Adopted 2 days ago, not eating yet

[CrystalsFamily]

Hello. Our family has just adopted a young Russian from Petsmart and named him Crystal. I just want to get some feedback about how he is adjusting. I've done a lot of research and feel pretty confident of our setup. Terrarium was a little cool the first day and a half, but we added a 2nd under tank heater and now have it up to 95 directly under basking light (PowerSun), 90 generally in that side of tank, and 70 in the other side. Humidity around 30.

He has only been active in a couple of very short bursts, mostly staying in his HabbaHut with eyes closed. Yesterday he had a 20-min warm soak and got active in there (trying to get out), also drank some water. But he hasn't eaten a thing yet or pooped. Has available some collards and spring mix, mixed with ZooMed Grassland and some calcium, with a few bits of zucchini.

Questions:
--Is it normal for water to squirt out his nostrils when he's drinking?
--Should he be eating by now, or is he just adjusting?
--Is it possible that he's never had fresh food (I know they use the freeze dried and the Grassland at Petsmart) and doesn't recognize it as food?

He's home alone today and I wish I could be checking on him! Thanks for any input.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi, and welcome to the Forum!

Yes, its perfectly normal for water to come out the nostrils when a tortoise drinks. They put their whole face in the water and drink through their nose as well as their mouth. The other end of the nostrils goes into the roof of the mouth, not down the throat.

He should eat in a day or two, sometimes up to a week.

Russian tortoises are 'browsers' and not 'grazers' which means they are used to eating broad-leaf plants and weeds. If you can't get him to eat the spring mix in a couple days, go outside and find some weeds that haven't been sprayed and see if you can get him to eat that.

 

[CrystalsFamily]

After a little soak this morning, he was active for longer than past periods, and had a little nibble of his salad! Hooray! He does sleep a lot, though....