New house! + outdoor heating?

[willheinz]

Hi everyone

Just wanted to show off what I got today I recently decided to build my tortoise a new outdoor house for when she wakes up (which I think will be very shortly ). I thought it would be easiest to start from a rabbit hutch, so i've been looking around for one. Would you believe my luck today! As I was driving around I saw a guy put a rabbit hutch outside his house with a sign 'free, help yourself!'. YES!!! Gave it a quick clean and it looks pretty damn good...



I plan to seal off the left section to create her sleeping section (see below), insulating it with 25mm thick polystyrene, and leaving just a hole for my tort to walk into the centre section.



I then want to replace the wire in the centre and right front sections with polycarboante sheeting to create a little sun room. I'll leave a section open (bottom right) so my tort can come and go as she please.



So, what do you guys think?

My tortoise is about 50 years old. She hibernates every winter (in an insulated box in the garage) and spends spring/summer/autumn out in the garden 24/7. As far as i'm aware she has always done this. Do you think it is a good idea for me too heat this hutch? I was planning on just putting a small 1ft/60w tubular heater into her sleeping section wired to a thermostat to get her up in the mornings and keep her warm on grotty days. Good idea? Necessary?

Any replies/help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

[EVIEMAY]

That was a good bargain then!!

I dont know any thing about outdoor heating for meds so cant answer that one but I have used the perspex that allows the uv rays to penatrate through in my outside enclosure.

[annsimpson1]

if you're using polystyrene then you'll need to cover the bottom edges I found the the torts dig into the corners and pull off bits with their claws I've never seen them eat it but wouldn't want to take that chance, the bottom boarding only needs to be as tall as the tort is. I'm using a ceramic heat bulb in my new house its smaller than the tube heaters but seems to give of a good amount of heat and works well with a cheap thermostat.

[willheinz]

Originally Posted by annsimpson1

if you're using polystyrene then you'll need to cover the bottom edges I found the the torts dig into the corners and pull off bits with their claws I've never seen them eat it but wouldn't want to take that chance, the bottom boarding only needs to be as tall as the tort is. I'm using a ceramic heat bulb in my new house its smaller than the tube heaters but seems to give of a good amount of heat and works well with a cheap thermostat.

Thanks. Yeh i was planning on doing that. Got some very thin chipboard which i will glue onto it.

What thermostat do you have? Would you reccomend it? And do the ceramic heat bulbs get very hot? I quite likes the tubular heaters because they have a relatively low power output and aren't going to get too hot.

[annsimpson1]

The thermostat I'm trying is a ET05 and was the cheapest I could find, varying prices on the net, we've only tested it so far in the garage as the torts are still in hibernation. I had a digital thermometer with a probe to test it against and the thermostat seemed about 3 degrees out so to get the heater to go off at 10c we set it to 14c and it switched it off ok, anything below 10c and I wanted it on. It took a bit of fiddling but compared with a reptile thermo it was cheap only about £13 and the ceramic bulb I brought is a 100watt and cost me about £9 again on ebay but they do come in lower wattage they just don't take up so much room, I also brought a arcadia ceramic holder which has a mounting bracket so could just be mounted on the side of the kennel. Your hutch is the same as my guinea pig one I got that free from freecycle its lovely and big and well made compared with some.

[boost-boy74]

bargain - all the best with your project...