The housing of Wombats needs special care and some forward planning is essential if you want to keep healthy animals. Each enclosure should consist of a den in which the animals are able to sleep comfortably during the day, and a run that is strongly fenced that will allow the animal plenty of room to exercise and a place to dig if it wishes to do so. 

Firstly, they must be protected from extremely high temperatures. Wombats do not have any sweat glands and therefore cannot get rid of excess heat through sweating and they have a small fleshy tongue which is not a great deal of help when panting. This all means that they can become heat-stressed very quickly, and sustained temperatures of over 32ºC will cause them distress if they are unable to find a cooler area. It is, therefore, of the utmost importance to provide the animal with a den that is well insulated. 

They also love to dig so some thought should be given to this aspect of their environment before any work is commenced on the building of any enclosure. 

The size of your wombat enclosure should, obviously, be as large as is practical, but I my opinion should be, at an absolute minimum, not less than about 24 square metres in floor area per animal and more than twice this amount for two animals 

If you are new to wombat husbandry I would not recommend housing more than one animal per enclosure unless you are hand raising two animals at the same time and they "get along" together. Even then, if there is any sign of aggression between them, I would advise keeping them apart, at least until you have reach the following stage. 

If you are intending to keep more than one animal, and you want to put them together (which, obviously, you will have to do if you want to have any chance of breeding them) then I would suggest you build two or more enclosures next to one another with connecting doors that should be kept closed until you are ready to let the animals become acquainted. Then keep a close eye on them for a time with some form of equipment to be able to separate them if it becomes necessary. Placing two animals into an enclosure and leaving them to their own devices without any pre-introduction is just asking for trouble and you could end up with a very unpleasant shock.

If you have to separate two aggressive animals one way is to use a large pet pack, into which you will need to encourage one of them, and a flat board (for example, a piece of plywood or something similar) that you can use to herd the animal towards the pet pack and at the same time protecting you own legs and ankles.  Remember these animal are extremely powerful, have enormous strength, lightening reactions and can inflict very severe wounds that could put you in hospital. I’m not trying to put you off because the rewards far outweigh the disadvantages, but you must always be aware that even a hand-raised, apparently very tame animal, can suddenly turn nasty without warning. 

I have eight wombats at the time of writing, contained in seven enclosures, three of these being interconnected.  These enclosures have been constructed in three, basically different, ways. Hopefully they have been getting better with each new one. I will attempt to describe the three designs 

Firstly The Dens 

These can be any shape you like or whatever fits into your location, but the following items should be included in your design. 
 

• a. Two or more entry tunnels. 

• b. More than one sleeping chamber per animal. 

• c. Do not make the sleeping chambers more than about 1.5m square. 

• d. Allow access to the sleeping chambers from outside. 

• e. Concrete floor with reinforcing mesh. 

• f.  Well insulated. 

• g. Use chew and scratch resistant materials. 

Dens 1 & 2 

The den of my first wombat enclosure was actually a converted ‘roo/wallaby shelter and the second was purpose built using the same basic design. Construction went something like the following:- 

The den area is a single chamber approximately 2.5m x 1.5m and as the original ground level was on a slope of about 15 degrees I dug out the floor area until it was level then built a framework of permapine logs to which I nailed galvanised corrugated iron to the back, sides and top, leaving the front open for the time being. On the inside of the logs I nailed lengths of timber (old pallet rails) which now meant that I had a gap the size of the permapine posts between the iron and the timber. This I packed tightly with straw, the idea being to insulate the whole structure to help keep it warm in Winter and cool in Summer. All the material I had dug out from the floor area I heaped up against the back and over the top to give the appearance of a grassy mound rather than a tin shed. Unfortunately I did not have enough material to cover the sides as well, so on one side I piled up a heap of rocks and on the other side I fixed a row of short pieces of permapine which gave the appearance of a small fence disappearing into the ground. 

