Guac the Tortoise's Renovation Plan

By Elizabeth and Lillie

Elizabeth

Lillie

15% IP 2020.pptx

Who is Guac?

(click here)

We have been making a new enclosure, environment, and life style for this tortoise because of the life he is living right now. Hopefully, he can maintain his new life style for the rest of his time at our school.

Guac is a Russian tortoise who has been a class pet in our school's science classrooms for several years. He is currently living in Mrs. Rodriguez's 6th and 9th grade class room. There is another tortoise named Chip, who lives in a separate tank, with a cave and a ramp. Guac lives in a small glass terrarium, with half a log and a dirty water dish, which is not nearly a Russian tortoises standard sustainable enclosure.

Our Project and Why we Chose it

Our project is to help the well being of a Russian tortoise who is a class pet in one of our school's science classrooms. This tortoise is currently living in a small, glass, fish tank terrarium which is more than unfit for a tortoise. The other tortoise in the classroom, Chip, lives also in a fish tank terrarium, but its a little bit bigger. That cage has a ramp, a ledge platform, and a spacious cave. Guac however, lives out in the open 24/7, has half of a small log for a cave, and no enrichment. Overall, his health conditions are not suitable for any tortoise. So our project is making his life style healthier, and a better living environment. We chose this project because we both love animals, and we both enjoy engineering and planning. We both wanted to incorporate those two things into our project, and we wanted to be able to make a local animal's life better.

What is wrong with Guac's current terrarium?

(click here)

At the moment, Guac is living in a small fish tank terrarium. What is wrong with that you ask...?

They can't see glass. Tortoises often try to walk through glass, accidentally run into it, or bang against it trying to get out. Especially when the enclosure's decor is boring, not suitable, and has no entertainment or exercise value.
Their current tanks are not the correct size. Overall, the concept of a fish tank as a terrarium for a Russian tortoise is bad, and even worse when it's not the correct size. The minimum size for this type of animal is 2 feet by 4 feet. The current cages they are in are much smaller than this.
They need proper lighting. Russian tortoises are found throughout central Asia, which means they live in extreme temperatures. So a pet tortoise should have a proper heat bulb that contains UVA and UVB for vitamin development and to promote natural activity behaviors, and heat for adequate temperature regulation and digestion.
The terrariums have no enrichment. One of the tortoises, Chip, has a bigger cage than the other, and it has a ramp on one side with a ledge on top of it. Underneath, there is also a cave. That enclosure provides exercise (the ramp), a platform (the ledge), and a shelter for shade and isolation instead of being overly exposed to the light, children, and noise. Now, the other tortoise Guac, has an even smaller tank. Guac has half a log for a cave and a filthy water dish. These are improper conditions, and that's what we're going to change.

What will the new enclosure have that the old one won't?

(click here)

These are all the pictures of everything new we have and will have in Guac's new enclosure. Their are descriptions on what it specifically is, and why we have it. Note: these pictures are not of the actual materials and items in and of the enclosure, they are just examples.

Spruce Wood Enclosure

This new enclosure is made out of tortoise friendly spruce wood instead of glass. It is more sturdy, has much more space, the right size and dimensions, and since tortoises can't see glass, this is perfect because Guac can stop banging on it and running into the glass. It also has more privacy for Guac, and less noise and children.

New Water Dish

A new water dish is good for Guac, because his current water dish is hard to clean, and rarely cleaned. So we decided to just totally redo everything including getting a new water dish saucer that's made of easy-to-clean tortoise friendly plastic.

Exercise Ramp and Basking Platform

Along with this new enclosure, is a built in ramp. The ramp is there for exercise, enrichment, and transportation to the top. It takes up half of the cage length, and the rest is for free roaming and burrowing room. At the top of the ramp is a ledge platform with the heat lamp right above it, perfect for basking. And underneath the platform is a private cave like place for sleeping, privacy, and coolness.

Hol-ee Enrichment Ball

Every single day, for every meal, lettuce just gets dropped into Guac's tank on the wood chips. What if there was a more active, clean, and mind using way to get his food? Easy! Whoever is feeding the tortoise, will simply put the lettuce into the Hol-ee ball, and set it in the enclosure for Guac to have fun with.

Private Sleeping Cave

Underneath the ledge platform, there is a cozy cool area that we consider a cave. It is a great place for sleeping, isolation, and cooling down for Guac. They also like to feel secure from the extremes, so they often will hide under something and burrow.

