Breeding Russians: For Dummies

[leigti]

In spring I plan to build a larger outdoor russian pen. Until recently I had just one male. I now have 2 females also. I plan on dividing the one large pen into 3 smaller ones with some kind of easily removable walls..or a gate or some such thing. This way I can let them mingle while supervised and easily separate them. This way, I can try to breed them or not but its still one main enclosure. Looks good on paper anyway

I have a large outdoor L-shaped pin. It is approximately 15' x 10'.it was for my Russian tortoise. But then I was given a female box turtle so for the short term I blocked off one part of it for her. my Russian, a female, would spend a lot of time pacing and Climbing and trying to climb along that one wall that I blocked. I think she knew there was another tortoise type critter over there and wanted to get to it. I could be completely wrong and I definitely hope so many corrects me if I am, but I have a feeling your tortoises would know the others are on the other side of the wall and may try to get to them by climbing or digging etc. she may have just done this because she was wondering why her doorway was blocked. There was an opening about 2 feet wide for her to go through only prior to me blocking it. This was two females, I wonder if it would be even worse with a male. Just a thought, your idea could work very well. Maybe some more experienced Russian breeders will tell me if I'm right or wrong on this.

 

[leigti]

I think it is great that you want to try to breed the Russian tortoises. although I would like to breed mine I know that I am not set up for it. I have decided that if I ever need to find a home for my tortoise I will try to find somebody who is breeding them, females seem to be harder to find so it should be easy enough to find her a good home if needed. My local vetseems to know that I am a sucker and will take in strays so if there is ever a female Russian available I will go ahead and take it temporarily and then let the forum know that I have it so that maybe it can go to somebody who is set up for breeding them.

 

[Levi the Leopard]

Here's a quick photo of the 20'x6' pen I used for the 1:3 group. MUCH more space was needed if I had wanted to continue working with the group.

I share these to give you ideas of how even this wasn't enough Hope it helps