Constructing an Outdoor Turtle Pen
By Devin Edmonds
Turtles and tortoises benefit greatly from being kept outside. Outdoor pens and enclosures generally offer more room than those used inside, and allow turtles and tortoises to be exposed to unfiltered sunlight. Being exposed to the ultraviolet rays that sunlight contains allows turtles and tortoises to process calcium in their diet; a critical part of their care. Although generally turtles and tortoises do better when kept outside than when kept inside, some environments might not be suitable for an outdoor enclosure. It’s important to understand the temperature, humidity, and other environmental preferences of the turtle or tortoise being kept before they are kept outdoors. Tropical species may have trouble coping with the dry conditions found in arid environments, and those from warm climates often will not tolerate cool temperatures in temperature regions. In these situations it is usually best to either avoid keeping the turtle or tortoise outside, or better, only keeping the turtle or tortoise outside during certain times of the year or on days that match their environmental requirements. The pen that I constructed below was used to house my box turtle. It measures 6 feet by 4 feet and was built in June of 2001. The materials needed to construct it cost roughly $100 and include:
Step One: First I looked for the location that I wanted to build the turtle cage. I wanted a location that was in direct sunlight for most of the day, but always would have an area that was shaded. I chose to build it near the house because the spot recieves sunlight all day long but the house keeps another part of it shaded.
Step Two: Next we (my dad and I) dug a hole that measured 6' long by 4' wide by 1' deep. This was the most unpleasant part of building the turtle pen and took around two hours to do. We then took the edger and made the sides of the hole as straight and even as we could so that the bricks would stand up on the sides straight. The bottom of the hole doesn't have to be perfectly even because you’re just going to lay chicken wire over it.
Step Three: After digging the hole we made the frame of the enclosure. First we cut the 12' and 8' long 1x12 boards in half so we had two 6' and two 4' long boards. Then we cut the 8' long 4x4 into four equal pieces so that we had four 2' long 4x4 posts. Then we attached the 4' boards to two of the 2' long 4x4 posts leaving a foot of the 4x4 post sticking out below the boards. After that we put the 6' foot boards on the sides to complete the frame. We then carried the frame over and stuck it inside the hole. At first the right corner was higher than all the other sides so we had to do a little more digging to make it even.
Step Four: After the frame was completed we cut the chicken wire into three 8' long strips and then took the wooden frame out of the hole. The chicken wire is to prevent my turtle from digging his way out of the pen. We laid the chicken wire in the bottom of the hole and folded the extra foot on each side down. Then we put bricks over parts of it that were sticking up. In some cages people use perforated bricks on the bottom but they didn't have those at the store we went to and they are probably more expensive than chicken wire. Once the chicken wire was in we put the wooden frame back in again.
Step Five: Next we put the 8 inch wide and 16 inch long patio bricks on end around the bottom of the sides to prevent my turtle from digging out. This is harder than it sounds because sometimes the bricks will tip over so to prevent the bricks from tipping over we piled dirt in front of them to keep them upright until we could put the rest of the dirt in.
Step Six: Then we got to shovel most of the dirt that we had dug out earlier back into the hole. Luckily this didn't take as long as digging the hole did. I wanted to fill the cage up until just about an inch or two of the tall patio bricks were sticking up above the surface. Once we had filled it about half way we dumped 2.2 cubic feet of peat moss into it and mixed that with the soil so it would be easier for my turtle to dig since the soil here is very dense. We also filled in the extra space between the cage and the ground with dirt.
Step Seven: After filling the cage up with soil it was time for us to make the cage cover. I chose to use a cover mostly to protect my turtle from our dogs and other animals although some people choose not to use a cover. First we made the frame of the cover. We cut the 12' 1x2 boards into two 5' 1x2 boards and two 44 inch boards. Then we took those pieces of wood and the 5' 1x12 and laid them out on the ground. We attached it all together with right angle and T brackets. Then we stapled the metal garden screen to the cover.
All we did after that was attach the cover to the cage with three brass hinges, plant the cage and put the water dish (paint tray) in. The whole project took about seven hours to do with two people.
Please contact me with any questions or comments you have.
