Question about RT habits

[mel262011]

I was just wanting to know, is it okay for an RT to be buried underneath the basking light all day? I just got it yesterday. Is it normal or is it an adjustment thing? I know I am asking a few questions on here, I am only doing it because I know very little about their habits. Any info would be appreciated. Also, does anyone know how long it takes a new RT to start eating after being moved (I got it yesterday afternoon)?

She will come out in the morning, walk around, dig a little, sniff the food, and go back to the light and bury herself.

 

[jhigh81]

I got my russian about 3 months ago. He stayed buried for about a week, and didnt eat for three weeks. I gave him food everyday, and he never ate it. Now he is a pig and eats every chance he gets. He still stays buried during the heat of the day (he has an outdoor enclosure), but comes out in the morning and night.

 

[Grigor.Love.]

My russian ate right away and never stayed buried... What are you feeding it? Try to give it a "welcome, this is your new home treat."

 

[dmmj]

several things come to mind,it could be readjusting, it cold be to cold, it could be sick. My russians are kept outside so I can't really say if it is normal. Mine do bask but they don't spend all day there.

Has it eaten at all?

 

[mel262011]

My russian ate right away and never stayed buried... What are you feeding it? Try to give it a "welcome, this is your new home treat."

How do I give it a new home treat? When I got it home I gave it a warm bath and all it did was try and climb out of the bowl. I know, the question sounds stupid, but I never had this problem with my red foot and my red foot was shipped over night. My RF ate right after I got her out of the box she was shipped in. Anyways, I offered my russian food and it just looked at it for a minute and then went to hide. I tried feeding it greens.

On another note: The people I got her from were feeding her box turtle food. I got her yesterday.

 

[dmmj]

my russians go bonkers over hibiscus flowers, they actually fight over them, do you have access to hibiscus flowers? they would make a nice treat.

 

[mel262011]

not unless they sell them at the grocery store.

 

[dmmj]

Dandelions flowers and or leaves? flowers will often get a russian excited and they will gobble them up.

What type of box turtle food were they feeding him?

 

[mel262011]

they fed her just the basic box turtle food they sell at PetSmart, the pellets were orange and green.

I can get dandelion leaves at the grocery store along with spring mix.

In all honesty, I got the Russian from PetSmart, She hadn't been there long, like a wk or 2.

 

[dmmj]

can you get cactus pads? those are another favorite of my russians.

 

[Grigor.Love.]

Asking questions about the well being of your tort isn't stupid. I don't think any of us started out as experts (debatle). I sure as heck asked a million and a half. I realize you aren't new persay. But, getting a new pet can make anyone nuerotic. Take a breath. Do your research. Ask some more questions. Give it a couple days. See what happens. If this behavior persists take it back, I think there's a certain period of time where they'll provide care for your pet.

 

[mel262011]

I fed her some shaved carrot and she started eating. now she is eating the collards with a few pellets in it. There is more greens in it then pellets, it about 75% greens/ 25% pellets. I am so happy she is eating Thank you Grigor.Love.

 

[GeoTerraTestudo]

We got our two Russians (a male and a female) from a pet store in April 2011, where they feed them lettuce and cucumbers. When we first brought them home, they didn't eat for about two days when I offered them something they were not used to (kale), but on the third day I offered them lettuce, and they gobbled it right up. Since then, they have been eating all sorts of things in hearty proportions, like a Russian tortoise should.

As for basking in the hot spot. It's not unusual for captive reptiles to bask in the hot spot for prolonged periods. Sometimes this is because the rest of the enclosure is too cold, but even when everything is normal, they may still do it. This can be unhealthy because, at elevated temperatures, the metabolism speeds up. An elevated metabolic rate is necessary for short periods, like when the animal needs to be active or digest its food, but after these periods are over it us general better to cool off for a while, as would normally happen in the wild.

Excessive basking is probably one of those behaviors animals do in civilization that they wouldn't do in a primitive state. However, the reason animals crave these things is that they are important and relatively hard to come by in nature. If a Russian tortoise tried to bask all day long in the wild, it would be at risk of being too exposed to the elements or predators. In captivity, redfoot tortoises like to eat a lot of fruit and animal protein, even though this can be bad for them in excess. So why do they crave them? Because they're rare in nature, but still important to their nutrition. Same thing with us: we crave sweets, salt, and fat. Why, when they can give us diabetes and high blood pressure? Answer: humans need a little bit of these things, but we come from an environment where they were hard to find, so we evolved to take advantage of them when we could. Now, in modernity, eating too much of these things is a problem, even though a little bit of them is still good for us, as long as we don't overdo it.

Having said all that, my Russian tortoises go through periods when they bask all day long. It's not a big deal. As long as they are coming out to feed and eliminate waste, there's nothing wrong with their basking or burying themselves for prolonged periods. That's just what they do to feel comfortable. If they still don't become active even after basking for a while, then they might be sick and it might be a good idea to take them to the vet. Otherwise, they're just Russian tortoises being Russian tortoises.

 

[Utah Lynn]

I would like to respond to this question here and now, because I'm still learning and I think it will benefit all "newbies". I discovered, what I think was a potentially fatal mistake that I made with my lighting. I rearranged my lighting.
Everything up to that point had been good.
I failed to take into consideration a difference in the distance from the heat light to the substrate.
I think that I have been slo-cooking my RT, Sherman.
I got a new thermometer and wanted to try it out. I placed it directly under the heat lamp. This is where Sherman liked to burrow in; right under the lamp.
After a few minutes of having the thermometer in this place, I picked it up to read it and got burnt. That spot was SOOO hot, that it had pegged the thermometer beyond 120 degrees.
Needless to say, I have turned this light off until I can raise the fixture.
The thought of slo-cooking him just made me sick. I don't think damage was done, but could have.