First time owner of Russian Tortoise seeking tips and info

[RobinGillam]

I have done a lot of research on Russian Tortoises for the past year, and yesterday I finally bought one from Petsmart! My little Jojo (Short for Joseph Stalin, pun intended.) is doing well from what I can tell. I checked him over thoroughly before buying and he seems in excellent health, he was climbing all over the log hideout when he was in the store. I haven't seen him eat or drink since I put him in his terrarium yesterday, he has mostly burrowed in corners and hid.

I have heard a lot of controversy about putting turtles in terrariums, but I had no choice in this, but I got him the biggest tank I could with the most ground space.

I have him in a 40 gallon breeder tank with a screen lid. He sits right next to a huge window. There is lots of airflow able to get through it, and once he gets settled in I plan to take him outside a bit so he gets plenty of fresh air.

For the terrain I used a coating of ZooMed Eco Earth Loose Coconut Fiber Substrate, and put a thin layer of ZooMed Premium Reptibark over it. He still likes to dig down to the glass though.

For the lighting, I have a ZooMed mini combo deep domb lamp fixture. In one socket I put a 75w ZooMed Repti Basking Spot Lamp bulb. In the other I put a 26w Repti Glo 5.0 UVB bulb.

His diet today has been ZooMed Grassland tortoise food (The Petsmart sales woman told me they spray it with water when they feed it to him) and shredded bits of Romane Lettuce leaves.


I have pictures showing Jojo, and his habitat to give you all the visual picture.



Am I missing anything? Any advice and tips are much appreciated! I want to give Jojo a long happy life! :]

 

[alben909]

I would definetly give him a bigger home. I use a 4 foot by 3 foot home. I use coco coir substrate and I decorated it a little bit. Hrs is a picture of the house. Oh and this is before I moved it outside. It also now has plants in it.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Robin:

First of all, the Steppe tortoise isn't a "grassland" tortoise, so you probably aren't going to get him to eat that ugh! stuff. Steppe tortoises prefer broad-leafed plants and weeds. You might do better to offer him some endive, escarole, turnip greens, dandelion greens, and weeds and leaves from outside. You don't need to shred or cut up the greens. They can bite bits off quite nicely.

He's a pretty cute little tortoise. I love the close-up face shot. Give him a couple weeks to settle in.

Have you measured the temperatures all over the bottom of the habitat? I don't like those dual fixture light thingeys. I prefer to have them individual so I can put one over one end of the habitat and the other over the other end. Your habitat should be around 100F directly under the light, and around 80-85 on the warm end, with it fading to room temperature on the opposite end. This is one reason why you need a large habitat. Its hard to get a gradient like that in a smaller tub.

 

[alben909]

Also take him to the vet. Most tortoises from pet stores have worms or parasites. Soak him every other day before you feed him. The water temp should be warm. Tell me if you want to know any specific things.

---

If you post a picture of the tail I could tell you for sure if he is a girl or boy

 

[RobinGillam]

Thanks you guys, I would get him a bigger habitat, but I simply don't have the space or budget. Once he settles in he's going to go outside frequently in the warm months so he can get LOTS of roaming space.

I have been soaking him, once yesterday when he got home before the new habitat, and once this morning. He's squirmy though and really hard to keep in the bowl.

I have yet to get the temperature gauges, but I plan to ASAP.
Thanks for the tip about the grassland food, I guess I'm going to venture out into the yard now. They were feeding him that stuff along with lettuce and shredded carrots in the display tank. But I didn't see him eat, so I don't know. The woman told me he automatically went for the food as soon as she put it in every morning, but you know how sales reps are... Vultures..

 

[austinSOLO]

he looks good, but like everyone else said, get a bigger enclosure sometime soon. if you can of course. and i would say dandelions are a good choice to let him eat when he's outside because they seem to be everywhere. also you should put different things in his enclosure to climb on and go into because right now there's not much in there for him to do. other than that you seem to be doing a good job for a beginner!

 

[RobinGillam]

I hope to get him a log hideout and some plants, but my budget is VERY tight right now since getting him (he was an expensive little booger to set up for!) I don't know if we can find dandelions, since we're going through a bad drought right now, but I put some cherry tomatoes in his tank now, but he nosed them up and went back into the corner..

 

[lynnedit]

Get a bag of Spring mix and mist it with water. Try this for now. Even dry weeds (that are untreated) are good for them.

Dig up some untreated topsoil, or get a bag of organic topsoil from a home supply store for a few bucks, and supplement your substrate up to 4-6 inches. Add a some water so the under soil is moist, but not sopping.

Russian tortoises hide when they are adjusting to a new home, but also when they are too hot or too cold. So make sure one side of the enclosure (where the hide is, perhaps) is at room temperature.

Your tortoise is undoubtably dry. Soak him in a shallow opaque tub up to the bottom of his shell in warm water daily for a week then 2-3x per week.

Here is a long list of edible plants. You can find them in gardens, along stream beds. Supplement the Spring mix with these.
http://russiantortoise.net/edible_plants.htm

They absolutely LOVE being outside. When you do take him, watch him very carefully. They are escape artists.

 

[tinkerbell1189]

I put a few small branches inside my Russians enclosure, which he loves scrambling over, since Russians love to climb.

 

[GeoTerraTestudo]

First of all, the Steppe tortoise isn't a "grassland" tortoise, so you probably aren't going to get him to eat that ugh! stuff. Steppe tortoises prefer broad-leafed plants and weeds. You might do better to offer him some endive, escarole, turnip greens, dandelion greens, and weeds and leaves from outside. You don't need to shred or cut up the greens. They can bite bits off quite nicely.

Good point. Even though steppe tortoises do come from Central Asian grasslands and deserts ("steppe" means "grassland"), they eat only a little bit of grass, probably because unlike sulcatas, their bodies are too small to retain the grass long enough to break it down efficiently. Weeds and leafy greens have the right amount of fiber for them, so they like lettuce, endive, escarole, dandelion, chicory, kale, collard, turnip greens, mustard greens, etc. They'll also eat flowers, and as an occasional treat (about once per month) fruit and perhaps snails.