First Time Tortoise Family

[jcrlaw2000]

Hello! We adopted a ten year old male Russian Tortoise a week ago. He seems to be adapting to his new surroundings and is eating, sleeping and drinking well. We gave him a 15 minute soak last night and for the first time today he was stinky!! I dried him off as good as I could and then put him near his heat lamp. I hope we did not cause some bacteria to grow on him!!

 

[wellington]

Hello and Welcome It may have been that he never has been soaked and so you may have loosened some well needed cleaning of some dirt/poop/pee that needs washing off. Just my guess. Maybe give him another soak and with a soft tooth brush, brush around on his shell, top and bottom, softly though. See if that makes him smell better. Just a soak should not cause any fungus or bacteria problems.

 

[Grandpa Turtle 144]

Hello and welcome to the TFO from AZ. Russians rule !


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[ALDABRAMAN]

Welcome!

 

[Jabuticaba]

Hello and welcome!


May, Aussies, & Hermannis
IG: @AUSSOMEAUSSIES

 

[pam]

Welcome Russians are awesome

 

[Yvonne G]

Welcome to the Forum!

Tortoise poop and pee is quite smelly, however, the tortoise itself should not stink.

 

[puffy137]

hello there. whats the weather like in Idaho? if its summer time it should be warm enough to keep him in an enclosure outdoors , as long as you can make it 'tort proof'.If he spends time in the dirt outside he should keep sweet. Maybe you could bring him inside at night , but does he really need a lamp? being a Ruskie he should be able to manage some chilly weather.

 

[Ideraway]

Hello and welcome.

 

[Jacqui]

Hi! *waves* What made you decide your family needed a tortoise in it?

 

[jcrlaw2000]

Thanks for the welcome! We got a rescued RT because my daughter decided she wanted one. We took our time to research and get ready to take care of one before we were ready to adopt. We have an outdoor enclosure which our male RT has been hanging out in the day, and since the temperatures have been getting down into the low 50's to upper 40's at night he is coming in to his indoor enclosure. We haven't really used the heat lamp yet except for after soaking. I wanted to make sure he was dry even though I patted him off. The odor has not returned. I might have picked him up right after he defecated and that is what I smelled. One thing he does occasionally is chirp. He did that during his soak. We were watching him and he chirped several times. I hope it was in happiness and not distress. The water temp and depth, in my opinion, was perfect so I don't think it was that. We are enjoying watching him and taking care of him. This is a great place for information. Thanks again!

 

[puffy137]

Great Jumping Jehosaphat , a chirping tortoise , how wonderful! I have an adult male who ' snorts' & this might be the reason he is seen as a threat by another male , (can't think if any other reason as he is so polite & well behaved ) . I shall live in hopes that one day soon he will begin to chirp & then there will be a riot of female fans in the paddock ! BTW remember in the Song of Solomon,'the flowers appear on the earth ; the time of the singing of birds is come , and the voice of the TURTLE is heard in our land . ' I once thought chirping turtles might have been a reality until I checked with a Hebrew speaker who assured me that what was meant was a Turtle DOVE.