- Joined
- Nov 1, 2009
- Messages
- 73
Hello everyone,
We've had Journey for a few months now, since October. Going on 4 months or so. We're still trying to perfect some things here and there, and I thought it might be helpful to get some opinions about his home all at once.
Below are some details of the home, followed by photos. Its long, but I'm hoping to give a full description at once instead of making many new posts. I also decided to post here in the Regarding Russians section rather than the generic "Enclosures" section to focus solely on our Russian.
Details:
Substrate: We used ReptiBark on the opinion of the PetSmart store. Since then, after seeing how dusty it can be, we've moved to Aspen. Journey was very angry with us after we changed his substrate to something new, but he's over it now. He currently has a mix of what was left of his ReptiBark, mixed with a brick of Aspen, with newspaper underneath it all for easy cleanup every month or two. I'll note that he loves to burrow little homes for himself under the newspaper, like little tents.
Food and water:
Water dish is available at all times, though we've only seen him use it once in three months. We assume he gets his water from his greens and from his weekly soakings. His greens are a small amount of a mix of red leaf lettuce and collard greens daily, with calcium dust 2-3 times a week. We recently bought Timothy hay, and the one time we used it sweet talk him into his new substrate, he seemed to like it. Haven't used it as part of a routine yet, though.
Moisture:
We soak him once a week in lukewarm to room temp water, usually for about 15 minutes. The water is only enough for him to stand in and not have his face in it. I usually pour water over his shell to wet his shell. Soaking him is interesting, as he's guaranteed to go to the bathroom 3-4 times during his soaking, requiring a constant change of water. Keeps him regular though? I've seen some of you use a spray bottle to keep the humidity up. We have a cheap little analog humidity reader sitting in the corner of his terrarium, and it reads 40%. Yet, we recently had the humidity checked in our apartment as we get some moisture on the windows at times this winter, and we were told our apartment is humid. So not sure what the real level is, and we don't have a digital humidity reader yet. But, we try to stay up on the weekly soakings. I have to say, I think the ReptiBark retained humidity better than the Aspen, but it was also very dusty with an aroma. What should the humidity level be, and would more frequent soakings make up for not spraying him down like some here do?
Shelter:
Journey has a hollow half log on the cool end of his home, which he sometimes goes in after we change out his substrate and he's mad with us, or after eating his breakfast but before basking. Recently, I increased the substrate to see if he would climb on top of the log, and sure enough he did! Funny little guy. But his usual shelter is the little newspaper tents he makes. As I mentioned, we have newspaper (well, really junkmail and grocery ads) under all the substrate for easy cleanup every month or 6 weeks. He makes little tents and buries himself under the newspaper, which is under the substrate, and he does this usually in the warmer area under the lamps.
Lighting and temperature:
After much frustration when we bought him and soon after when we learned the PetSmart recommendations were all wrong, we finally bought a Powersun UVA 100w light for daytime (630am to 7pm), and we have it on a timer that switches to a red bulb for night time. The UVA bulb is on the side of the terrarium pointing straight down, approximately 15 inches from the substrate. The red lamp is at an angle, as the dome is rather small and we don't have a setup to make it horizontal. But, its a night lamp for heat anyway, so I figured that wouldn't matter. That is located above the middle of the terrarium. Cool-end temps where the log and food dish is stay steady around 70-75, and the warm end is usually 90s in the day and 80s at night (but these are according to an ewually-cheap analog thermometer like the humidity reader, so its hard to tell. They're located in the corners of his terrarium.)
Other features/asthetics:
We have a stick from outside, bug and rot free, smooth with no bark, that lays lengthwise in his terrarium, just as something to climb over easily. We also have a rock in the corner on the UVA side of the home, which he'll sometimes lay on while basking. Similarly, we have a small rock in another corner just for asthetics. All told, the contents of his home consist of the newspaper and substrate, food and water dishes, a stick, two rocks, and the log shelter. (and lamps, of course, but they're not "in" the home.)
Behaviors:
Just for knowledge, here are some of Journey's observable behaviors. Much to my wife's delight, Journey is out and waiting by his food dish every morning the minute his night lamp changes to daytime. He spends about 20-30 minutes eating, sometimes he finishes and sometimes he leaves some left. He'll then walk over to the opposite end and bask for a little while. Then he'll bury himself back under the newspaper and remain there until the next morning. Question: Are Russians generally that sleepy and/or enjoy burrowing/hiding? These are observable during the week, and its limiting because we work. On weekends, though, he may not get to eat until we finally wake up. By then he's noticed we aren't feeding him at his normal time and he'll either go back to his little tent with his head poking out, or he'll chill out under the log waiting. It seems when we're home and its later than usual, he's more active. He'll walk along the glass back and forth if we're nearby. He'll bask and walk around. He'll spend a good few hours being pretty active when we're around, as opposed to weekday mornings when he eats, basks, and goes right back to his tent/burrow fairly quickly. (Although, who knows what he does if we're at work right?) As far as the bathroom, sometimes we'll find something in the terrarium once every few days, but he seems to save it all until his weekly soaking when he decides to go 3-4 times in the water. He'll urinate on occasion, sometimes leaving noticeable urates, sometimes not, always leaving urine though for us to spot clean.
Attached are three photos:
1 is of Journey's home with all the items labeled. Another is showing Journey climbing out of the little home he made in search of his breakfast, taken just this morning. The last is a closeup (but out of focus) photo of Journey eating his greens this morning.
The home is not as intricate as some others posted here, but we're still learning. We're open to any and all thoughts! And, we really appreciate it if you've taken the time to read this. Thanks!
