Advice for a interested novice
 

In the future I’m looking at buying and keeping a pet tortoise. To accommodate them, I’d obviously need a tortoise table or some such shelter. I’m thinking of making my own table using pallets. How large of a table would it need to be, how deep, etc? If anyone could give some advice on the matter, that would be great!

Hello welcome it depends on size (& species, some tropicals species do well in a viv) If its a hatchling Mediterranean tort (Hermann, Horsfield etc) then 4 x 2 is a minimum.

Always make a very large enclosure, as if built small it will be grown out of very quickly. So will have to make another. Large enclosures can always have shut off areas, until a tortoise grows.
Once they get outside they dont like coming back in anyway:0)
They can go outside from the end of frosts until the frosts start again in the Autumn. As long as they have a suitable area, and some sort of housing with heat if possible.
Firstly you need to make a choice of tortoise before you make big ideas. As although the meds and horsfields are kept the same, they do have slight differences which could alter your ideas for enclosure:0)

Welcome to the forum.

I agree with Sandy about size of tort table. We ended up making three before they went outside permanently.

Also, I did not appreciate how active a tortoise can be and the first table was too small very quickly.

There are some lovely pictures on the forum of how to make their home more interesting.

welcome to the forum spook. Some good ideas on images on the net also if you search on tortoise enclosures. and on SW here. big as possible ideally as they like to roam and hide, and bask and think ...CB

So, I’m interested in an Indian star Tortoise, so would 3-4ft square be big enough? From a source on the internet, I’ve read 6ft sq. is a good size for 1-4 tortoises. Could that be made smaller by only having one, or by adding extra levels?

spooky I wouldn't add extra levels, but for no other reason than this can hinder air flow. Depends how big your tort is, but rule of thumb from many years ago is a 12 " tortoise should be in a 9ft x 9ft area minimum. one , or two tortoises do not really matter as the husbandry will be the same so size does matter as the space is important. Saying this some species do not need huge areas. My preference on area and activity is the longer the better and plenty of obstacles so they don't stress out. A tiny hatchling obviously wont need 9 ft x 9ft !!! so common sense also has to prevail ! let us know how you get on ! CB

Thanks CherryBrandy. From what I’ve read, captive-bred Indian Star tortoises grow to a maximum of 8 inches long, so a 5x5 or 6x6 would be about right based on the rule of thumb. I’m going to be waiting a while before I get started, but I’ll post again when it’s done.