5 year old Russian tortoise gone from sleeping all day to extremely active and not eating

[lymcBoris]

My Tortoise has gone from months of sleeping and being very inactive to suddenly stomping, charging and trying to climb out. He's not interested in his food and just charges at it and drags it all over his enclosure.
He's 5 years old, I've changed nothing in his enclosure. It's a 5x2 indoor table. Coco coir and orchid bark. Arcadia UV tube, humid hide, incandescent bulb hanging to temp of 35 degrees, ceramic heat hanging for am
ambient temp of around 24. Never been through brumation.

He's trashing his enclosure and is not interested in eating. How long can he go without eating?

I have an outdoor enclosure for him which is very large and he gets out there in warm weather, which is pretty rare here in Scotland.

I feel like no matter what I do over the four years we've had him that it's a constant battle and stress to be honest. I have followed every guige written on this forum to the t. I honestly have. But I'm really starting to get pet anxiety with Boris. Obviously I'm doing something wrong. I browse this forum and other forums constantly and see what looks like content tortoises grazing, sleeping wandering and just doing their thing. But Boris just seems to never be just "normal" whatever that is in tortoise terms. I'm exasperated. I feel like giving up and looking for a new " better" home for him. But that's just not me. I really want to do this right for Boris to live his best possible life.

 

[wellington]

First the indoor enclosure is too small. Minimum for an adult Russian is 4x8.
Second, get him outside more often if possible. Be sure he has a heated hide to get into. They can take night temps down to 60F as long as they can warm up the next day.
Third, don't let the pics fool ya. They are still life and probably the only time the tort could get caught in a good pic. Your pics looks like you have a nice calm tortoise.
Also spring is mating season. That will make them crazy
They can go quite a while without eating. Be sure to keep him hydrated though.

 

[Tom]

My Tortoise has gone from months of sleeping and being very inactive to suddenly stomping, charging and trying to climb out. He's not interested in his food and just charges at it and drags it all over his enclosure.
He's 5 years old, I've changed nothing in his enclosure. It's a 5x2 indoor table. Coco coir and orchid bark. Arcadia UV tube, humid hide, incandescent bulb hanging to temp of 35 degrees, ceramic heat hanging for am
ambient temp of around 24. Never been through brumation.

He's trashing his enclosure and is not interested in eating. How long can he go without eating?

I have an outdoor enclosure for him which is very large and he gets out there in warm weather, which is pretty rare here in Scotland.

I feel like no matter what I do over the four years we've had him that it's a constant battle and stress to be honest. I have followed every guige written on this forum to the t. I honestly have. But I'm really starting to get pet anxiety with Boris. Obviously I'm doing something wrong. I browse this forum and other forums constantly and see what looks like content tortoises grazing, sleeping wandering and just doing their thing. But Boris just seems to never be just "normal" whatever that is in tortoise terms. I'm exasperated. I feel like giving up and looking for a new " better" home for him. But that's just not me. I really want to do this right for Boris to live his best possible life.

I see three major problems, but the rest sounds great. These two problems can both cause the type of issues you are having.

1. The enclosure is much too small. Tortoises need huge enclosures, and 5x2 simply is not big enough. That would be like keeping you full time in a coat closet. You'd go stir crazy in days if not hours.

2. Not brumating a species that would be brumating in the wild is a mistake in my experience. Many people keep them up for a wide variety of reasons, and it that can work for some people at least some of the time, but it is not what this species is "hard wired" to do and it can really mess up their little brains and hormones.

3. The indoor enclosure looks very dimly lit, especially back in the corners. It should look like a bright sunny day during the daytime in there. You need to add some LED lighting to brighten things up. The UV tube should only be on for a few hours mid day, and the basking bulb will not make nearly enough light.

It shouldn't be too difficult to get a larger enclosure, and you can solve the brumation problem this coming fall, if you want to. Adding LEDs is simple to do.

Don't worry about the lack of eating. They can go a long time with no food. Get the enclosure and lighting right, keep up the soaks, and he will come around.

 

[lymcBoris]

First the indoor enclosure is too small. Minimum for an adult Russian is 4x8.
Second, get him outside more often if possible. Be sure he has a heated hide to get into. They can take night temps down to 60F as long as they can warm up the next day.
Third, don't let the pics fool ya. They are still life and probably the only time the tort could get caught in a good pic. Your pics looks like you have a nice calm tortoise.
Also spring is mating season. That will make them crazy
They can go quite a while without eating. Be sure to keep him hydrated though.

