When you decide to take in a turtle, you obviously ask yourself several questions about its enclosure: Do I have the space? Do I need a large garden? Indoor or outdoor enclosure for a tortoise? What material should I choose? Mesh or non-mesh?
An outdoor enclosure is the best option, as it provides a natural environment and more space for your tortoise (graeca, hermanii, horsfieldii…). However, an indoor enclosure is often necessary in several cases:
- Juvenile turtle rearing
- Outdoor temperature too low
- Bad weather
- You don’t have a garden
While you may be looking forward to acquiring your little reptile and it’s very exciting, it can be expensive. In this article, I’m going to introduce you to my favorite indoor enclosure for a land tortoise, and surely one of the best in its category.
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The best cheap enclosure for a land tortoise
The best indoor turtle enclosure is the PAWHUT wooden enclosure. In my opinion, it’s complete, and rather inexpensive for an indoor enclosure, which is generally expensive (currently under 130€).
This turtle enclosure has two main sections. The larger part, on the left, is the “lizarding” area where your turtle can roam freely. This area has a fence over it, so you can watch and admire your turtle. This is where the turtle is fed and where its bowl is located.
To the side is the darkroom, covered by a removable wooden cover to block out the light. This is your turtle’s resting place, protected from the light.
Opinions on the PAWHUT tortoise enclosure
The PAWHUT indoor tortoise enclosure is made from fir wood, a much more durable material than other types of wood such as pine. It really doesn’t rot easily, and that’s a really important point.
The enclosure is therefore durable over time, as long as it’s well maintained of course.
Let’s move on to a step-by-step description of this enclosure to understand why it’s suitable for tortoises.
Dimensions
This is an indoor enclosure for medium and small turtles, suitable for most turtles measuring 20 cm or less. The entire enclosure is 1 metre long, 60 cm wide and around 35 centimetres high.
The relaxation area on the left is just over 60 centimetres long and inches and almost the same length.
Regarding the darkroom on the right, it is 35 centimetres and 60 centimetres wide.
You can also attach two PAWHUT enclosures to each other if you wish, for even more space for your turtle. It’s all explained in the manual that came with it, but having only one indoor enclosure, I’ve never tried it.
Features and benefits of this indoor tortoiseenclosure
Each of the two enclosure compartments has its own lid, so you can open them separately. There’s also an integrated metal rod that lets you hold the lid open, like a car hood. This is really ideal when you need to keep the lid open for a while to clean or feed your turtle and there’s no wall behind it.
Both sections have an integrated padlock to ensure your turtle is safely “locked in”. If you’ve got kids at home, other animals running around, or your turtle is a ninja turtle, this can come in handy again.
A hiding place for your turtle
As you may already know, turtles need a shaded area, a little hut away from the light, to be able to sleep properly in particular. This wooden turtle enclosure is well designed, with the right-hand side dedicated to this purpose. With its light-obscuring cover, your turtle will have no trouble feeling at home here. I also recommend adding plants or other decorations in this area, so that your turtle can hide away and really feel sheltered.
But don’t put too much emphasis on decoration. Your pet still needs to be able to wander around unhindered.
Indoorenclosure lighting
Almost all turtles need some form of UVA and UVB lighting and heat. This turtle enclosure is once again well thought-out, allowing its UV and heat lamps to be positioned ideally. Best of all, it actually comes with an integrated, removable wooden stand for hanging a lamp!
Depending on your setup, you may or may not choose to use it. Personally, I prefer to simply place my lamp on the wire mesh, as I do for my chameleon wire terrariums.
I recommend using a lamp that will be directed at one corner of the enclosure, leaving more shade in the other parts. If you have two different lights, at least half the enclosure will be exposed to light.
Be sure to check the temperature at floor level to make sure it’s not too hot. To find out more, visit our Hermann’s tortoise breeding sheet, which includes a lighting, heating and UVB section.
Enclosure bottom
The “box” has a plastic lining on the bottom. It’s 100% waterproof, so nothing can seep through. For the substrate, I recommend soil, wood shavings or coconut fibers. Again, you’ll find all the info you need on substrate in the Testudo hermanni datasheet I’ve linked to above.
Conclusion
All in all, this indoor wooden land tortoise enclosure is excellent. It’s affordable and takes less than 30 minutes to assemble and install. It’s not too heavy, so it’s easy to move if necessary.
I use it as an indoor enclosure when I have juvenile turtles, in quarantine or when the weather is really bad, but you can technically put it outside. I recommend larger enclosures if you have a garden.
If you have a turtle over 20 centimetres as well, I recommend larger enclosures (as far as possible). And, as I said, apart from specific cases, we recommend housing our turtle friends outdoors.