Put ‘Em Outside!
As I discussed last time, the more attention a reptile keeper pays to his charge’s natural environment, the better. This concept is particularly important if you wish to set up herps in outdoor enclosures, an aspect of herpetoculture that I find especially rewarding. In fact, I believe there is no better way to truly observe the natural behaviors of reptiles than to provide large, naturalistic enclosures outdoors. Your animals are subject to direct sunlight, natural photoperiods and cycles of temperature and precipitation, just as they would in their natural habitat (especially if you’ve chosen species well-matched to your local climatic conditions). In many cases they can even undergo natural annual activity/brumation cycles in their enclosure.
One of the primary reasons I chose to move from Upstate New York to south Texas was this region’s wonderfully mild, Mediterranean climate, well-suited to a great variety of the world’s subtropical/warm-temperate herpetofauna. But even in my former home in New York it’s possible to keep a decent variety of herps either totally or seasonally in outdoor enclosures. Both European and North American cold temperate turtles, amphibians and snakes can be readily accommodated in backyard ponds and pens. And reptiles from warmer climes can still benefit from summer quarters outdoors. For example, a good friend of mine is able to give his colony of Leopard Tortoises (Stigmochelys pardalis) free run of a backyard pen for several months out of the year in the Syracuse New York area.
I’ve always wanted to maintain Leopard Tortoises myself, so they were the first subjects of my Texas outdoor herps project. Immediately upon purchasing our new home, I noticed that it had a small dog door in the wall of the screened porch, a door that opened onto our fenced back yard. So I decided that the pen I constructed would enclose a section of the back yard adjacent to this door. This made it easy to arrange for a heated “tortoise house” to be situated inside the screened porch, to serve as a retreat for the chelonians during inclement winter weather. The actual retreat itself was simple to fashion from a large plastic storage chest (sold by home improvement stores as a “Deck Box”). With an appropriately sized entrance cut in one side and mated to the dog door, it was easy for the tortoises to enter or leave the shelter from the outdoor pen. From October to March, the floor of this retreat is covered by a rugged heat mat, designed specifically for large tortoises. The mat is in turn plugged in to a thermostat set to activate whenever the ambient temperature in the retreat drops below 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Even though some winter nights in our part of Texas drop well below freezing, our tortoises have always done just fine in their heated house.
A view of one end of my outdoor Leopard Tortoise enclosure. On the right you can see the ceramic water basin, as well as the entrance to the heated retreat-note the “hard cover”, which allows me to lock the tortoises in during extremely cold weather. Photograph by Brad Chambers.
The pen itself is constructed of pressure-treated lumber, 2 X 12 boards affixed to 4 X 4 posts set in concrete. Constructed two boards high, the resulting pen encloses an area of approximately 1500 square feet. This is sufficient for a group of 2 male and four female adult leopards, as long as supplemental feeding is provided in addition to natural grass and weed forage. The pen faces east, which assures a good morning sun exposure, important on those sunny but cool winter days, providing a microclimate that may be a full 20 degrees warmer than the ambient outdoor shade temperature.
I introduced my group of Leopards in late spring, which gave them plenty of time to acclimate before temperatures began to drop in autumn. They settled in almost immediately, and to my surprise also began to use the shelter intermittently as well, despite the fact that nighttime temperatures were quite warm. Not all the tortoises would use the shelter, some preferring to spend the night under a bush or huddled in thick grass near the porch. But as the season progressed into fall and the nights got cooler, all the tortoises were soon spending most nights in the now-heated house. The first few really cold snaps in November had me a bit worried, but the tortoises continued to thrive even when the occasional night dropped into the 20s. I only rarely had to “rescue” one that unwisely chose to spend the night outdoors.
Three of my five Leopards feasting on carrots, greens and zucchini. Frequent supplemental feeding is required in a pen this size-otherwise one will soon find that every blade of grass and weed had been consumed. Tortoises may seem slow and methodical, but when it comes to eating they really get the job done! Photograph by Brad Chambers.
The hardiness of these “outdoor” tortoises is amazing. The last two winters here have been unusually cold, with many nights below freezing and sometimes days at a time in which the daytime high doesn’t get above the 40s. But in such cases the Leopards just hunker down in their house, only to emerge on the first sunny day when the temperature gets above 50 again. They feed ravenously on such days, and overall seem to lose little weight or condition over our three “cold” months of December, January and February. I was so encouraged that now I’m in the process of setting up a group of the more delicate Indian Star Tortoise (Geochelone elegans) outside.
Overall I’ve learned much about natural foraging, breeding and social behavior since I first began keeping herps outdoors. I’d highly recommend you try it, wherever you live.
Brad Chambers is a lifelong member of the Herp Nation and FieldHerpForum.com. An avid field herper and herpetoculturist, he grew up in Indiana and Ohio, and attended The Ohio State University, where he majored in Zoology and Journalism. He has served as Manager in a Pharmaceutical Company, managed no less than three pet stores, and went on to open his own reptile shop. Besides caring for his extensive personal collection of snakes, monitors and chelonians, Brad is currently Curator of Snakes at Ron Tremper’s Center for Reptile and Amphibian Propagation in Boerne, Texas. His writing has appeared in a variety of regional and national publications, including The Vivarium, Herpetological Review, Notes From NOAH, and others.
