You know Dudley, right? Our 90 pound Sulcada tortoise who was the size of a chalupa just five years ago?
Dudley’s baby picture with Chico the kitten
She spent the winter last year on the deck, but she’s just too darn big now and needed a backyard shelter to keep her warm when temperatures drop below 50F. She is, after all, a desert tortoise.
I suppose we cold have just spread thirty or forty sleeping bags over her 4×6′ crate, but that seemed kind of tacky, so we called our long-time friend and contractor, Kurt Wahrmund, to see what he could come up with. After all, he built her first condo. The brilliant result? A cedar-clad shelter that matches the architecture of the house. It has three wall panels that can be stored in the summer, and it features a plexiglass roof and a plenum system that directs the heat from a space heater down into Dud’s straw-lined crate. Check this out!
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- Dudley’s original condo – sliding doors, hinged roof
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- Side view of the new structure which fits over the original tortoise house (Kurt built that, too)
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- Fancy Plexiglas roof that lets in the sun’s heat on nice winter days
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- Space heater with the roof closed
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- Space heater with the roof open before the plenum is set in place
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- Plenum structure that directs the heat downward
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- Storage space for bags of hay used for insulation and inside nesting
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- Looks great from the back!
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- This is one happy tortoise! She will have a curtain in front on the coldest days – isn’t this a fine shelter?
I am so grateful to Kurt for figuring out a beautiful solution that works aesthetically and practically for human and tortoise both – if you ever need a contractor/designer with a great solution to a building dilemma, call Kurt Wahrmund!