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.)

For smaller tortoises and turtles this wooden habitat is fantastic. You won't find a similar alternative out there. You could build something similar but it will probably cost you the same in the long run. I do feel that a turtle over 5-6 inches needs a bigger space. I have a smaller Three Toed Box Turtle and the size is good. I also plan on having an outdoor enclosure next year. What is great about this enclosure is that I can easily leave it outside and not worry about local predators. It's not heavy so carrying it is easy.

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!

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.

The holes do not line up so you have to do a lot of work redrilling to do assembly. It was too difficult so I paid a guy at my factory to assemble it for ,e.

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

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 :).

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.

It just arrived today and was easily put together in about an hour using a power drill. Some of the wood is a bit thin and soft so you need to be careful but I didn't have any issues. It was a bit odd that the left top panel has a large logo printed on it but it was easy enough to flip it over and move the clasp so the wording is on the inside. We'll have to see how it holds up over time now.