Hello from Iowa

[HuyckB04]

Hello! After several months of scouring reviews and information, I finally completed my tortoise table and adopted Morty, a young Russian Tortoise!

Morty's been a member of my household for eight days now and was welcomed enthusiastically by my kids and wife.

Current enclosure is as follows:

26X36 bookshelf (laid on back and waterproofed using plastic insulation sheeting)
4" coconut coir substrate
Extra large ceramic 1/2 log hide
Large flat limestone (for basking)
Water dish large enough for Morty to sit in (filled 1" deep)
Small, corner food dish
100W Powersun UVB mercury vapor bulb (on a timer from 7a - 7p)
ceramic heat lamp(on a timer from 7p - 7a)

Temperatures were tested prior to bringing Morty home. His basking spot is maintained between 85-90F during the day and his hide is ~80F. At night, the hide remains around 80F.

I'm feeding Morty a variety in an attempt to determine his like's and dislikes. His diet so far has consisted of Romaine lettuce, sliced cherry tomatoes, apple, carrot, red cabbage, and T-Rex dry tortoise food.

Any advice? Am I missing anything?

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Welcome from Southern Florida!

 

[Grandpa Turtle 144]

Hello and welcome to the TFO from AZ . Get rid of the curry tomatoes and the Apple both are fruits and torts should have very few fruits almost non . But Russians rule !


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[HuyckB04]

Hello and welcome to the TFO from AZ . Get rid of the curry tomatoes and the Apple both are fruits and torts should have very few fruits almost non . But Russians rule !


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I'll do that. Are there any other foods that Russians typically enjoy? A friend of mine suggested collard greens and kale.

 

[Grandpa Turtle 144]

Yes thoughs are good just just keep the food mixed not the same thing everyday . And wide leaf vegys are good . I give a lot of spring mix !


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[Yvonne G]

Hi, and welcome to the Forum!

Russian tortoises are browsers, and they eat broad-leaf weeds and plants. So try to find some edible weeds from outside, wash them well. You can buy the pre-packaged salads that have a nice variety of different greens in them, and add weeds to it. I use a lot of Santa Barbara Mix. I can only find it at Smart and Final. In the Russian's outdoor yard they graze on clover, dichondra and dandelions. I supplement with the packaged salads.

The waterer you have is sort of dangerous. In my opinion, those should never be used for tortoises. Get a plastic plant saucer, sink it down into the substrate so the lip is even with the 'ground.'

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

Welcome to TFO!

 

[pam]

Welcome Russians are awesome

 

[Carol S]

Welcome to the Forum!!

 

[puffy137]

Hello! After several months of scouring reviews and information, I finally completed my tortoise table and adopted Morty, a young Russian Tortoise!

Morty's been a member of my household for eight days now and was welcomed enthusiastically by my kids and wife.

Current enclosure is as follows:

26X36 bookshelf (laid on back and waterproofed using plastic insulation sheeting)
4" coconut coir substrate
Extra large ceramic 1/2 log hide
Large flat limestone (for basking)
Water dish large enough for Morty to sit in (filled 1" deep)
Small, corner food dish
100W Powersun UVB mercury vapor bulb (on a timer from 7a - 7p)
ceramic heat lamp(on a timer from 7p - 7a)
View attachment 100918
Temperatures were tested prior to bringing Morty home. His basking spot is maintained between 85-90F during the day and his hide is ~80F. At night, the hide remains around 80F.

I'm feeding Morty a variety in an attempt to determine his like's and dislikes. His diet so far has consisted of Romaine lettuce, sliced cherry tomatoes, apple, carrot, red cabbage, and T-Rex dry tortoise food.

Any advice? Am I missing anything?

I admire your enthusiasm, never feed fruits , don't over feed,try to get it to exercise & sunlight is healthy when available , good luck.

 

[Jacqui]

*waves* Howdy neighbor! (I am next to Iowa in Nebraska). This is an adult Russian correct? HE should be able to handle that water dish which hatchlings tend to have more issues with, but can he still actually fit in it? I too, like Yvonne do like the plant water saucers (not the plastic) much better and it's so easy to find one just the size to fit each and every tortoise.

With winter just around the corner for us, once you get more limited on the amount of weeds( dandelions, clovers, plantains, ect..,), grape leaves, and mulberry leaves you might find, you can start on store greens. Mustard, turnip, collard are just some of the easy to find greens. Feed the entire thing, including the firmer stems as that helps with beak wear as does feeding whole leaves and letting them tear them rather then us humans cutting them up before we feed them.

I would move the food dish out of the corner, as it's going to be walked in a lot more there. Let's see, ummm are you using a cuttlebone or giving any calcium? The coir looks a little dried out, is it? Russians are great escape artists and can scale ever straight corner walls, so we recommend an inner lip or atleast something blocking those corners... I can't see what you have on your wall tops.

Over all it's looking great and so happy you have decided to enjoy the wonders of tortoise care taking.

 

[HuyckB04]

*waves* Howdy neighbor! (I am next to Iowa in Nebraska). This is an adult Russian correct? HE should be able to handle that water dish which hatchlings tend to have more issues with, but can he still actually fit in it? I too, like Yvonne do like the plant water saucers (not the plastic) much better and it's so easy to find one just the size to fit each and every tortoise.

With winter just around the corner for us, once you get more limited on the amount of weeds( dandelions, clovers, plantains, ect..,), grape leaves, and mulberry leaves you might find, you can start on store greens. Mustard, turnip, collard are just some of the easy to find greens. Feed the entire thing, including the firmer stems as that helps with beak wear as does feeding whole leaves and letting them tear them rather then us humans cutting them up before we feed them.

I would move the food dish out of the corner, as it's going to be walked in a lot more there. Let's see, ummm are you using a cuttlebone or giving any calcium? The coir looks a little dried out, is it? Russians are great escape artists and can scale ever straight corner walls, so we recommend an inner lip or atleast something blocking those corners... I can't see what you have on your wall tops.

Over all it's looking great and so happy you have decided to enjoy the wonders of tortoise care taking.

Wow, thanks for all the advice! To answer some of your input:

Yes, adult russian. I'm guessing about 4-5 years old, but I can't be sure. So far the water dish has been working out just fine. No issues there. If I see some potentially dangerous behavior, I may replace it, but I don't put so much water in it that drowning is a threat.

I don't have a cuttlebone, but I'm adding calcium powder to the food. As for the dish, I'm thinking about replacing it all together with a flat stone to help trim the beak.

Over the winter, I'll probably install some measures to keep the little guy from escaping. So far, he's been climbing on top of the hide, but still hasn't been able to get out of the enclosure. I'm thinking about constructing a second level to the enclosure this winter to increase climbing and exploring.

A friend of mine suggested that plastic plants can help reduce stress by making the environment more comfortable. I've decided not to go that route out of fear that they could become food. Maybe printing/laminating a bit of scenery to attach the inside of the enclosure would be a better idea.

 

[johnsonnboswell]

Many tortoises do not like the taste of calcium powder. Offer cuttlebone. It's cheap, and allows the animal to self regulate. It's good for the beak. You can use both if you like. Don't dust the food every day.

"It's working so far" is an important observation that cannot be taken as a template for the future. You seem open to the possibility that it may stop working, and that's good. Tortoises are long term. By the time problems can be seen, they've been going on so long they can't always be reversed. Prevention is good. Cures are not always possible.

It would be good to run the light 14 hours a day. The substrate looks very dry in your photo.