Help my tortoise Boris! Diet/Care Advice (with pics)

Derpmare

New Member
Joined
May 5, 2020
Messages
1
Location (City and/or State)
Addison, TX
Hello everyone!

I recently was told some information that pretty much made me second guess everything my wife and I were doing to take care of our Russian tortoise, Boris. (we named her before we knew her sex, haha)

In my flurry of research and fact checking, I found myself coming back to this forum more and more, so I decided to sign up and make a post to see if you all could help confirm proper care or share your own experiences with me!

We've had Boris for about 5 years now and I've heard so much back and forth on good, bad, or misinformed advice on caring for her and it's truly been a trial to make sure we're doing the right thing! (even with vets telling us to feed her meal worms for protein...blech)

We've recently made some changes such as increasing the size of her terrarium, making sure her water dish kept up with her size so she can entirely be inside it, and changed her lighting fixtures to name a few.

Here is a picture of her current terrarium and light fixtures:

IMG_1840.jpg

On the left is her basking light, the middle one is her blue night light bulb and on the right is just a regular lightbulb for additional lighting without the heat.
They're all resting on a grate about 13 inches from the top of the substrate (reptibark). The MVB bulb is in a bit of a deeper lamp so I would say it's about 16 inches away from the basking spot.
The heat gradient averages about 95-98 on the basking area, 79-81 in the middle, and 75-78 on the cool right side. Humidity often hovers between 40-50%. I've heard so much variation on what her basking temperature should be. I've heard cooler and hotter.
The lights are all plugged into timers which turn off the basking the light bulb at 8 PM and turn them back on at 8 AM.
The terrarium is 4 feet long and about 21 or so inches wide, I liked all the digging potential she got too!

For her recently changed lighting, I swapped the material on the left (the duo basking and uvb coil bub) to the 100W powersun and another regular lightbulb for additional lighting.
I did this because I found out that apparently the coil bulbs are potentially dangerous, but the single mvb bulb didn't give as much light for the entire tank like I liked, so I added the extra bulb to the right.
Is this "amber glass" 60W LED bulb I got at Target safe for her?
IMG_1848.jpg

This last year we recently moved into a house meaning she for the first time she was finally able to walk around outside safely in the backyard! I've been trying to make a habit to take her out and watch her walk around and graze with my supervision.

IMG_1381.jpg

Other points we do to ensure her care is to bathe her once a week on the weekend in a pet tub slightly filled with warm water for around 15-20 minutes, feed her once a day in the morning on a flat grey brick, and cover her food with Zoo Med Repti Calcium with D3 every Wednesday and Saturday.

And the one last thing we've been really struggling with...her diet. Out of all the advice I've heard from people, this has by far varied the most.

What do you all suggest is the ideal Russian Tortoise diet? I've heard recently from a vet that a whopping 80% of her diet should be hay and grass and less dark leafy greens I feel I've always heard should be the majority. That really made me worried that I've been feeding her wrong this entire time!

Okay, so a lot to go over, but please! I would love any and all feedback, advice, or tips you would all give! Especially regarding her diet or anything important for her care.

Thank you and I hope to start a discussion with you all soon!
 
Last edited:

MichaelL

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Joined
Nov 18, 2018
Messages
983
Location (City and/or State)
Ocala, Fl
Okay. First of all, I am not really sure on lighting in general- mine are outdoors most of the year. Hopefully someone can help you out with that. Second, a diet for a russian tortoise is surprisingly simpler than it may seem. No hay is needed. Nor supermarket greens. The perfect diet for a russian tortoise would be 5+ different weeds rotated into the diet. Once you find and identify the weeds where you live, you will rarely have to buy food for her. Supermarket greens are a treat for mine if I want to spice up the diet even more. Some common weeds that can be fed are dandelions, plantain, clover, sow thistle, horseherb, hawksbit/ hawks beard, false dandelion, as well as hibiscus, mulberry leaves, grape leaves, so many choices.
 
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