- Joined
- Jun 8, 2016
- Messages
- 161
Greetings! I've been a long-time lurker (for years, as I've always loved tortoises but never had the resources to keep them) on the forum, but especially in the past couple months as I've been in the process of adopting a little Russian from a dog rescue run by a lovely woman who did her best to care for the tortoise, though she really had her hands full with dogs and had no previous tortoise experience or knowledge. We (my partner and I) just brought the lovely tort home this past Saturday, and we already love her so, so much! She's currently in a 54gal Rubbermaid (~2'x4') with a 50/50 cypress bark/coco coir mix for substrate (~5-6in deep for burrowing!). That's definitely too small, of course, and it's temporary. I'm in the process of locating the right furniture item to repurpose as a tortoise table, and I'll definitely be looking for input!
She's supposedly 3-4 years old, though it seems somewhat unlikely considering we know almost nothing of her past... But she has a significant amount of new growth between some of her scutes, so it could be the case! I'm thinking that's more common in young torts than older, no?
She just had her first wellness exam today, and with the exception of some old pitted lesions on both her plastron and carapace (they're stable now, but likely from shell rot she had when she was younger). She was passed around from person to person who didn't care for her... At her last home before she was dropped at the rescue (a *dog* rescue, no less!), she was fed nothing but carrots and only had a plain incandescent bulb hanging above her enclosure. She got very weak and lethargic, but with a couple months of an improved (though by no means perfect) diet and semi-correct lighting, she eats well and is fiesty as hell! And we're so, so happy to have her in her forever home.
That said, I have many questions when it comes to building a suitable enclosure with everything she'll need!
Anyway, since I finally have a tortoise, I felt it was time to join the forum officially!! Meet Jezebel (pics are from before I added coco coir to the enclosure--she looooves to burrow!):
She's supposedly 3-4 years old, though it seems somewhat unlikely considering we know almost nothing of her past... But she has a significant amount of new growth between some of her scutes, so it could be the case! I'm thinking that's more common in young torts than older, no?
She just had her first wellness exam today, and with the exception of some old pitted lesions on both her plastron and carapace (they're stable now, but likely from shell rot she had when she was younger). She was passed around from person to person who didn't care for her... At her last home before she was dropped at the rescue (a *dog* rescue, no less!), she was fed nothing but carrots and only had a plain incandescent bulb hanging above her enclosure. She got very weak and lethargic, but with a couple months of an improved (though by no means perfect) diet and semi-correct lighting, she eats well and is fiesty as hell! And we're so, so happy to have her in her forever home.
That said, I have many questions when it comes to building a suitable enclosure with everything she'll need! Anyway, since I finally have a tortoise, I felt it was time to join the forum officially!! Meet Jezebel (pics are from before I added coco coir to the enclosure--she looooves to burrow!):
