seeing others because I need ideas too!
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PHRatz

Here's one of mine, it's for semi-aquatic turtles, but I use the same design with a smaller water basin for my box turtles:

Third Eye

How large are your boards? Did you cover the bottom with chicken wire too? Is it easy to clean the pool you set up?

Wanda

That particular enclosure is four feet by six feet. I have larger ones, as well as smaller ones. I don't do the chickenwire thing, instead I bury a row of bricks under the border of the enclosure.

The water basin has a plug, so I simply pull the plug and refill it. I wrote an article that was published in the June 2006 issue of "Reptiles" magazine on how to build outdoor turtle enclosures.

Tim

Third Eye

I like the plug idea. But am afraid it won't motivate me to sanitize the pool more often... How bad does it get? My red footed poops daily, but not my boxie

Wanda

>>I wrote an article that was published in the June 2006 issue of "Reptiles" magazine on how to build outdoor turtle enclosures.

How neat! I didn't know that now I have to go back & look through all my copies.. I hope I have that issue.
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PHRatz

Here are the tortoise pens I built for the Saint Louis Zoo. I used tspuckler design from Reptiles Magazine for the basic concept and I added a few of my designs. There a four pens measuring 6'x8' each. One pen is completely open for larger tortoises, one is divided in half long ways (for medium size turts and torts) and the other two are divided in four and for smaller torts. We use them to take about 11 species of (mostly) tortoises out for natural sunlight.
www.RTReptiles.com

Here are the tortoise pens I built for the Saint Louis Zoo. I used tspuckler design from Reptiles Magazine for the basic concept and I added a few of my designs. There a four pens measuring 6'x8' each. One pen is completely open for larger tortoises, one is divided in half long ways (for medium size turts and torts) and the other two are divided in four and for smaller torts. We use them to take about 11 species of (mostly) tortoise out for natural sunlight.

Ryan Turnquist

www.RTReptiles.com

This isn't finished yet. I just threw some broken bricks on the top to make it a little taller, but in the Spring I will take them off and put some kind of little fence. Not for the turtles, but for my two chihuahua's. There is a fig tree (covered) strawberry patch, and grape vine..all dorment for the winter. There is a little red maple too for shade. I have to add some plants. I am going to make a little house by building up bricks and then adding a piece of slate on the top. I saw this in some site. Right now I have a flower pot upside down, with a little doorway that I cut out. Someone told me to put in a clean pan that you buy in the paint store for a roller. It is sloaped on one side for easy access. Hopefully when the warm weather comes, I will finish it and she can be in by the Spring.

Very nice. Did you cover the bottom at all? How deep do your stones go into the soil? Is this in your front, or backyard? Looks nice enough to put in the frontyard

Wanda

Those are all really nice. LOL at PHrats being a Revolutionary
War fort, thats one huge pen
I really like yours Terry, I was thinking of building the
brick one, but I like the stones you used better.
Did you look threw the photos at that site?
One of them has the screen door frame set up just like
the one I have.

I have a question about outdoor pens, I was never able to
leave Mazie outside alone, Unless she was in her screened in
enclosure, I just worried too much.
We have all sorts of wildlife here, you never know what
you will see in the yard. Stray dogs to huge bears...yikes
Do you guys have covers for yours?

Where my new babies are so small, I am thinking the acre
we had penned in for Mazie is just too huge, we would never find
them! lol We have these raised garden beds by the front door
3 on the left and 3 on the right.
The right is all shade, so we are thinking of using the 3 on the
right to make them a smaller safer habitat.

Without measuring I would guess the area is 4' wide X 16' long.
If we were to adapt these, we would add a stone border to make them higher. Have any of you changed a border garden into
a turtle habitat? I would love to see your photos.
Thanks~Nikki
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Man is the only animal that blushes ~ or NEEDS to!

We Survive together ~ or not at all.

OK I was way off....the measurements are 4' X 30'

If I were to use these, one side is up against the house and is
rose granite, so I know that side is safe.
As for the other sides ...would you guys take out all the loam
and pour concrete? Or do you think the 12" wood border, with
stones added on top would be safe enough?
Thanks~Nikki
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Man is the only animal that blushes ~ or NEEDS to!

We Survive together ~ or not at all.

>>I have a question about outdoor pens, I was never able to
>>leave Mazie outside alone, Unless she was in her screened in
>>enclosure, I just worried too much.
>>We have all sorts of wildlife here, you never know what
>>you will see in the yard. Stray dogs to huge bears...yikes
>>Do you guys have covers for yours?

I wasn't expecting to take in a hatchling but I did in Nov. We are going to cover the pen for the baby. We bought more cinder blocks so we are going to create a pen within the pen for the baby. My next door neighbor had this really nice gate already made with wire you can see through but very sturdy that should keep out any predators. He was going to take it to the salvage yard & get rid of it until I said HEY that's perfect for what I need, so he gave it to me.
We are going to use this gate to cover the little pen for the baby.
We don't have bears, we don't have anything that's normally going to attack adult sized box turtles, our local predators go after rodents & birds so I'm not going to cover that huge pen.
The baby though.. is a different story.
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PHRatz

Thanks! Thats what I was worried about as mine are babies too.
It should be easy enough to build screens to cover them.
Will let the hubby deal with that part lol
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Man is the only animal that blushes ~ or NEEDS to!

We Survive together ~ or not at all.

