The adventure of building a tort table begins!

[curry506]

Ok, it begins. I am a bit nervous, yet excited. Little Sheldon deserves the room to roam. I have come up with an interesting design, it's going to be L shaped to fit into a corner, also come apart into 2 tables to be easier to move, or to seperate tortoises if needed. Wondering if anyone has any advice on what to use on the inside to make it water/dirt proof. Don't want any coming thru the cracks. Visqueen? Tarp?
Also some advice on plants to plant. I planted some kale, they ate it down to just a stub. But planted a hosta, and they just use that as a speedbump! Seems to either demolish or ignore. Has anyone successfully grown dandelions inside?

Thanks!

[smithen]

i hav not personally done it yet but i hear that linoleum flooring is good to keep it nice and water/dirt proof, im in the prosses of building mine out of an old book case for a frame. when you get it done be sure to post pics cus im interested to see how it turns out! 

[baeckart]

dear hubby built our tort table and it isnt going ANYWHERE!!! im convinced that a tornado could come and the house would blow away but that table is staying there forever!!! ours is a 6ft by 4tf top table with only 8 inch sides, (which believe me guys i argued til i was blue in the face... but whatever) and we have another smaller enclosure underneath that one that is 4ft by 2 feet for babies... ONLY now that we have babies we divided the top enclosure into two.. one of them is 4 by 4 and the other one is 2ft by 4.. so its perfect for Princess on the big end and the 3 babies on the smaller end.. we put the babies (violet, poppy and lily) on their side and they WENT TO TOWN!!! swimming, climbing, digging and all that good stuff.. they LOVED it.. im a little sad now tho cause all the torties are downstairs...

BACK to the construction (see im sidetracked easily and LOVe talking about my babies.. all 4 of them!!) dear hubby put down lineloem squares that are already precut and everything... he actually put those down before he attacked the sides.. then calked it.. we have had it for almost a month (i think) and have dumped buckets of water in and its worked great!!

[curry506]

Sweet, thanks for the tips!!

[KQ6AR]

I did the same, I glued linoleum to the bottom board before attaching the walls, then silicones the seam.
Remember you'll be pouring water in there when the substrate gets dry. & sometimes you'll make it a little too wet.

[baeckart]

HA Dan.. SOMETIMES too much water??! try we do that ALL the time.. heheh

[moeNlily]

I used linoleum and silicone too, and stained the wood. So far its worked great.

[Spuds mom]

Okay, you guys had better not let your torts tell Spud about these great tort table they have....he thinks his rubbermaid bin is all there is!!

[curry506]

Wha-la! It is done!  I am so happy, the torts seem to dig it too! Altho the barrier had to go up since Sheldon started biting Puanani! He is such a butt! Seems the new place has    Punk.

[curry506]

oops, sentence got cut off...was saying  'The new place doesn't seem to have improved his attitude.'

[Crush]

OMGOSH! Where did you get the "Turtle Crossing" sign?! I LOVE IT!!!! 

[moeNlily]

Me too, thats so cute!

[curry506]

The sign came with Sheldon. My friend got it for her daughter. We can find lots of turtle things in Seattle, most nurserys will have stuff. I'll keep my eyes open for any others I come across.