Lunch time! A question also

[tagreltracy]

Lunch time for my little Pipsqueak! Hope the picture shows up here!

I also have another question. I have had Pip for 10 days now, and she eats everyday, and is going to the bathroom while being soaked, but mostly she hides ALL day everyday!

I dig her out everyday for a warm soak and for her to eat, she eats well, then stays under her basking light for about an hour and then burries herself again, until the next day when I dig her out. So basically she still hides about 23 hours a day.

Her temps are about 98 under the basking light and about 72 on the cool side and humidity is about 35-40%.

She never explores her home, just eats, basks, and then hides until the next day.

Could she just be shy in her new home? Is there anything I should worry about, or watch out for? Her eyes seem nice and bright, and she seems alert the one hour she is awake!

Just worried about her! Oh and incase it matters she is just a few months old.

 

[Tortoise]

Sounds like normal hatchling behaviour.
Good she is eating.Have you got a moist hide that she can use for good shell growth?
Think she will get more active and brave as she gets bigger.
My red foots hid a lot as babies as do lots of other species, just a natural behaviour to remain safe away from predators

Worrying signs would be not eating, running eyes, runny nose etc.
Hopefully she will settle in soon. I think in the wild the Russians are not active for many months of year and have a short activity time frame-not sure if this influences their activity patterns in captivity.
Perhaps some other Russian owners will elaborate for us

 

[Spn785]

I would try and get the humidity up some more, around 50% is better. This is normal nehaviour for such a young tortoise in a new environment. I would just wait and see how things go and as long as he/she eats and basks all should be okay. What are your night time temps? What are you feeding?

 

[mctlong]

Sounds like she's jut getting use to her new home. She's very cute.

Welcome to the forum!

 

[Tortoise]

Just read Yvonnes (emysemys) answer to another Russian query.She mentions making sure the lights are bright enough.

Is part of your enclosure nice and bright for most of the day.
Perhaps take a look at the other thread as they too keep Russians

 

[tagreltracy]

I would try and get the humidity up some more, around 50% is better. This is normal nehaviour for such a young tortoise in a new environment. I would just wait and see how things go and as long as he/she eats and basks all should be okay. What are your night time temps? What are you feeding?

My night time temps are about 60 degrees. I feed her once a day, and she eats for about 15-20 minutes and then walks away. I have a bag of spring mix for her, collard greens, Kale, and spinach. She gets a variety of that daily.

 

[Spn785]

Sounds good! The lights should be on for at least 12 to 14 hours a day, you may want to increase the light in your enclosure, but this seems like perfectly normal behaviour. She is a really cute tort by the way.

 

[Tortoise]

My mistake it was from Garry the article on Russian lighting posted by Yvonne
Here it is again
GBtortoises Wrote:

Russian tortoises need a lot of light to remain active. The main question about Russian tortoises on this site is "Why did my Russian tortoise bury itself". Part of the answer to this question is that Russian tortoises require long, light intensive days (along with correct temperatures) to remain active. In the wild their activity periods are brief but are during the time of year when the days are longest and the sun is brightest. This light duration and intensity, along with temperatures tell the tortoise it's time to be active. As long as the temperatures do not get to hot, the tortoise will remain active. If the temperatures get too hot while the light is intense with 14-16 hour days the tortoise will usually aestivate to escape the extreme temperatures and dryness. If it's hot but the light in not intense or the duration is shorter than normal it will also become inactive. The three elements of light duration, intensity and correct temperatures work together to dictate to the tortoise what to do and when. In more simple terms, most people make the mistake of keeping their Russian tortoises too hot and too dark. Just as an example-my adults while indoors are in a 3' x6' enclosure with about 8" of substrate. They have a 3' wide by 18" long hide area paritially buried in the substrate. Looks somewhat like an underground parking garage! Their enclosure has a 4' UV fluorescent tube lighting the remaining part of the enclosure. At the opposite end of the hide area they have a 90 watt spot light and a 150 watt MVB lamp. I will occasionally alternate the use of these lights once or twice a week, but most of the time both basking lights, as well as the UV tube are on 15 hours a day. Both basking lights are hung about 16-18" above some flat basking rocks that are set on the substrate. I have had most of the adults in this group for about 8-10 years. Every Russian tortoise is active every day in this enclosure. None have ever buried themselves in the substrate. Many people make the mistake of providing the heat without adequate light. A single MVB lamp is probably the worse situation of all. It provides very good localized heat, light and UV but nothing outside the range of it's beam which is typically only about 12-14" in diameter. That amount of coverage isn't even adequate for a 2' x 4' enclosure.




I know it looks like I wrote this, however it is a copy/paste from something GBTortoises wrote.
Yvonne G.