DIY Tortoise Table

Last fall we introduced these little guys to our family. They are Arizona Desert Tortoises and at the time of this picture they were about 8 weeks old.

For six months they have been living in a big feed trough in our breakfast room where they stayed warm, ate, exercised and GREW.

Now that the temperatures are warming up, it’s time to transition them to an outdoor home. They are still quite vulnerable though so they aren’t ready for a full on outdoor habitat. They need a protected outdoor space to live for the next year or two and so I came up with an idea – the turtle condo. But first – let’s meet Thurston and Lovey

Aren’t they cute!? You actually can’t positively tell a turtle’s gender for the first several years so even though we named them as a male and female, we have back-up names just in case; Cagney and Lacy if they are both girls and Felix and Oscar if they are both boys. You can tell which television generation we’re from – right?!

What their new home HAD to have

Thinking about a new home for Thurston and Lovey, my number one priority is their safety. As I mentioned in the video above, they are quite vulnerable to predators at this age as well as to the cold. Consequently, I knew any home for them had to have these features.

Fully enclosed with a latch for clever birds or cats

Cleanability – these little animals poop A LOT!

A place to get sun – they need vitamin D

A place to get shade so they don’t overheat

The ability to burrow or nest someplace warm in the winter and cool in the summer

Items to climb on to build their muscles

Eventually Thurston and Lovey will have a large built-in habitat in the side yard but until they get bigger and a bit more mature, they need to live in some type of large container. I didn’t want to build something from scratch so I decide to retro-fit a large raised garden bed into a tortoise condo.

Using this kit gave me a good base to start from. It got them up off the ground, offered a good amount of space and could be adapted to meet my tortoise safety criteria. Here’s how it went…

Multi-Use Containers means less waste.

One of the things I LOVE about using the raised garden bed for a tortoise condo is that when Thurston and Lovey are older and move to the built-in outdoor habitat, the condo is easily transitioned back to a garden bed. Just like the big trough the turtles were living in in the house, the turtle condo will hold a future garden – hopefully full of plants the turtles eat!

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Thanks for hanging out with me and the tortoises today. I hope you had a good time and enjoyed a laugh or two at my expense. I love using things for projects other than what was intended. Thinking outside the box helps my mind stay creative.

I also have a BIG FAVOR to ask each of you. A Crafty Composition has been live for two years this month and I am sincerely in need of reader feedback. If you have not already done so, PLEASE take 5 MINUTES to fill out the survey. Your honest thoughts and opinions are so valuable to me and will drive the direction I take A Crafty Composition in it’s third year.

Thank you in advance and may you all have a wonderful weekend, Happy Easter and Happy Passover

Project Supplies:

The plastic shelf liner, plastic baskets for the insulated house and the clear plastic tubs for the flowers were all purchased at TARGET.

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