Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am building a home for my desert tortoise in my back yard what are some suggestions for it? I have plenty of space.
>What are some things I need to look out for?
>what are some suggesttions for her water?
>what are some good plants to put in the encloser?
>what do I need to use for shade?

I have a good suggestion for the water, I dug a hole about 3 feet round and put crushed rock in the bottom about 18" deep the used a ground cloth over that. then stick a piece of 2" pvc pipe throught he cloth into the rocks.(bare with me)then put about a foot of sand or fill with the dirt you excavated. then i mixed some fairly dry concrete. put in the hole and by hand make a bowl around the pipe make it as deep as you want be sure to keep the edges thick but level with the ground.
let that dry. twist the pipe out and you'll see the hole were the pipe was. now cut the pipe so it fits back in the hole but will be flush with the top of the concrete. i then got a sink drain from a hardware store that comes with a rubber stopper and siliconed all that into the pipe, silicaone the pipe as well right back into the concrete.
done check out my pic i also got some DRYLOC concrete paint thinking i would need to seal it to hold water but i haven't done that yet and they hold water very well. all i do is pull the plug and hose them out all debris or poops will go into the gfround and decompose with no smell or mess and the torts love it i catch them sitting in the water every day...hope this helps

wow that gives me some great ideas. you have a great looking tortoise place. I am going to try and that for my tortoise water. thanks very much for the help.