Tortoise table question (new here!)

[isabelle]

Hey!

This is my first post on the forum, and I'm so grateful to have found this site. The information on the site and forum is so helpful - and I've been loving identifying weeds and realising how much FOOD already exists in my garden. So thanks!

I've been doing my research for a couple of months as my partner and I are soon to be adopting a baby western Hermann's tortoise (we're picking him/her up this week - I'll call it a her for now!). She's only 7cm at the moment, and has always lived indoors, so I've built a 5x2ft wooden tortoise table to start her off and have been planning to keep her inside initially.

But we live in south west France, where I understand this species is native (although certainly rare in the wild now), so today it's suddenly dawned on me that maybe she'd benefit from being out in her natural climate sooner rather than later. The weather at the moment is hot and sunny some days, stormy on others, with daytime temps of between 25-30C and nighttime temps of between 11-16C. It'll probably be like this for a couple more weeks and then the hotter summer days and nights will take over.

I won't build an outdoor enclosure just yet as I want to get the soil and planting right, and make some underground adjustments so she can't burrow out - but we do have a courtyard and a sunny balcony, which has a roof so it's sheltered from rain. So now I'm thinking maybe the tortoise table would be better going on the balcony rather than indoors, so she can have the natural sunlight instead of a lamp - and I can make a secure mesh lid for it tomorrow.

But would she be too cold at night if she's always been indoors? And if so, if I make a miniature cold frame that fits inside the tortoise table, would that solve it? The table I've made is pretty heavy as I used solid wood I had lying around already, rather than nice lightweight ply...so once it's got substrate in it too, it'll be too heavy to move in/out every day so needs to be in one place.

Thanks in advance!

[lin]

Hi Isabelle, and welcome to the forum and to the world of tortoise keeping.

What you are proposing sounds perfect and it seems you have done your math on the temps needed. As long as she is secure from preditors, secure from escape and her temps are all good for day and night (30°C high and 18 to 20°C lowest for daytime and nights does not drop below 14°C (10°C is hibernation temps) I would say she would enjoy every second in the natural sunlight.
Hopefullu Nina will drop in and give her opinion and well done for getting yourself into such an interesting hobby.
Yould love to see photos when she arrives.

Lin

[Nina]

Hi, and welcome from me too! I completely agree with Lin -- it sounds like a great idea to get her outdoors while the weather is good, and a table on your balcony will enable her to benefit from the natural UVB from the sun (which is far better than any artificial UVB we provide indoors).

It would be great to see what you've constructed -- and to see photos of your lovely tortoise when you get her, but in the meantime, have a look at this thread from Kimberley, who lives in the Netherlands and has built a balcony enclosure for her tortoise:
https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/sit ... =11&t=1983

Nina

[isabelle]

Thank you both! Great to have reassurance that we're on the right track. I'll finish making the table today and send some pics for review - I actually already saw that thread with the balcony enclosure, and was inspired!

[isabelle]

Pictures! I'll build a lid this evening, and the first pic is my miniature cold-frame in progress - it's just ply walls with a glass roof that I can put in/take out depending on the weather. I thought it might make a good humid hide also, although perhaps not on very hot days when it'd be roasting in there...?

[attachment=1]104926712_256859565740404_6977457650487367693_n.jpg[/attachment][attachment=0]IMG_0487.jpg[/attachment]

[Nina]

Looking great! You're certainly making fast progress.

Do remember with the glass lid on your cold frame that in addition to becoming an oven inside if it's warm, that UVB doesn't pass through glass, so your tortoise won't get the benefits of the UVB from the sun when the glass lid is on. Having said that, the quality of UVB that you get in the South of France is far superior to the UVB that we get in the UK, so she will need less exposure to get the benefits than a tortoise living in England would (it has to do with the angle of the sun).

I think she's going to be very happy with this little palace that you are building her!


Nina