Hi my names Samantha. I recently got a Russian tortoise. She was purchased on black Friday from petsmart as a surprise anniversary present for me. " i now know this is not a preferred source for getting a tortoise but i know my boyfriend did his best". My tortoises name is tootsie. Since getting her my poor Tootsie has had a ruff start. The lovely salesperson at petsmart gave us a 150 watt bulb for both her day and night light.............had i not gone online to do further research into her care i would of cooked my poor tortoise because of petsmarts employees instructions. needless to say i went back and returned the bulbs to get lower wattage bulbs which are working perfectly! we also built a special bracket to hold her uvb or whatever it is bulb closer to her because alot of the research ive done feels the bulb is ineffective when far away. Tootsie is in a glass fish tank "breeder tank?" but she has alot of substrate and we took apart old computers and wired the fans up to old cellphone charger cords so she gets a good airflow thru her tank with very little wind on her from the fans. she cant live outside because i live in Illinois but in summer i wll be taking her outside and probably build her a home for outside. im currently having a hard time keeping her tank at 60% humidity but it is super dry in the house so im sure that doesn't help. any ideas? ive been trying to keep tinfoil on top of her tank but it doesn't seem to help that much 
. Tootsie seems to be very scared of me. she burrows herself in her subsrate alot and wont eat unless shes sure im not in the room. she also does this weird bobbing thing? I assume shes probably very stressed out from being brought home and then having her tank be so darn hot. the night we first had her she slept in her water dish! She does seem to enjoy listening to the disney station on pandora tho! and i caught her with her head fully extended out of her shell yesterday so im hoping she will be okay in a few days. Does it typically take a long time for tortoises to become accustomed to you? i keep trying to feed her fresh veggies but she just hides and seems to prefer the dehydrated stuff she was fed at petsmart.
I also have two yorkies "subie and armani" Armani has epilepsy.neither are allowed in tootsies room but i was wondering if she can hear their barking? maybe shes scared of their noise too and thats stressing her out as well.
. Tootsie seems to be very scared of me. she burrows herself in her subsrate alot and wont eat unless shes sure im not in the room. she also does this weird bobbing thing? I assume shes probably very stressed out from being brought home and then having her tank be so darn hot. the night we first had her she slept in her water dish! She does seem to enjoy listening to the disney station on pandora tho! and i caught her with her head fully extended out of her shell yesterday so im hoping she will be okay in a few days. Does it typically take a long time for tortoises to become accustomed to you? i keep trying to feed her fresh veggies but she just hides and seems to prefer the dehydrated stuff she was fed at petsmart.I also have two yorkies "subie and armani" Armani has epilepsy.neither are allowed in tootsies room but i was wondering if she can hear their barking? maybe shes scared of their noise too and thats stressing her out as well.
