MegAndAlbus
New Member
Hi
I'm brand new to owning tortoises and my first tortoise is a baby russian/horsefield tortoise named Albus. I bought him very recently
I seem to spend a lot of time worrying about him and whether I'm doing the right thing.
At the moment his enclosure is 90cm X 50cm which is a little small but we're working on getting a bigger one but as he's so small 8cm long I'm thinking it should be ok for now.
He currently has a basking light and that area side is about 33°C and the cooler side is about 23-25°C. I use a spiral compact UVB bulb also which I've heard isn't the best choice for UVB source but it was supplied by the pet store so I'm unsure.
He has a mixture of pellet and top soil/sand mixture substrate which I'm adding beech chips to soon.
I feed him mostly on spinach, kale, some lettuce and carrot with the occasional addition of watermelon and I've bought a flower mix to try. He also has a water bowl which I refresh daily. He has a slate and cuttlefish in the enclosure also with plenty of hides. (Although he doesn't seem to like the hide that's incorporated into the enclosure which is at the cooler end and takes up about 1/5th of the enclosure so I may remove it???)
He's currently about 8-10 months old and is about 8cm long and I bathe him twice a week but I'm not sure if I should be doing this more??
I'm brand new to owning tortoises and my first tortoise is a baby russian/horsefield tortoise named Albus. I bought him very recently
I seem to spend a lot of time worrying about him and whether I'm doing the right thing.
At the moment his enclosure is 90cm X 50cm which is a little small but we're working on getting a bigger one but as he's so small 8cm long I'm thinking it should be ok for now.
He currently has a basking light and that area side is about 33°C and the cooler side is about 23-25°C. I use a spiral compact UVB bulb also which I've heard isn't the best choice for UVB source but it was supplied by the pet store so I'm unsure.
He has a mixture of pellet and top soil/sand mixture substrate which I'm adding beech chips to soon.
I feed him mostly on spinach, kale, some lettuce and carrot with the occasional addition of watermelon and I've bought a flower mix to try. He also has a water bowl which I refresh daily. He has a slate and cuttlefish in the enclosure also with plenty of hides. (Although he doesn't seem to like the hide that's incorporated into the enclosure which is at the cooler end and takes up about 1/5th of the enclosure so I may remove it???)
He's currently about 8-10 months old and is about 8cm long and I bathe him twice a week but I'm not sure if I should be doing this more??