First Brumation

[Brittmarie24]

Hi there,
First backstory info:
I’m pretty new to keeping my Russian tortoise. Oddly enough, she was found wondering the streets of a local neighborhood and since I’m a reptile rehabilitator (mostly alligators, removing snakes, and occasional turtle shell patch) they called me thinking she was a baby gopher tortoise and didn’t want her hit by a car. I realized she was a Russian and no doubt either someone dumped her or she escaped an enclosure but either way she had been on her own for a while. Vet checked her out, gave her all clear.
Fast forward 6 months later, she lives in a 15ftx15ft enclosure outside we originally had set up for rehabbing box turtles. She has two “pond” areas for soaking and a water bowl and has lots of vegetation to nibble on throughout the day like swamp hibiscus and stuff but I also supplement with every other day feedings of variety of greens and fruits and veggies (all from recommended list provided by vet). I change it up regularly so she always has some new stuff to eat so she gets plenty of variety and nutrients.

Okay, now that I’ve said all that: my worry is about her brumating for the first time! It’s been an 85+ degree F October, but the last two days it dropped to 40 degrees at night, 60 degrees during day, as is typical with crazy Ga schizophrenic weather.
She started making a burrow but she’s never been that great at burrowing? She makes like little half burrows just covering herself enough I assumed because of heat. I just thought when it got cold she would actually dig but she did the same thing over the last week and just made a little burrow deep enough to cover herself and that’s it. She has pine straw covering her back end and two logs she’s kinda pushed together over top of her burrow, honestly it looks more like a miniature beaver dam than a tortoise burrow?? I’m very concerned I need to bring her in but I don’t want to incorrectly house her and she not go into brumation. I have read about bringing her inside with a large sterile bin and coco fibers and dirt but I’d rather dig her a burrow outside myself and help her out? Would that be enough? She’s already stopped eating and has been pretty inactive for the past two days. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Yvonne G]

I'll give you my first hand experience with allowing a Russian tortoise to brumate outside:

When I first got Russian tortoises, I traveled to southern California to the importers/wholesalers that are down there. I bought 15 or 20 Russian tortoises for $10 apiece. You got them for that price if you bought the 15 or 20 size lot (I'm old and I don't remember exact figures, and this was 30 years ago or so). So I sold a few of them to fellow club members, but I had quite a few left in a large outdoor yard. I allowed them to brumate in that yard. In the spring there were only a very small number of Russians left in that yard, something like 3 or 4. I've since learned that if you allow a Russian tortoise to be wet while he's brumating he dies.

So now I gather up my 1.3 Russian tortoises and put them in a dry, quiet cinderblock structure that's on my carport, filled with dried leaves. I haven't lost one during brumation since.

Where I live, even though it's almost always drought conditions, we have too much rain during the winter to allow Russian tortoises (or desert tortoises) to brumate outside. We don't get much rain here, only about 13 inches average for the whole winter, yet 13 inches is too much for a russian to brumate outside.

 

[Brittmarie24]

That is a very good point, I didn’t think about rain! I called my vet, he said he’s had several in our area partial burrow and be fine, it doesn’t usually get cold enough for long enough to be of concern. He said on nights where it gets below freezing to bring inside if concerned and put in sterlite bin but for now to get cypress mulch and cover the area loosely where she’s at to insulate and help her burrow but I will add cinderblocks at the bottom to help with drainage! Thanks!

 

[RosemaryDW]

I’m pretty new to keeping my Russian tortoise. Oddly enough, she was found wondering the streets of a local neighborhood

Welcome! Lol, most Russians are found wandering the streets; they are excellent escape artists. That’s how we got ours!

If temps in your area aren’t going to stay consistently in the low forties your tortoise is unlikely to go into a “true” or lengthy brumation. They need it cold to really slow metabolism. Mine is still bumping around at 44 degrees.

You will likely hear some folks say your vet is giving you bad information by saying a partial burrow is adequate. My reptile vet is very solid and he’s fine with Russians in our area doing their own thing so long as they have some kind good heated enclosure or area to get to. Partial burying, some days active, some not, that kind of thing. You’ll have to make your own mind up on that.

I was open to the idea but our tortoise couldn’t care less what our vet thinks or how great her heated box is, she digs way down all winter because she darn well wants to. We don’t get much rain in Southern California but we live near the coast; it’s fairly damp. On the rare occasion we do get rain, it tends to flood the area she uses. It never gets cold enough in our house or garage for us to box her so now we choose to brumate her in a cold, dry fridge.

At the end of the day it’s your call; do what feels right to you.

I don’t want to jump on your vet but a food list that contains any fruit is not a good one; there aren’t than many vegetables you’d want to regularly feed either. Russians are leaf eaters. A small percentage of vegetables (5-10%, perhaps) might be okay but Russians are simply not made to digest fruit sugars. The diet should be very heavily based on leafy plants. Your vet may have a list that’s out of date, it’s not uncommon.

 

[Tom]

Hello and welcome.

First, understand that most vets know very little about tortoise care. There is no semester on tort husbandry in vet school. They learn how to do surgery, spay and neuter dogs and cats, dose meds, but they don't learn tortoise care for every species. Any vet telling you the feed them fruit and veggies and to let them hibernate outside is not a knowledgeable tortoise vet.

Scroll down to post number 19 of this thread for a thorough explantation of the whole hibernation process:
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/looking-for-an-rt-hibernation-mentor.128790/

 

[Brittmarie24]

Thanks guys, good advice. When I say fruit/veggies, it is more so for approved treats. Majority of her diet is definitely greens. I do trust my vet, she’s a reptile specialist, and she’s raised a lot of box turtles, and the advice was more so to put cypress mulch around her burrow to prevent her from being partially burrowed, which was my fault for not clarifying that. I reallllly don’t want to have to hibernate her inside but it looks like I’m gona have to figure it out, as I do not have a garage that gets cold enough, our garage is insulated and the thought of fridging scares me, even though I have an axolotl, The thought of tort in the fridge makes my blood pressure spike!