Dandelion Pot

Dandelions are highly nutritious, from root to flower. They are loaded with fiber, minerals, and vitamins. They have vitamin A, K, C, E, and small amounts of vitamin B. Tortoises love eating almost any type of plants, especially dandelions. What we plan on doing is have a pot and plant the dandelions in it so when they grow long enough and grow off the sides, Guac can eat the yellow flower part, and wait for it to grow back without eating the whole stem! We will also plant some around the enclosure for snacking and decor.

Burrowing Topsoil

All tortoises need topsoil. Russian tortoises are burrowers, which means they need to dig. Topsoil is used to cover up the ground, which in our case is smooth wood and plastic wrap.

Heat, UVA and UVB Bulb, Lamp, and Lamp Holder

Tortoises require UVA, UVB, and heat. If they don't have it, they'll die a lot quicker. This can all come a heat bulb and lamp. UVA is to enhance natural activity behaviors, and it allows them to see better and interact with the sun in a more natural way. UVB is to help developing vitamins, minerals, and calcium. And heat helps regulate body tempuratuer and digestion.

Research

(click here)

We took data from several reliable sites, found our own data and measurements, and asked people who knew more about the Guac tortoise than we do about his behaviors, his routine, and his tendencies.

Russian Tortoises come from throughout central Asia, like Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. The tortoises are pretty sturdy, because their natural habitat seasons include extremely dry and hot summers, and bitterly cold winters. So for a tortoise in captivity, their ideal temperature from their heat bulb should be around 80 degrees, with a basking spot in the mid 90's.

Tortoises, when are able, are very active animals. And since Guac does not have much variety in his nutrition, hardly any space to do any exercise, and no enrichment, you can imagine this tortoise is bored out of its mind! So we needed to make a way to combine everything this sad tortoise needs in one. Exercise, enrichment, digging soil, variety of nutrition, cleanliness, privacy, heat and warmth, activity and everything he currently lacks.
Elizabeth's brother, Brendan, has helped with so much of the project and has given much background knowledge. They also own three other reptiles, and hand made all of their enclosures and terrariums. So they have experience with making reptile enclosures, and Elizabeth and her last years partner made Chip's cave and ramp.
Tortoises, like we mentioned earlier thrive in the warm heat. They need warmth for adequate temperature regulation. They also need UVB, which gives vitamins, and UVA which energizes them for more natural activity. They also require a localized hot basking spot, so Guac can choose where to go and be most comfortable anytime.
Russian tortoises can also live over 40 years! So if properly cared for, this tortoise could be a class pet for a very long time. But if not properly cared for, this tortoise could die a with a sad life.
Russian tortoises are burrowers, so they need proper digging bedding soil, and they also need caves and isolation.

Possible Solutions

(click here)

We could have just improved the cage that Guac the tortoise has (which is what we did do his neighbor tortoise, Chip), but there wasn't enough space to really do anything in it like we could for the other one (we put in soil, built a ramp, and a cave). But what we decided to do was to make something completely new:

Make a long ramp for good walking exercise, but not too long to where it doesn't want to go to the top of the ramp where there's big ledge for its basking spot.
The ramp is on one half of the cage, and on the other half is free roaming and digging room which we hope to improve next year.
Underneath the ledge is a cave like place. It's dark, secure, and isolated. If he ever needs peace, he can go there.
We got a new, clean, and a fresh water dish for Guac
We also wanted to put in a pot, with dandelions (it is a good natural nutritional food for the tortoise to give it something new) planted inside. The dandelions would grow, and hang over the side, so then Guac would just bite off the yellow end, and not eat the whole thing so it could easily just grow back! We unfortunately were not able to do this this year, but we definitely plan on doing it next year.
Another way for the tortoise to be entertained, challenged, and have a fun way of getting his food is to have his lettuce in a Hol-ee dog toy. It's active and uses the tortoises mind. Like a dog getting peanut butter out of a bone.
We also got new soil bedding, for digging, comfort, and to make it more like his natural habitat.
Like we addressed earlier, Guac needs a heat lamp with a heat bulb. Right now he just has a light lamp. Which is actually really bad for him, because he needs heat because that’s what his natural habitat is like and he needs it for basking. So we are getting a lamp holder, heat lamp, and heat bulb.

Our Prototype/Design Sketch

(click here)

Unfortunately, our prototype was left at school and we could not get it back. But our sketch should be just as fine if anything better than the cardboard prototype.

On this design you see that...

