outdoor house for russian tortoise

hello,

so i want to keep my russian tortoise out in my backyard. my plan for when winter comes around (i live in southern california in a suburb) is to put out a little house for him. right now when he's ready to retire for the day, he buries himself in a pile of leaves. i'm worried about rain as severl tort owners said it's important that russians do not get wet. is this plan to hopefully have him sleep in the house a good one? if so, i would have to get him to like going in the house and i was wondering how i can do that? and as far as hibernating, would he be ok in there? thanks.

Well first of all he don't have to hibernate unless you want to breed him (and there is more to that) and really you don't have to get them use to going in the house ( if you mean in your house in the winter just pick him up and put him in his inside enclosure if you mean his house outside just put his house over his leaves and the next day get rid of the leaves .


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Russian tortoises can't get wet??

hey cdb,

i mean of course i'll dry him when i spray or soak him- i am new to tortoise owning but i've done some soaking and it worked! but if it's raining it would be hard to keep him outside and dry as well. and i wouldn't even know where to find him if i have him outside while it's raining.

cdb389 said:

Russian tortoises can't get wet??

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I think what tortophile is referring to is that its not good for a russian to be outside where it is constantly cold and damp. A leaf pile on a rainy winter day for example would not be good for them.

tortophile,
Here is what I build for my other species. A smaller version would probably work well for you and you probably don't need to heat it or heat it very little in the winter if you don't want your tortoise to hibernate.
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/another-night-box-thread.88966/

I'm designing and building semi-buried night boxes for my russians right now. I will post after I've finished.

I'm afraid that Russian tortoises have a mind of their own when it comes to going into a tortoise house or not. I have a lovely little dog house that I've filled with garden trash and the Russians much prefer to dig up the grass and bury themselves in the yard over burying themselves in the leaf litter in their house. At first i tried to find them and put them into the house, but they just kept coming out and finding their own spot. I finally gave up and let them be. When September rolls around I try to find them and put them up for the winter in a dry area to hibernate.