How to House a Leopard Tortoise
Leopard tortoises can make beautiful and aesthetically pleasing pets. However, you should make sure when you build your tortoise's pen that it has plenty of room and all the right feeding, dirt and water trays to make your tortoise feel at home. You can build a simple case for your tortoise, which will take only a few days. Your tortoise can be housed indoors or outside.
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Things You'll Need
- 4-foot by 8-foot shallow bookcase for a frame
- 4-foot by 8-foot piece of plywood
- Carpenter's square
- Pencil
- Saw
- Sandpaper
- Polyurethane
- Hammer and nails
- 24 feet of plexiglass siding with a width of 16 inches, cut into 2 4-foot and 2 8-foot sheets
- Drill
- Screws
- 5 shallow trays
- Dirt
- Plants
- Turtle food
- Water
- UVB light
Instructions
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Housing a Leopard Tortoise
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1
Place the bookcase on its back. This will be the frame. With the carpenter's square, measure the sides of the trays just under the lip. Using the carpenter's square again, draw out on the plywood five squares where the trays will fit. Be sure when you are drawing where you want to cut for the trays that there are no shelves below them if you are using a bookcase that does not have removable shelves.
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2
Cut out the squares of the plywood with the saw. Sand the edges with the sandpaper. Stain the plywood with polyurethane and let dry. Once it is dry, place it on top of the bookcase and hammer nails around the edges so that the flooring of the tortoise pen is secure. Dab a little polyurethane on top of the nails to prevent moisture from entering the holes.
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3
Drill holes in the plexiglass. You will drill two holes 1 1/2 inches apart every 2 feet. Drill the first hole an inch from the bottom of the plexiglass and the second hole 1 1/2 inches above the first hole. Once you have your holes drilled, attach the plexiglass to the bookcase with the drill so that it stands up around the enclosure.
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4
Fill three trays with dirt. Put plants into two trays and leave the other for the turtle to dig in. Put the trays in the tray holes. Put food and water into the other trays. Place those trays in the last two tray holes. Hang the UVB light over the tortoise's habitat. You now have a house for your leopard tortoise.
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Tips & Warnings
The plywood will be going on top of the bookcase and the trays will be hanging down into the open areas of the bookshelf. The turtle will walk on the plywood. You can change the amount of trays or what goes in them as you desire, but be sure your tortoise's food doesn't get dirt in it.
When drilling through plexiglass, be sure to drill slowly because if the drill bit heats up, you can melt the plexiglass and damage your drill bit. If you are making an outdoor habitat, predator-proof the tortoise's pen.
