In Loving Memory of our Katie Ann
"Forever in our hearts"
Katie's Place
Rescue
& Sanctuary
Katie mothering one of our many rescues, an abused little Chi named Mouse.......
We can judge the heart of a person by their treatment of animals. (Ghandi)
Indoor and Outdoor Turtle Habitats:
Tortoises and turtles should never be kept in glass tanks, unless they are water turtles. Glass tanks have poor ventilation, are difficult to provide ambient temperatures in (hot side/cool side), harbor bacteria, and they do not understand glass, which is why most spend their days pacing and trying to walk through it....this is very stressful for them. If a turtle can see through to the other side, they will keep trying to get to it.
We DO NOT house males and females together here, there are already too many turtles and tortoises in the pet trade needing homes without adding to those numbers.
If you have the space and the means to create an outdoor space for your turtles, please do so. Fresh air and sunshine is so good for them. Just make 100% certain that they are situated in a place where they get both sunshine and shade at all times (dappled sunshine is nice), because too much direct sun can be way too much. When building a habitat consider the fact that they may tunnel out, or predators may tunnel in. ALWAYS keep a secure top over them. For tips on how to make a secure outdoor habitat, please email me at: sshalimar16@msn.com.
Sulcatas grow to 200 lbs+ and are extremely strong and powerful tortoises. You can see how those easily claws chewed up her current habitat, she shredded her linoleum flooring like it was nothing....thus the need for a new and sulcata-proof habitat!
Two of the new stock tanks.
This is what our turtle room used to look like, with all the wooden tort tables we built:
Our turtle room.
This is the indoor pond we built for the red earred slider, Miss Lucy
Our Ornate table.
Lucy is very fond of playing in the spray of water fountains!
Notice at the end we have a much deeper area designated for the females to lay their eggs. Even without a male, females will still lay eggs.
Outdoor Habitats:
This is where we keep just one small 3 toed male turtle.
This is the outdoor pond being set up for Lucy.
This is the new outdoor area for the 3 ornate female turtles. I will be adding more plants this season. The site barrier had not been installed when these 2 images were taken. Site barriers are really important to have in turtle enclosures. We make ours about 18 inches high from the ground up all the way around the interior sides.
Below are a few shots of the shelled wonders enjoying their time outside. We take them all out in the morning and bring them all back in around dusk during the warmer months.
All the enclosures are extremely secure with galvanized fencing underneath the substrate to prevent them from tunneling out and chicken wire over the top to keep birds or other predators from climbing in.
This is Bindi, she has a designated are of our back yard to roam in. She LOVES playing in the sprinkler on hot days! Bindi is a sulcata tortoise and will be around 200lbs full grown.
We built a ramp onto the back door so Bindi can let herself in and out of the house. She is a bit heavy to carry these days!
If the donate button below gives you any problems, you can still send a donation through PayPal by using our email address: sshalimar16@msn.com