Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here is how I have my Russians setup. These are adoptions and the remainder of an attempted breeding group and are nowhere near adult. There's 2.2 total. They have a few years in this enclosure until I can set them up to keep them alive outdoors. I have figured out how to do this but it is going to take a great deal of work.

There is a waterbowl buried in the sand in the lower left corner. These guys are constantly going up, over, around and through this structure. They spend the night under the structure, which is made of brick and flagstone.
This is one of the levels in the previous pictured enclosure setup. The wood is unstained Pine covered with Polyurathane which yellowed over the years. They have this new Polyurathane that doesn't yellow.
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Ed
Tortoise_Keepers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

Looks very good! Gives me some great ideas for summer project.

I really like your setup! But I had a couple qestions.. I wanted to put box turtles in a setup like this also but was wondering if it would work (is it good for boxies) and Ive also noticed that its maid out of wood. I like to spray my boxies and was wondering since it is wood will it get messed up quickly? Im probly going to make something like yours but was just wondering about the Q I had... thanks!

I'm not sure if I answered this or not but you can use 20 or more coats of polyurathane which does not take as long as you might think. You can recoat in a half hour.
You can also laminate the inside of the box with masonite.
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Ed
Tortoise_Keepers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

Nice set-up but I have one question...what state do you live in??
I am just wondering cause my Russians have been outside for about 7-8 years and I live in Michigan.I get babies every year and the tirts do not look like they were powerfed human greens[except for two giant females I introduced two years ago]. The enclosure is 6x15 feet with a fence buried 1 foot and 3ft tall, they hibernate under the slab of my garage and graze all year. the pen has been soaked in calcium and lime to 'gut load' the grasses and plants they eat. this setup works well and when the ground thaws I will be making the pen bigger.
there are 3.8 russians hibernating not including the yearlings and last years babies with them

I'm in San Diego, inland. The climate is perfect with hot days and cold nights in the winter but the habitat stinks. The soil is clay with zero drainage. I water all year long and the Russians, to my dismay, could not handle this. I've got some ideas listening to other keepers of Russians and will try to implement them with an outdoor enclosure but it will entail removing a good deal of substrate of an enclosure and replacing it with a sand and gravel mix.
It sounds like you have an ideal setup. Did you design the idea of the hibernaculum under the garage or did they choose it?
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Ed
Tortoise_Keepers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care