Ornate wood turtle

Question
Hi, Jeannie. I recently asked a question about my turtles behavior and habitat. I am going to ditch the tank all together and build an outdoor and indoor habitat. I saw some made of wood online, but I wanted to make sure that it would be okay to copy one of those habitats. I am going to make it pretty large and deep so that my turtle can burrow when he wants to.  Any tips, ideas  or concerns would be greatly appreciated.

Answer
Hi Kat,

If you want to reply back and set it to private, I'll give you my email so you can just contact me directly if you have more questions.  As I said, I don't have a lot of experience with this particular species, but I'm great at research and also have quite a few people I can use as resources if need be.

It's great to hear from someone who really wants to do the best for their turtle.  Building your own indoor enclosure is a great idea.  Which plan did you want to copy?  Wood will work, but you will need to do something to waterproof it.  Because this specie likes so much moisture, rather than trying to waterproof the wood (generally using four coats of water-based polyurathane will do for tortoises), I'd build the enclosure and then line it.  The easiest would probably be to go to Home Depot or Lowe's and get a piece of scrap vinyl flooring--they sell them in fairly large pieces.  You can fit it to the enclosure by making cuts at the corners, and then seal those seams with a silicone sealant that's safe for fish (aquarium sealant or whatever).  If it's safe for fish, it's OK for your turtle.

Substrate depth should be enough so the turtle can cover himself, so figure 4".  I'd make the enclosure 12" higher than the substrate, just to be safe.  I don't know about this particular species, but most turtles and tortoises climb very well, so a minimum height of twice the length of the shell is a good idea.  With the outdoor enclosure, it's a good idea to have a lip (overhang) to prevent climbing out, and make the sides a little higher.

Hope this helps!