Monday, September 27, 2010

Tortoise Housing

We received two hatchling desert tortoises from a friend of a friend. They're cute! Since the hatchlings are vulnerable to both predation and, as we soon learned, Munch, I needed to set them up in a protected environment. So I built a tortoise box (box for a box turtle, you could say). I was able to keep cost down a little bit by going with redwood slats as opposed to larger boards. I cut those to length and screwed them to 2" x 2" corner supports to make the sides. Once I put the box together I put chicken wire on the bottom (to prevent them from tunneling out), put the box where I wanted it, and filled it with organic soil. I made a framed lid with chicken wire to prevent predators, added some shadecloth to the back, and we're good to go. I'm not the handiest guy on the block, but I think it turned out okay. I figure in a couple of years the tortoises will be big enough to be introduced into the yard with Munch and then the tortoise box will become a lettuce box. That'll be nice, too!

I added some rocks and rock "piles" that I hope are inviting places to burrow and hide. I have also planted various things along the front edge of the box--blue flax (probably get too tall if they don't eat if first), chia, nasturtiums, swiss chard, and chickweed, for a start. That will give them plants to forage on, crawl around in, and hide in. I think they'll like it. I even ran a dripper to the water dish so they will get water whenever the drip is on (the larger one in the picture, not the little one as shown).

I never thought of Munch as a big tortoise but compared to the hatchlings she's enormous! She was very aggressive, too, initially. She tried to bite them. I've put them in the same vicinity for small periods and she's still very interested in them but the head bobbing and biting seem to have stopped (I hope). With luck the hatchlings are both female. If one is a male that won't be a big problem, but if they are both males it could eventually cause problems.