New member, tortoise dad for two years

Leo Mota

New Member
Joined
Jun 21, 2020
Messages
8
Location (City and/or State)
California
I've been the proud owner of a red eared slider since I was nine years old, and when I was fifteen I spontaneously became the owner of a russian tortoise!

It's been a little over two years since then, and it's kind of a funny story as to how I came to meet the little guy.

I was alone one morning, watching TV, when I heard a knock at our door. One of my mom's old real estate friends was at the door and she asked if I had a turtle. I said yes, and she told me that it had escaped and was at the house for sale down the block. I quickly went to my turtles tank but he was still there (he had escaped once before, but that was when we had first gotten him and we hadn't put a screen on top - we didn't realize he was such a good climber. Still I was worried he somehow managed to push the screen up)

I told her my turtle was still here, but I went with her anyway to check it out. Turns out, what they found was actually a tortoise, and it was just crawling along the driveway. My moms friend told me they were going to get it water (they thought it was an aquatic turtle) but I explained that it was a tortoise and that it shouldn't be submerged in water. After some talking, I agreed to take him home while we asked around for the owners, since I had some spare equipment from my turtle.

I set him up in one of turtles old 20 gallon tanks, with heating/lighting, reptibark, and one of those power pot saucers for a food dish. We put up signs and asked every neighbor on our block, but we never did find the owners. After a month I figured I would just keep him, he's awfully cute!

Anyways, I've been on these forums before but the questions I've had usually have already been asked, but now that I've moved out from my parents' place I'm getting to upgrade my setup! Even though I have a play pen for him outside, i know a tank is just not enough space for him, especially since he's gotten bigger. Luckily my new place has room for a tortoise table so I've spent the past few days building one for him. Due to corona I haven't gotten to meet up with my other reptile loving friends, so I figured this would be a good place to show off Despacito's new tortoise table! (His formal name is actually Jakob, but all my family has nicknames so we give them to the pets too)

I'll post some pictures of him later since I've already put him to bed for the night, and I'll also be posting about his new tort table later this week!
 

KarenSoCal

Well-Known Member
Tortoise Club
5 Year Member
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jul 8, 2017
Messages
5,749
Location (City and/or State)
Low desert 50 mi SE of Palm Springs CA
We have a great care sheet for Russians, if you'd like to read it. And Russians are one of the most popular species. Lots of Russian keepers on this forum.

 

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