Bath Time!

[Patty P]

Hi Cowboy Ken,
Your advice helped my tort with bath time. He gets a treat immediately after tubby time and that has made all the difference! Thanks!
Do you really have a ranch?

 

[Cowboy_Ken]

Do you really have a ranch?

It might not be a ranch as most folks figure a ranch ought to to be, but it works for us…

 

[Cowboy_Ken]

Ooopss, I pushed reply too quickly. Here's some others…my Bestest horse, Monster. He was bomb proof, and great for anyone on his back.
Here is my baby girl, Ava, enjoying blackberries, she misses the thorns

this is my view to the south. …

Here is another view. Maybe north, I don't remember.

 

[Patty P]

By NY suburban sprawl standards, that looks like a farm or ranch! What beautiful animals!!!
I will be visiting Astoria and Portland OR for the first time this June!

 

[Oxalis]

I kinda cleaned up my quote of yours to offer a better, more likely explanation of why your little buddy doesn't "seem" to care for soaking time. Although it's in their best interests, and for their best health, they can be VERY stubborn in their ways.
All that exercise they get while trying to get out, is just plain good for them. It helps keep the internals working and often times provides a much needed workout. And it gives us keepers the added bonus of getting to examine their, "crap" for any obvious internal parasites that might pass unnoticed otherwise. Yay us, right?
Trust me here. With regularity comes expectation and trust from your tortoise that it's not as bad as it may have first figured, and it will settle down with the regular soakings.
You might try following the bath/soak with a favorite treat to provide some positive reinforcement to the whole routine. Just make sure it's a HEALTHY treat for your tortoise.
In regard to the treat idea, I recently posted a thread that was concerning tortoises remembering the best place for productive food sources. You could place a colored, playing card sized piece of cardboard in the enclosure over the treat location and always use that same card/color/treat after soaking for maybe 3-6 months, while taking notes. Then, once you notice it going to the same location for a spell, change things up. You know, put the treat in a new location with the card moved there as well.
Keep good notes and certainly keep us up to date with this. And most importantly stay honest with the tortoise. Don't set it down pointing towards the new treat location, and don't sabotage it by placing it away. Keep us up to date, I want to follow this idea. What do you think?

Holy C#%P that was a long winded post about soaking!!!LOL

That's a great point you make about him getting exercise, especially since Russians will apparently walk miles a day in the wild. I always worry that he's not walking enough in captivity, but I can only make his enclosure so big! The only thing I was really worried about with him thrashing around in the tub was that he was getting too stressed out. I assume reptiles can get stressed like many other animals, but I don't know how that would specifically affect a Russian. I have tried to give him a treat after a bath but it's never really seemed to work. I can keep it up though. Three to six months is a long time to experiment, so I can see how the results are more likely to be positive. On the plus side, he does love to drag dirt into his water dish and poop in there. He must love having a personal maid!