The floor of the den was covered with steel mesh to prevent digging. I would recommend a reasonably strong mesh for this purpose, something like concrete reinforcing mesh only with smaller squares. I managed to get hold of some obsolete double bed spring grids (the things that bed springs are attached to inside a bed base) which were ideal, but failing this, probably the best material would be galvanised weldmesh about 100 x 100 x 2.5mm gauge (minimum). This was laid over the entire floor area of the den and then covered with about 6" of washed sand (not builders sand) and then about a foot of straw. (This den was originally built some 10 years ago and has since had a concrete floor added and divided through the centre to make two smaller chambers instead of one big one). I actually spread two bales over the floor to start with and then left three more bales in the den in one piece, with the twine removed and let our wombat do what she liked with them. They were soon totally dismembered and spread out all over the place. 

The front of the den is a little more complex. This I arranged into two halves, one half having a fixed front and the other half arranged into a hinged door to enable me to gain access for cleaning purposes. The fixed part of the front had a hole at ground level large enough for a fully grown wombat to get through. From this hole I placed a sheet of galvanised corrugated iron bent lengthwise into the shape of an upside down U and covered it with soil, rocks, turf etc to give the effect of a tunnel entrance to the den. This tunnel idea was in fact an afterthought and it has been accepted by our wombat with grateful delight. I would mention here that I am not happy with the lining of this tunnel being made of galvanised iron (the ends are too sharp) and to that end I will eventually change it completely and use a concrete sewer pipe also covered in the aforementioned manner. 

Number two den is basically the same as above except the internal dimensions are 1.5m x 1.5m and the mound above the den also has a shelter over it to give protection from rain and sunshine. Also in this case the access door is actually outside the enclosure to enable me to get inside the den without having to go into the run. 

The reason both these dens have since had a concrete floor laid is that we found the animals would dig out the soil from below the wire mesh, which means that eventually they are sleeping on a grid with nothing but air around them. We lost an animal from one of these enclosures, some years ago, with a urinary tract infection. I am convinced, although there is no evidence to support my theory, that this animal died through catching a chill from sleeping in an area where air could circulate around his entire body; thereby leaving him vulnerable to any infection that came along. 

Den 3 

This is, in my opinion, by far the most satisfactory den I have constructed but it is in a situation where I was able to take advantage of an existing situation and it’s the type of situation where you would really only have an opportunity to do it once. I would go as far as to say that most people would not have the appropriate set-up to do it at all. 

However, it is basically the pit under the garage floor converted to a wombat den. Actually that is not strictly true, as the pit was not there in the first place. When we purchased our present property the concrete floor of the garage had been cut ready for the construction of a pit; but that was as far as the previous owners had got.  We just completed the process and made a wombat den instead of a pit. The den consists of three chambers and a tunnel in and a tunnel out at opposite ends of the complex. The floor is concreted (I’m not going to fall into that trap again) with steel sheet for sides. This den was reasonably easy to make and is as good as you can get as far as the animal is concerned. It is cool in summer, warm in winter and has easy access from inside the garage. 

Dens 4 & 5 

These two dens were built with a number of sleeping chambers but I have found that the animals used only the smaller ones and tended to ignore the large roomy ones. 

They both started with a basic design and were built from the ground, up. They were designed on paper first and then built to the drawing with a few small modifications along the way. 

They were started very much as a conventional building, ie. with an excavated site to the pre-drawn size and shape. Then commenced by boarding up and pouring a concrete slab with reinforcing mesh, (or you can use any old bits of wire, steel, old bike frames or any old metal rubbish you want to get rid of). 

The external walls are double brick with a cavity and the internal walls are single brick. The roof is a poured concrete slab using lost formwork. (I can hear you puffing and panting already)!! This was a lot of hard physical work but well worth it in the long run. 

The lost formwork I used to support the concrete roof was the sides of an old defunct above ground swimming pool, supported underneath with timbers which were then taken away after the concrete had cured (don’t forget that some sort of reinforcing mesh is essential in the roof, otherwise the whole thing could crack and collapse). 