We've had Journey for a few months now, since October. Going on 4 months or so. We're still trying to perfect some things here and there, and I thought it might be helpful to get some opinions about his home all at once.
Below are some details of the home, followed by photos. Its long, but I'm hoping to give a full description at once instead of making many new posts. I also decided to post here in the Regarding Russians section rather than the generic "Enclosures" section to focus solely on our Russian.
Details:
Substrate: We used ReptiBark on the opinion of the PetSmart store. Since then, after seeing how dusty it can be, we've moved to Aspen. Journey was very angry with us after we changed his substrate to something new, but he's over it now. He currently has a mix of what was left of his ReptiBark, mixed with a brick of Aspen, with newspaper underneath it all for easy cleanup every month or two. I'll note that he loves to burrow little homes for himself under the newspaper, like little tents.
Food and water:
Water dish is available at all times, though we've only seen him use it once in three months. We assume he gets his water from his greens and from his weekly soakings. His greens are a small amount of a mix of red leaf lettuce and collard greens daily, with calcium dust 2-3 times a week. We recently bought Timothy hay, and the one time we used it sweet talk him into his new substrate, he seemed to like it. Haven't used it as part of a routine yet, though.
Moisture:
We soak him once a week in lukewarm to room temp water, usually for about 15 minutes. The water is only enough for him to stand in and not have his face in it. I usually pour water over his shell to wet his shell. Soaking him is interesting, as he's guaranteed to go to the bathroom 3-4 times during his soaking, requiring a constant change of water. Keeps him regular though? I've seen some of you use a spray bottle to keep the humidity up. We have a cheap little analog humidity reader sitting in the corner of his terrarium, and it reads 40%. Yet, we recently had the humidity checked in our apartment as we get some moisture on the windows at times this winter, and we were told our apartment is humid. So not sure what the real level is, and we don't have a digital humidity reader yet. But, we try to stay up on the weekly soakings. I have to say, I think the ReptiBark retained humidity better than the Aspen, but it was also very dusty with an aroma. What should the humidity level be, and would more frequent soakings make up for not spraying him down like some here do?
Shelter:
Journey has a hollow half log on the cool end of his home, which he sometimes goes in after we change out his substrate and he's mad with us, or after eating his breakfast but before basking. Recently, I increased the substrate to see if he would climb on top of the log, and sure enough he did! Funny little guy. But his usual shelter is the little newspaper tents he makes. As I mentioned, we have newspaper (well, really junkmail and grocery ads) under all the substrate for easy cleanup every month or 6 weeks. He makes little tents and buries himself under the newspaper, which is under the substrate, and he does this usually in the warmer area under the lamps.
Lighting and temperature:
After much frustration when we bought him and soon after when we learned the PetSmart recommendations were all wrong, we finally bought a Powersun UVA 100w light for daytime (630am to 7pm), and we have it on a timer that switches to a red bulb for night time. The UVA bulb is on the side of the terrarium pointing straight down, approximately 15 inches from the substrate. The red lamp is at an angle, as the dome is rather small and we don't have a setup to make it horizontal. But, its a night lamp for heat anyway, so I figured that wouldn't matter. That is located above the middle of the terrarium. Cool-end temps where the log and food dish is stay steady around 70-75, and the warm end is usually 90s in the day and 80s at night (but these are according to an ewually-cheap analog thermometer like the humidity reader, so its hard to tell. They're located in the corners of his terrarium.)
Other features/asthetics:
We have a stick from outside, bug and rot free, smooth with no bark, that lays lengthwise in his terrarium, just as something to climb over easily. We also have a rock in the corner on the UVA side of the home, which he'll sometimes lay on while basking. Similarly, we have a small rock in another corner just for asthetics. All told, the contents of his home consist of the newspaper and substrate, food and water dishes, a stick, two rocks, and the log shelter. (and lamps, of course, but they're not "in" the home.)
Behaviors:
Just for knowledge, here are some of Journey's observable behaviors. Much to my wife's delight, Journey is out and waiting by his food dish every morning the minute his night lamp changes to daytime. He spends about 20-30 minutes eating, sometimes he finishes and sometimes he leaves some left. He'll then walk over to the opposite end and bask for a little while. Then he'll bury himself back under the newspaper and remain there until the next morning. Question: Are Russians generally that sleepy and/or enjoy burrowing/hiding? These are observable during the week, and its limiting because we work. On weekends, though, he may not get to eat until we finally wake up. By then he's noticed we aren't feeding him at his normal time and he'll either go back to his little tent with his head poking out, or he'll chill out under the log waiting. It seems when we're home and its later than usual, he's more active. He'll walk along the glass back and forth if we're nearby. He'll bask and walk around. He'll spend a good few hours being pretty active when we're around, as opposed to weekday mornings when he eats, basks, and goes right back to his tent/burrow fairly quickly. (Although, who knows what he does if we're at work right?) As far as the bathroom, sometimes we'll find something in the terrarium once every few days, but he seems to save it all until his weekly soaking when he decides to go 3-4 times in the water. He'll urinate on occasion, sometimes leaving noticeable urates, sometimes not, always leaving urine though for us to spot clean.
Attached are three photos:
1 is of Journey's home with all the items labeled. Another is showing Journey climbing out of the little home he made in search of his breakfast, taken just this morning. The last is a closeup (but out of focus) photo of Journey eating his greens this morning.
The home is not as intricate as some others posted here, but we're still learning. We're open to any and all thoughts! And, we really appreciate it if you've taken the time to read this. Thanks!
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