Zoo Med Wood Tortoise House

The pine boards that this product was made from are cheap and flimsy. The manual/ instruction guide is confusing and hard to follow. The one that I had also received in the mail was riddled with wood knots and upon screwing the item together on the back side of the last board. Was poorly constructed by the manufacturer. The item also looked like it was constructed with scraps the lumber yard just had laying around the shop. Mine was so poorly constructed that it had a giant gap in between the bottom which didn't line up. I would not recommend this individual product to my friend because it is so cheaply made. ( Including a few photos of the unexpected experiences that I encountered.)

I purchased this for an indoor home for a Russian tort when I am out of town (otherwise he stays outside roaming the yard). The enclosure does work and looks rather nice. It is easy to assemble if you are the type of person who is comfortable with such things. Mine went together nicely. However, my tort appreciates a humid substrate in part of the enclosure. For that reason, I lined the inside with plastic sheeting and put the substrate on that. Not liking that, I put in a plastic tub, filled that with moist substrate, then surrounded all around the tub with dry substrate. I'll see how that goes.

My sister has an adult Hermann's tortoise, so we purchased 2 of these habitats to give him enough room to roam. The habitats were easy enough to put together, although having a power drill is necessary to at least get the screws started (our weak power drill required a lot of manual screwdriver work!). We used peel and stick linoleum tiles to line the bottom of the habitats. Lesson learned – stick the tiles before attaching the sides to the bottom of the habitat instead of trying to cut the tiles and install afterwards. [Tiles come standard 12”x12”, so 6 fit each habitat perfectly.] Hinges and latches are pre-attached to the sides of the habitats – a definite bonus. Because we were attaching My sister has an adult Hermann's tortoise, so we purchased 2 of these habitats to give him enough room to roam. The habitats were easy enough to put together, although having a power drill is necessary to at least get the screws started (our weak power drill required a lot of manual screwdriver work!). We used peel and stick linoleum tiles to line the bottom of the habitats. Lesson learned – stick the tiles before attaching the sides to the bottom of the habitat instead of trying to cut the tiles and install afterwards. [Tiles come standard 12”x12”, so 6 fit each habitat perfectly.] Hinges and latches are pre-attached to the sides of the habitats – a definite bonus. Because we were attaching 2 habitats together, we had to move the hinges for one wire-topped panel to the other side so that both would open in the same direction, but that was not a big deal. We also removed the latches intended to keep the top panels locked and re-purposed them (2 on each side) to join the 2 habitats together, allowing the habitats to be easily separated for cleaning or moving. Overall, these habitats will be a great new home for Otis the Tortoise! … more

I really love this product if it were for an older tortious that didn't need as much humidity. NOT for hatchlings! It was super easy to put together and great space. Not for hatchling needing high humidity. I had to put a towel and foil over it to get some sort of humidity. I had issues keeping the temp levels where I wanted and had to take out the slide. When it's in place it will read a 10° to 15° difference in temps. So if you have a sulcata tortoise hatchling or any other needing high humidity I would not recommend this. Any other I would jump on it!

Had the product for about 2 weeks but so far our Tortoise is comfortable in it. Was surprised at the size of the product. Was bigger than we previously thought which gives our little one room to grow. Love the fact that it can be expanded as well as the fact it contains a closed off side. Much better than a glass enclosure.

I have bought 2 of these wood tortoise houses. 1 many years ago and it was great. Good construction, good material, etc. The 1 I just received was in very poor condition. It looked like they gathered all the old pieces of wood the company didn't want to try and put it together. Not happy with this one.

This is my third tortoise house! My redfoots live outdoors year round in S. Florida so lots of moisture. The first house lasted over a year in our conditions. I saw online that a tortoise keeper coated this house with the Flex type stuff. I used it last year on the second house and it still looks like new and works perfectly. I have more hatchlings this year so just purchased my third house. Not to hard to put together. I coated the pieces with the Flex paint first then put all of it together and I am not a DIYer :).

I ordered this because we have had a box turtle in a Rubbermaid container for a year. I dont know if the box turtle cares but I think I have less guilt about keeping him prisoner now. This is really big for a box turtle. Assemble was not to bad. Will keep the cat from annoying the turtle.

I read the reviews before making a purchase. The actual product that arrived is not as good as most people say. I am not sure if this is only isolated to the item I received. First, right out of the box a couple of the wood pieces have small chips at the corners/edges. The wood is rough (so handle with care or you would get splinters on your hands). Then, the pieces don't fit together quite well - the geometry is off - a rectangular box is slanted; the covers don't line up well with the chambers of the box; the smaller cover is not completely flat, so when sitting on top of the box, one corner tilted up slightly. Also, the position of the hinges don't match. We had to unscrew, re-position, then I read the reviews before making a purchase. The actual product that arrived is not as good as most people say. I am not sure if this is only isolated to the item I received. First, right out of the box a couple of the wood pieces have small chips at the corners/edges. The wood is rough (so handle with care or you would get splinters on your hands). Then, the pieces don't fit together quite well - the geometry is off - a rectangular box is slanted; the covers don't line up well with the chambers of the box; the smaller cover is not completely flat, so when sitting on top of the box, one corner tilted up slightly. Also, the position of the hinges don't match. We had to unscrew, re-position, then reattach one of the hinges in order for it to work. Some places where you're supposed to use screws to join the pieces didn't have the pilot holes on them, so we had to drill holes, which resulted in a couple of the wood pieces crack during the process. Also because there weren't pilot holes on some of the wood pieces, it makes the instructions seem quite confusing. We thought the assembly would be simple and not taking much time, but we ended up spending a bit over an hour for the work. All in all, I am not quite satisfied with the item received. Customer Service said they could either replace or refund the product; however I would have to return the one I got. Considering all the work we had put in, and also the packaging box was cut open and used as a floor mat for the assembly, it would be a big hassle to return the item. So I had no better choice but to pass the offer. I still hope this was an isolated case, though. … more

It's ok. It's all pre-fab and easy to assemble. It is a little out of square which placed stress on the hinges, if they are placed where they are supposed to be installed. I had to move the placement of the hinges which causes an uneven gap between the doors. It's either this or have the hinge screws tear out of the wood. 1/16" out of square multiplies gaps and uneven edges where the door closes.