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Cosy Tortoises

Innovative Tortoise Housing, Shop, Tortoise Boarding, Ideal Set-Up and Care Information - Established 2007

All-Season Houses Information

For prices please go to the Housing Information page to access the separate tortoise housing pages via the picture links or click-on these links All-Season Tortoise Houses, Outdoor Tortoise Runs, Indoor Tortoise Tables, Natural Ground Tortoise Houses and Giant All-Season Tortoise Houses.

Order your Tortoise housing by Contacting us via e-mail at cosytortoises@btinternet.com or phone on 01890 818584. See our Order Houses page to find out why we request payments when you're at the front of the Order queue.

The picture above shows a Medium All-Season House with a Sunroom.  The boxes inside contain electrical items that were requested as optional extras. See the Housing Accessories page for our Heat and Light Pack, Electrical Installation, Colour Upgrade details and other ironmongery for the Outdoor Runs.

For All-Season Houses suitable for larger tortoise species or large groups of tortoises please see the Giant All-Season House page.

If you need to wet your ground regularly to provide higher humidity for Tropical and African tortoises we recommend our Natural Ground All-Season Houses.


Site Preparation

Position your house in the sunniest part of your garden

Make sure you can safely supply the site with an electric supply - you may need to consult a qualified electrician for advice

Ensure the ground stays as dry as possible under the wood house by choosing an area that drains well and ideally is in an elevated position in case of flooding.

Lay a concrete block or use paving slabs to provide a strong, level and dry base to support the house and prevent the runners sinking into the ground (just like you would for a garden shed).


In principal, All-Season Houses are designed to house tortoises all year round outside. Their main functions are to provide shelter, heat and UV provision as well as a good temperature gradient and space for a water bowl if necessary. The thermal gradient is a description of the space required to ensure tortoises can move away from a heat source and ideally can be about ten degrees cooler than basking temperature. For most reptiles ten degrees celsius is regarded as an adequate thermal gradient. The cool end temperature ideally should be tailored to species, typically down to about 10-15 degrees for Mediterranean Tortoises. Typically cool-end temperatures should be higher than 20 degrees for both Tropical and African tortoises, although desert species can be much more cold-tolerant, but all tortoises should be protected from temperatures below 10 degrees celsius.

Heated hide

The All-Season houses are large enough to provide a good thermal gradient. This is especially important in the cooler months when you would ideally close your tortoises in overnight whenever the temperature falls below 15 degrees C outside. This is acheived by removing the ramp (that slots on) and replacing the tortoise door secured with turn buttons (supplied and fitted) inside the house to ensure good security. A drip Mould is fitted above the Tortoise Door to prevent rainwater running down the front of the house into the door opening.

Sunroom

Premium insulation is provided by an air cavity and high quality Airtec double-layered foil with thick bubble-wrap within it. Outer walls are finished in Tongue and Groove cladding. The Airtec foil insulation is secured inside the cavity before the cladding layer is added as shown in the top right of the second picture.

The houses are fully insulated to protect against the cold, the wind, wet weather and over-heating in the sun. The walls, floor and roof are double-walled with insulation in the cavity as standard. The main reason for insulating the houses is to help keep the heat in the house so the thermostat will keep the heatlamp on as little as possible. This saves energy and prevents the heat spot directly below the heatlamp from getting too hot for your tortoises, just to keep the rest of the house warm enough. Thermostats with good insulation make our houses very energy efficient all-year round.


The roof is fitted with high quality felt and the outside is painted with high quality weather-proof stain. Water-resistant good quality WBP Plywood is used throughout the double-skinned roof.

These houses are hand made using the best quality material available. The wood Cosy Tortoises uses are of very high quality, smooth finished and purchased untreated to prevent chemicals leaking from the wood into the ground. These houses were designed by experienced tortoise keepers.


Doors can be locked with padlocks and the windows are made of polycarbonate security glazing that has high impact resistance. The ventilation windows have mesh secured inside them to prevent access through them help ensure the safety of your tortoises overnight when you may need the air vents open in warm weather. Hasp and Staples are supplied and fitted on both front access doors.


Add-on Outdoor Runs that are specially adapted to fit onto the front of the All-Season Houses are available on the Housing Accessories page. There are also Hasp And Staples (for Outdoor Runs), Weatherproof Padlocks, Heat and Light Packs, Electrical Installation packs and colour upgrades available for these houses on the Housing Accessories page too.

IMPORTANT SAFETY ADVICE: These houses are very heavy. These houses should not be lifted by one person to prevent personal injury. When lifting these houses use good lifting technique to protect your back and we would recommend steel-toe capped shoes.

These houses are hand made using the best quality material available. The wood Cosy Tortoises uses are of very high quality, purchased untreated and smooth finished. These houses were designed by experienced tortoise keepers, if you are interested in our story please see the About us page.

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Order your Tortoise housing by Contacting us

cosytortoises@btinternet.com

phone - 01890 818584

See our Order Tortoise Houses page for details about how to pay.

If you need advice before ordering, please see our Contact page and see our Terms and Conditions.


For prices please go to the separate tortoise housing pages by clicking-on these links

All-Season Tortoise Houses

Giant All-Season Tortoise Houses

Outdoor Tortoise Runs

Sloped Covered Tortoise Runs

Indoor Tortoise Tables

Natural Ground Tortoise Houses

Natural Ground Tortoise Runs


Visit our Online Shop to buy Cosy Tortoises

Grow your own Tortoise Food Seeds

Calcium products

Heat and Lighting products


Tortoise pages for advice about housing tortoises based on their natural habitats including which Cosy Tortoises housing set-up we recommend

Mediterranean

Tropical

African


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