What do you all think of this enclosure I built for a Leopard tortoise? Please be critical, as this will be my first tortoise and I'm posting these pics so that they might be approved by experienced tortoise people. I haven't even ordered the tort yet, so there's still time to make changes.
And for height reference:
The enclosure is on top of that ledge, though further back so it's supported by the room underneath of it (I was standing on the very edge of the ledge taking the pictures).
I bought almost all of the supplies for this from Lowes because of pet store overpricing. There are two 250 watt heat bulbs, one infared for night heating. The light closest to the far wall is a 100 watt basking light, and there's a 20 watt blacklight for UVB hanging from the pipes on the ceiling. It gets to just below 100 degrees with all the lights on, and a little below 90 with only the infared.
The substrate is divided into two seperate parts: the middle of the enclosure is all a mixture of sterilize sandbox sand mixed with organic top soil. I cooked half of the 40 pound bag of top soil as well to sterilize it, but my apartment couldn't handle much more burnt wood and dirt smoke without good ventilation (it still smells like a campfire in here) and I figured that the other 20 pounds was probably alright, so I threw that in uncooked, which might not have been very smart. The other two ends of the enclosure are covered in storebought timothy hay, albeit a little thinly, but I'm getting a supply of farm-bought hay tomorrow so I'll add a little more in.
The area is enclosed by 8 inch high cinderblocks which sit on top of a single piece of 4x9 particle underneath the substrate. Water bowl in the middle (with a thermometer in it right now) and a basking rock that I got from a pile being used to fill a ditch at my work. I cleaned the stone off with lots of hot water and Lysol. The piece of plywood across the near end is for shade and shelter, as is the one cinderblock with its holes facing the camera at the far end. I'm going to try and put another medium-sized piece of plywood for shelter too along the right side of the enclosure when I can fine one. Total area of livable space for tortoise: 26.1 square feet.
Here's where I got all the material from:
Lowes-
16 8x8x16 cinderblocks-$21
300 watt reflector lamp x2-$25
150 watt reflector lamp-$7
250 watt flourescent heat bulb-$6
250 watt infared heat bulb-$11
20 watt 24" lighting fixture-$8
20 watt 24" blacklight-$11
9' 9 amp extension (to wire the lighting fixture to)-$2
8' 13 amp extension cord with ground-$6
40 lb bag of organic top soil x2-$3 (only used one to fill the enclosure)
50 lb bag of sterilized sandbox sand-$1
Wal Mart-
bag of timothy hay-$4
85 watt blue floodlight blub-$6 (in case the 250 watt infared is too hot for the night)
thermometer-$3
Petsmart-
100 watt basking bulb-$7
All of the other random pieces of wood were salvaged by me since there's some kind of woodshop business on the bottom floor of the building where I live.
Grand total: $111 which pretty much includes tax since most of those prices were rounded up from memory.
One of the best aspects of this setup is that it's really easy to add on to and move. Not that a Leopard tortoise will outgrow that enclosure for many years, but when it does, I can easily buy another $20 worth of cinderblocks and a piece of plywood flooring and stretch its pen out another 20 square feet, or buy more block and make the enclosure higher if it's capable of escaping. I also had the idea during the warm months of fashioning a smaller enclosure on my floor in front of my open windows and letting the tortoise get a few hours of natural sunlight a day without having to be supervised.
What are your thoughts?
