Enclosure advice for increased activity

[AcidElvis]

I have a large indoor enclosure with one russian in it. I feel bad that he is all alone but I know they harass females and fight with other males. He's a great tort that will eat from my hand and even seems to poop in the same place. (probably by coincidence but makes for easy spot cleanings) Is there anything I can do to stimulate his activity? I thought about just moving around the stuff inside every once and while to change things up. Any advice would be helpful. And has anyone had success with two or more russians in the same enclosure?

Thanks
Eddie

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Eddie:

Just think of it as - YOU are more bored with the enclosure than he is. If he's not trying to escape all the time, not climbing the walls, etc. then he's probably ok with where he lives. If the enclosure is big enough, then sight barriers work well to change things up. Make it so he can't see his whole world when he comes out in the a.m., so he has to walk around things to see the rest of his world. Then maybe put little piles of food in different spots instead of all in one location. Make him have to walk around to find it.

I keep more than one russian together, but they live outside in a big habitat. I've never been able to keep them together indoors.

 

[Tom]

Has anyone ever successfully kept more than one together? Sure. Of course. Is it likely that two will get along in your enclosure? No. Not likely at all. And really they would prefer to be alone. They do not seek out the company of other tortoise like a pack animal would. They are very territorial and whenever they come across each other in the wild, the dominant one violently drives the other one away, or if its a female found by a male during the short breeding season he bites and harasses her into submission so he can breed her, and THEN she runs away out of his territory.

Sounds like you have a good thing going there. Adding more would certainly complicate things and you'd have to be prepared to separate all of them into individual enclosures.