A sketch is included with this paper to give you some idea of the designs used. The basic shapes of all my dens are determined by the location for which they are intended, not the other way round. In other words, I wouldn’t design a den and then locate it, I find a place for a den and then design the den for that place. 

Dens 6 & 7 

These are currently only temporary affairs and not intended for long term use and basically consist of using a Wombat Box (see attached drawing) covered with bales of hay, back, top, sides and part of the front, and then waterproofed. 

However, it is my considered opinion that, even though they do not fulfil the criteria listed above, this form of den is an excellent way of providing emergency accommodation for an animal that may be ‘dropped’ on you out of the blue. In my case these dens were provided to house two animals when I had to go away for a short while and was unable to take the animals with me. These two enclosure were built in one weekend and have now given me the time to construct a permanent den without having to complete it in a hurry. 

The Runs 

These are all basically constructed in the same way with the exception of the first one. This one was constructed in the following manner. I should mention here that I would never do it this way again, it was a lot of hard work and was not particularly successful. 

It is constructed using permapine poles for posts and rails with 100 x 100 x 2.5mm weldmesh for the fencing material. The first job was to determine where the perimeter was to be and then I hired a Ditch Witch and dug a trench along this line to a depth of about 1m and into this dropped the weldmesh and the posts. Then I used further permapine poles nailed to the tops of the posts to make the rails. Post height above ground is approximately 800mm. This meant that I had the weldmesh 800mm above ground and 1000mm below ground and this is the weakness in this method. 1000mm is not deep enough to stop a wombat digging underneath and depending on your soil type, the wire could rot below ground. In my case the wire has started to rot below the ground and I have already had to patch it in couple of places at ground level, although to be fair it has been there for over ten years now. I suppose I can’t expect it to last forever. 

A much easier, and less expensive way to do it, is basically the same as above, using the permapine post and rail method, but not placing the wire into the ground; instead fold it inwards at ground level. 

First you will need to concrete your posts into the ground and then attach the rails. Then you will need to clear the ground within the enclosure where you are going to fold the wire onto the ground. This is just a simple matter of raking or shovelling off the loose surface soil, (keep this in the centre of the enclosure for the moment) then fold the wire down. You will find that you may have to peg the edges down using steel tent pegs or similar to hold it in place. You can leave them in place permanently, then replace the soil you have just scraped off to cover the wire. If you wish you can spread around some leaf litter at this stage just to make look good. 

As you will be folding the wire lengthwise I have found the easiest way to do this is to measure each straight length of fence first. Then cut the wire to that length and pre-fold somewhere convenient and carry it folded to the site. (This is obviously a two person job, although you could manage it on your, but it is much more difficult). Fix one half of the fold to the posts and/or rails then unfold it onto the enclosure floor. Don’t be tempted to do too much length in one cut. This wire has a mind of its own and becomes very unwieldy the bigger the piece. 

Using this method will give you a metre of ground all around the inside perimeter of the run that is covered in mesh (and a double covering in the corners). This has a couple of advantages. Firstly it does not seem to rot so readily and, as wombats seem to prefer to dig against some sort of obstruction and in corners, it tends to have the effect of encouraging the animals to dig where there is no wire (i.e. in the central area of the run) where there is less likelihood of them escaping. 

Some of my enclosures have gate access and some do not. A gate is not necessary as long as you have a spot where you can slide over the fence comfortably and quickly. An escape route is essential for reasons mentioned earlier and a gate is not the quickest way of getting out of an enclosure in a hurry. 

If you do prefer to have a gate this will give you a point of weakness where the animal has the potential to escape. Make sure the gate is well fitting particularly at ground level. It is a good idea to make a concrete step under the gate to prevent the animal digging under it. I have had one animal lift a gate off it’s hinges and find her way back into the house in the middle of the night. It can give you a nasty fright when a 20kg animal leaps on your bed at 1.00 o’clock in the morning waking you from a deep sleep. It just happened to be her first night out in her new enclosure and she obviously wasn’t impressed. Thank goodness she was a friendly animal and all she wanted was to be in the warm with her "mum & dad".