I would love to give him a much larger indoor enclosure but he's currently in our bedroom and no room elsewhere. We are looking into a special purpose built shed in the garden. That's a plan in progress.
He's outside today! 😊 He is certainly crazy right now. Hasn't stopped all day. I bathe him every second day.
Thanks for your advice. 🙂

 

[lymcBoris]

I see three major problems, but the rest sounds great. These two problems can both cause the type of issues you are having.

1. The enclosure is much too small. Tortoises need huge enclosures, and 5x2 simply is not big enough. That would be like keeping you full time in a coat closet. You'd go stir crazy in days if not hours.

2. Not brumating a species that would be brumating in the wild is a mistake in my experience. Many people keep them up for a wide variety of reasons, and it that can work for some people at least some of the time, but it is not what this species is "hard wired" to do and it can really mess up their little brains and hormones.

3. The indoor enclosure looks very dimly lit, especially back in the corners. It should look like a bright sunny day during the daytime in there. You need to add some LED lighting to brighten things up. The UV tube should only be on for a few hours mid day, and the basking bulb will not make nearly enough light.

It shouldn't be too difficult to get a larger enclosure, and you can solve the brumation problem this coming fall, if you want to. Adding LEDs is simple to do.

Don't worry about the lack of eating. They can go a long time with no food. Get the enclosure and lighting right, keep up the soaks, and he will come around.

Great info and reassurance, thank you very much. Time to get planning and building! I'll be prepared to brumate him this autumn. I am very nervous about getting it right.

 

[Tom]

Great info and reassurance, thank you very much. Time to get planning and building! I'll be prepared to brumate him this autumn. I am very nervous about getting it right.

Brumation is easy and natural if a few simple concepts are understood and observed. I've been doing it for decades with snakes, lizards and tortoises from all over the world. Here is more info on that, but you have months to consider it.

Tom's Brumation Thread

Every fall we get bombarded here on the forum with all sorts of questions and problems regarding hibernation and tortoises "slowing down" for winter. The purpose of this thread is to talk about all aspects of this subject, to dispel some of the myths and mysteries, and give a "how to" list of...

tortoiseforum.org

 

[wellington]

I would love to give him a much larger indoor enclosure but he's currently in our bedroom and no room elsewhere. We are looking into a special purpose built shed in the garden. That's a plan in progress.
He's outside today! 😊 He is certainly crazy right now. Hasn't stopped all day. I bathe him every second day.
Thanks for your advice. 🙂

A lot of people with little space will build a second level. It's an option.

 

[Cathie G]

Hello. I have a little Russian too. All the above is needed but also it's spring. My little guy does the same thing every year this time of year. He begs to be outside. As soon as he sees me in his room he's standing as tall as he can so I'll pick him up and take him to his outdoor enclosure. If I can't he's trying to climb the walls etc . Once it gets warm enough for him to be outside almost everyday that stops. It seems they can feel the change of seasons even if they aren't on the ground. Most of the year he's calm but spring seems to get his juices flowing and he's overactive. Our 16 years anniversary is May 18th.

 

[lymcBoris]

Hello. I have a little Russian too. All the above is needed but also it's spring. My little guy does the same thing every year this time of year. He begs to be outside. As soon as he sees me in his room he's standing as tall as he can so I'll pick him up and take him to his outdoor enclosure. If I can't he's trying to climb the walls etc . Once it gets warm enough for him to be outside almost everyday that stops. It seems they can feel the change of seasons even if they aren't on the ground. Most of the year he's calm but spring seems to get his juices flowing and he's overactive. Our 16 years anniversary is May 18th.

Hello and thank you for your reply. That's so good to know! The weather has warmed up enough here that he's been out the last few days for most of the day and like your wee one, he is desperate to get out as soon as he wakes.
That's lovely your 16 year anniversary is coming up! And lovely to know experienced Russian owners who can reassure me and advise. Thank you very much. 😊

 

[Cathie G]

I so agree with Tom about lighting. It's actually called photo and everyone needs it. I have Sapphire in a bright sunny window in his room. The sun rises and shines on both of his enclosures a big part of the day. (The sun is so bright he wakes up and hangs out all over his enclosure 😉) His indoor until about 2:30pm. His outdoor one until about 3:30pm. It's right outside of the same sunny window. It stays bright in there until sundown. I still have an overhead light on also from around 8:30am until 6pm or so.