>>Thanks! Thats what I was worried about as mine are babies too.
>>It should be easy enough to build screens to cover them.
>>Will let the hubby deal with that part lol

My hubby went to his boss' house one Sat to help him tear down a storage building & came home with all this stuff the boss gave him.
He brought home several window screens because he thought they might make a good cover for the pen within the pen..
We had already planned the smaller pen so that Chip could use it. I want him to spend daytime outside when it warms up but not with the girls.
Anyway.. these are so flimsy.. we decided we'll just forget them. This gate is so heavy I really think it's going to work out fine for the baby.
I think screen could work if the frames for it were more sturdy than these things are.
I dunno.. you have bears EEK!!
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PHRatz

Thats what I was thinking, sturdy framed screens, that fit right
on the raised beds. and lol yes lots and lots of bears....
We get along fine tho, I see one, I get out of their way! LOL
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Man is the only animal that blushes ~ or NEEDS to!

We Survive together ~ or not at all.

This is a partial view of the enclosure that I have for my Easterns.
The row of logs near the upper right is the 'roof' of one of the hibernacula. There is a small in-ground pond near the center of the frame, too, but I don't think the water is visible in this shot.

One of my favorite set-ups. But, what did you make the boundaries with? Is the pic from inside the pen?

I love the mini-jungle you made! Definitely some ideas I'll steal. Very nice.

Wanda

"One of my favorite set-ups. But, what did you make the boundaries with? Is the pic from inside the pen?"

Thanks.

The below-ground boundaries are 12" deep or more, made of concrete block, or in some sections, of an existing low retaining wall or the foundation of my house (porch actually). Above these walls is an old fashioned picket fence, with a solid wood 'skirt' along the bottom. You can see it at the top of the pic.

The view is from my porch. The enclosure is now an L shape which makes it difficult to get a photo of the whole thing.

I purposely let it get overgrown in some areas so that the turtles have plenty of cover, and different types of cover as well: they can hide under foliage, clumps of grass, log structures, hollow log tunnels, leaves, etc.. In warm weather, the two hibernacula serve as shady hiding spots too, and are great places to forage for worms, slugs and other creepy-crawlies.

Here's Chet near the edge of the pond, along with a pickerel frog that has taken up residence.

Steph that pen is beautiful!!
SO green, I really like it!
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PHRatz

It doesn't look that way in the earlier part of the spring: I just let weeds grow (up to a point) for extra cover.

This isn't mine, but someone sent it to me. I love this set up. Press the arrows on the page, and you can see a lot of pictures of this enclosure.

http://www.russiantortoisepictures.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=2967

That's adorable. I don't know if I'd invest that much in stones, it really dresses up the pen!

Nice if you want to set up the entire area, along. I already have raised boxes in the garden, so am too practical for a pen this nice...

Wanda

Wow, good morning to all of you. This board has certainly taken off in the past couple of weeks. I love all the posts everyone is putting on here. I don't have much to post lately since all the boxies are hibernating. I still worry about the ones outside every once in a while but am hoping all turns out well for them come March and April when I expect to see them out and about in their pen outside.

I can't find most of them, but I do know where one is, and so I check on him occassionally to make sure he is still with me. Squirt and the turtle I bought at the groomers are the only ones inside this winter. Both are hibernating in the garage so they are easy to check on.

Anyway.....I can hardly wait for sping to get here so I can see if my other boxies made it ok being that this is their first year to hibernate outdoors. Other than Marley that is. Marley is the only one that had hibernated outdoors all of her life before I got her. And as I have told you all before, I have no idea how old she is since she was full grown when I got her and the babies out of my husband's aunts backyard.

I am overrun with mealies right now too thanks to PHRatz for telling me how to raise them for the boxies. I have thought many times of going to a pet store and seeing if they would like to buy some of them from me, but I am sure they would say no, so I just keep caring for them. I figure that is better than having to start over raising them again when I do need them. I just graduate them to a larger plastic box as the smaller box becomes "too" small to hold them all comfortably. Of course my husband sometimes wonders why I want to take care of them. You know.....why I want to buy the whole wheat flour, baby oatmeal and the cornmeal all to just feed to a bunch of beetles and worms! Ha-ha-ha! Sometimes I wonder the same thing. I do have to say that my doing so saved the day while my son and his family were here for Christmas. One morning at breakfast my granddaughter was out of cereal, but halleluliah.....I had a brand new box of baby cereal that hadn't been opened yet! Ha-ha-ha!

Ok, guess I better get off of here and get my chores going. I just wanted to post and tell all of you how much I enjoy reading your posts on here. I would show you all a picture of my outdoor turtle pen but at the present I have none of my pictures downloaded in this computer. We got a new one in Dec. and I just haven't put anything into it yet. Ratz has seen my pen though. Of course it was pretty much bare-bones then as I hadn't planted much in it yet. I hope to add some more plants this year as well as add an arch over part of it (to be covered with vines) for more shade for them.

You all have a good day and a good week-end! Once again.....I enjoy reading your posts. Keep it up! I love to start my day off checking this board out. ............9boxies

I asked elsewhere (didn't get replies) about how boxies are doing with the irregular, weather pattern this season.

It has been warmer in Connecticut. Have you noticed any behavioral differences this winter? Whereabouts are you?

Wanda

Wanda.....in response to your question.....I am in Texas. The weather has been strange here too but it hasn't affected the boxies. All are still dug under in the pen outside and the two inside the garage are also. ...........9boxies

I'm so happy for you that the mealworm colony has taken off so well.
All of my turtles love to eat them so with the aquatics up & swimming.. I don't have quite so many.
I love to not have to spend 3 bucks a pop to buy them though. It's so convenient to have them all the time.

Yes I have seen the pen.. it's a very nice one so you do need to try to get photos up some day.
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PHRatz

Happy to do that! This is just a small portion of their pens, but it'll give you an idea. There is actually a small waterfall and stream running through two of the pens. The females' pen and one of the male's pen. There are 5 pens in all for day time use. A long covered night time pen. We have raccoons where I live

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Tess
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