Changing Habitats for Traveling

[ambbeeee]

Hi everyone! I have a 7 month old Russian tortoise. I currently live at school and am planning on going home (~3 hours away) for Thanksgiving break which will be a total of 5 days. I am bringing my tort along but I have a few questions that hopefully someone can help me with.

My torts habitat is too heavy for me to move and transport with me - so what may be the best way of going about this? I figured putting him in a nice bin for travel would work. But when I get to my parents home, should I use a big bin for his habitat up there? I guess I am concerned on how he will react to a new habitat (even if it’s temporary). I will make sure to keep the layout the exact same. Will he be stressed out by this? I’m not sure what to do if so!

Any advice would be great. I’m going to bring along his heat lamp as well. I’m thinking about leaving his tube UVB at my apartment since they are so fragile. Would going a few days without UVB hurt him? I’ve heard previously that as long as they’ve regularly had it they should be fine.

Thank you all!

 

[Shuler24]

Hi everyone! I have a 7 month old Russian tortoise. I currently live at school and am planning on going home (~3 hours away) for Thanksgiving break which will be a total of 5 days. I am bringing my tort along but I have a few questions that hopefully someone can help me with.

My torts habitat is too heavy for me to move and transport with me - so what may be the best way of going about this? I figured putting him in a nice bin for travel would work. But when I get to my parents home, should I use a big bin for his habitat up there? I guess I am concerned on how he will react to a new habitat (even if it’s temporary). I will make sure to keep the layout the exact same. Will he be stressed out by this? I’m not sure what to do if so!

Any advice would be great. I’m going to bring along his heat lamp as well. I’m thinking about leaving his tube UVB at my apartment since they are so fragile. Would going a few days without UVB hurt him? I’ve heard previously that as long as they’ve regularly had it they should be fine.

Thank you all!

When we’ve left for a week long vacations we left Sheldon with a trusted tort sitter but bringing his whole tort table is not realistic. We got him a smaller tort house and tried to set up up similar to his current layout, made sure he had a hide, food bowl, water etc. he did absolutely fine. So I would say a large plastic bin container 50 gallons for a temp house. Sheldon normally pouts for a day or two when things change, totally normal based upon what I’ve learned on these forums. RTs don’t like change. My two cents.

 

[jsheffield]

Devil's Advocate:
If you've got the temp and humidity of the enclosure cycling within acceptable parameters, it might be less stressful, and less dangerous, for the tortoise to leave him in place while you're away.

I left my Redfoot for 10 days last summer, and he was fine... I did that because I didn't think he'd do better at a vet or pet-sitter, and thought that a friend coming in might be as likely to hurt as help (leaving a lid off or something).

If you soak your Russian aggressively ahead of leaving, leave plenty of food that won't mold in the time you're gone, and give him a long soak and his favorite foods when you get back, he should be fine.

So long as the temp/humidity are good, they can go weeks without eating without the slightest harm... the flipside of that is the risk you run of temperature extremes while traveling or once you're home.

Just my $0.02

Jamie

 

[Maro2Bear]

Devil's Advocate:
If you've got the temp and humidity of the enclosure cycling within acceptable parameters, it might be less stressful, and less dangerous, for the tortoise to leave him in place while you're away.

I left my Redfoot for 10 days last summer, and he was fine... I did that because I didn't think he'd do better at a vet or pet-sitter, and thought that a friend coming in might be as likely to hurt as help (leaving a lid off or something).

If you soak your Russian aggressively ahead of leaving, leave plenty of food that won't mold in the time you're gone, and give him a long soak and his favorite foods when you get back, he should be fine.

So long as the temp/humidity are good, they can go weeks without eating without the slightest harm... the flipside of that is the risk you run of temperature extremes while traveling or once you're home.

Just my $0.02

Jamie

Yep, i agree. Timers are your friend.