There are several forms of enrichment in this prototype including exercise ramp, basking platform, and hol-ee ball with lettuce inside to challenge his brain
A new water dish, along with highly nutritional dandelions growing out of a pot
A spruce wood ramp with dowels that goes up to a ledge platform that is a perfect basking spot
Bedding topsoil for new beds, and burrowing
Heat Lamp, heat bulb, and lamp holder for UVA, UVB, and heat
Tortoise friendly spruce wood four wall enclosure

Prototype Testing, Measurements and Data

(click here)

We did not take any pictures of our at school prototype unfortunately, and with lack of materials and time, we could not test it in any way since it was a fourth of the actual size, made of cardboard, and could not really be tested with an animal. But we do have our original and improving prototype pictures with our changing plans and measurements..

Tortoise Measurements

Board Placement and Cutting Measurements

Material Sorting and Purchases

Mistakes, Obstacles, and Modifications

Every project, always gets modified throughout the building process. Some problem comes up, and you have to do what you can do to fix it and improve it. Several times throughout building the enclosure we had to make some changes.

Cutting Materials

To cute the wood, we obviously needed something suited to cut straight through each board. Unfortunately, we only had a miter cutting machine that we used to cut the dowels. Since we had to go to Home Depot anyways, we picked up a hand held jig saw. It was a challenge to use since the blade wasn't very good, but we made it work.

Floor Board Security

Since we used a hand held saw, are accuracy was all skill. So some of the lines has curves and bumps, which would make it difficult for assembly. We also didn't have a way connecting the two bottom boards together. So what we did is take three 2 feet cross boards, and screwed them into the bottom of the wood panels for stability, easier transportation, and connecting the floor boards.

Assembly Utensils

We originally planned on using Gorilla Wood Glue to assemble the boards together, but then we realized that would definitely not work because it wouldn't secure it or keep it together. So while we were at Home Depot, we got some screws that worked perfectly.

Ramp End Slant

When we were about to assemble the ramp, Matthew (Elizabeth's dad who helped with the building) had an idea to cut the end of the ramp at a slant. It wasn't what we were planning to do, but it sounded like a good idea. We were going to use the miter cutting machine. But the it only cut a little over one half the ramp, and we had no way of rotating it. So we decided to use the hand held jig saw to finish the cut. It was challenge, but it was doable.

Drill Holes

We didn't think through how to connect the ramp to the ledge platform. So we had to step back and think about how to connect the ramp at an angle. We decided to just drill two holes straight through the ramp and into the platform, and then screw in two screws. And for extra security, we drilled in some screws from the outside wall and into the ramp.

Procedure

(click here)

The steps changed from when we were first planning out the project, and some problems and mistakes came up, so we had to add a step or two to fix them, like step 3 and 8.

Step 1: Lay out wood boards, and label and measure where the wood will be cut and be placed

Step 2: Cut up wood dowels, floor boards, ramp and platform ledge

Step 3: Drill in the cross boards, and connect the floor boards

Step 4: Cut one of the wood panels in half for two of the walls

Step 5: Drill all four walls together, and line them up with the base

Step 6: Take the base out from underneath the four connected walls, and flip it upside down and set it on top

Step 7: Drill the base into the four walls, on each side

Step 8: Cut the end of the ramp to a slant, so the Guac does't have a huge ledge to climb up on, and then sand it.

Step 9: Attach and drill in the ledge platform from the sides

Step 10: Drill screws at the top of the ramp going directly into the ledge, and on the sides of the ramp

Step 11: Gorilla glue the dowels onto the ramp

Step 12: Let glue set over night or 24 hours

Final Product

Where's Guac?

This is what our final project looks like, and yes it does look very empty. Over spring break Guac went home with a family to stay for a while. But unfortunately because of COVID-19 we did not get to show Guac his new enclosure. It looks just as it would have, just without the soil, the extra enrichment, and Guac. We might be able to find out which family has him, and drop all the supplies off at their house as a possible solution, but it's not likely. But overall, it looks exactly like what we thought it would, if not better.

Who Helped with this Project?

We would like to thank the people who helped us make this project, and helped us make a better life for Guac the tortoise.

Brendan

Brendan is Elizabeth's brother and helped design the enclosure, and he helped make and label the measurements on the prototype pages.

Matthew

Matthew is Elizabeth's father, and he helped over a weekend to go out and get the supplies required from Home Depot, and he helped cut the wood, and screw everything together.

Mrs. Rodriguez

Mrs. Rodriguez is a science teacher at our school, and Guac was in her classroom this year. She gave us permission to work with Guac, and she helped figure out where the new enclosure would go and look like.