Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My Russian Tortoise Pen

Very nice setup. What do you do with them in the winter? If you plan on working with these for any extended period of time you might consider enclosing the area in glass. This is really big in the UK and I'm really surprised that it is not at all populare here in the states. It would in crease their activity season and if set up right you could probably leave them in there to hibernate on their own.
Ed

...but keep in mind that glass filters out the UV-radiation!!

there is a glass (or it might be plastic) that allows transmittance of UV.
Ed

Hi Ed,

How do you mean, " enclose the area with glass" ?

Do you mean just put a glass top on the pen?
Or, enclose the area with a green house?

Thanks,
Steve

I'm curious... Are the walls concrete? I like the idea of sinking the enclosure into the ground and may do this in my next habitat build. I will be living up North and this is probably a good approach for the cold winters since any deeper that a turtle or tortoise digs, would be that much further below the frost line. You could also fill it in with mulch, leaves or other insulators.

Paul

The frost line would be determined from the actual surface, whatever that
would be.
I know that something like that could fill qickly with water in
a downpour - we had 8 inches fall last week in a few hours that
even broke a huge damn in the nearby town. But a sweet summer
thunderstorm would be a threat also. Once when my sulcata was
small he was outside in his pen and I was at Lowe's. I saw the
thunderclouds and headed home and by the time I got there his pen
had filled with water and he was stranded on what little land was
left looking pitiful - at the time he had half logs to hide in but
they were swamped out. We added a drain at the lower end of the
pen quickly. His new pen has a drainage hole filled with
rocks and a giant planter filled with rocks set in that which
has pipes draining away from his pen about 30 feet. He's actually
big enough to look out over the 12 inch wooden boards anyway
(he's about 44 pounds now), but the best thing is his house is
elevated and is surrounded by rocks used as a "ramp". So even
in the worst rain he'd always be dry.