Hi!
I recently bought a russian tortoise 3.5 weeks ago (my first reptile!). She's about 4.5 inches (I don't have a ruler) which I think makes her a young adult? Correct me if I'm wrong please! I have some questions about her care that I keep getting conflicting advice on.
As background, we currently have her in a large rubbermaid (we live in an apartment building). We are planning on constructing a bigger enclosure soon. For now, we let her out to wander around the apartment every couple days, always keeping an eye on her. I know a lot of people don't necessarily approve, but she seems to enjoy the chance to explore the apartment and we put her back in the tank as soon as she settles in one area for a while. We use coconut coir as the substrate, have a UVB and heat lamp, and the enclosure contains a log hide, a food dish, and a large shallow water dish. The enclosure is 85-90 degrees in the light (we don't have a thermometer on the dark side, so I'm not sure of the temp there). We currently keep the UVB on 10-12 hrs a day and used to keep the heat lamp on permanently, although conflicting advice now has us turning it off at night. What should we do with the heat lamp - keep it on all the time or turn it off at night?
So my major question is about food and water. We keep standing water in the shallow water dish in her enclosure, and also soak her in a tub every 2 weeks or so (we've done it once so far, and she doesn't seem to be a huge fan of the process). She enjoys the water dish, and spends a good amount of time in there. She tends to release urate while soaking, which we clean up promptly. However, in the past several days the water has vanished at a surprising rate (aka we refill it every morning and it's gone by the night - we then refill it at night and then it's gone by the morning!). I'm not sure if it's pure evaporation or if she is drinking it for some reason. It seems unlikely to be evaporation since the temperature hasn't changed (although maybe the humidity in our apartment has? I don't think so but it's possible). However, we have seen her soaking a lot more and even drinking occasionally. Again, this "water disappearing act" is new (aka 3-5 days) and thus is disturbing us quite a bit, since we don't know the reason. Could she be too hot or not humid enough so she needs to drink a lot?
There's a similar situation with food. She has always been a good eater, and has eaten whatever we've given her - romaine, red/green lettuce, kale, spring mix, with (very rarely) carrots or apples and always a dusting of Repti-vite (is this a good supplement? It's what the pet store recommended). She is also incredibly active, always moving around inside her enclosure or our apartment when we let her out. We are unsure of how often and how much to feed her. At first we fed her once a day in the morning about a handful of lettuce (it took her ~30 mins to eat it all). But now she recognizes us, and whenever we check on her in the rubbermaid she stands in the food bowl, looks up and begins clawing in our direction. It it possibly the cutest thing I've ever seen, and as a result we end up feeding her again (about 1/2 the amount in the evening). The main problem is we don't know HOW much to feed her, or how often. Whenever she looks like she wants food, I supply it and she always gobbles it up. I definitely don't want to overfeed her though, so I'd like some guidance on exactly how much to feed.
So in conclusion, my main concerns are about the water disappearing (evaporation? drinking?) and how much/how often to feed my RT. All help would be appreciated!
Thanks for all your help!
I recently bought a russian tortoise 3.5 weeks ago (my first reptile!). She's about 4.5 inches (I don't have a ruler) which I think makes her a young adult? Correct me if I'm wrong please! I have some questions about her care that I keep getting conflicting advice on.
As background, we currently have her in a large rubbermaid (we live in an apartment building). We are planning on constructing a bigger enclosure soon. For now, we let her out to wander around the apartment every couple days, always keeping an eye on her. I know a lot of people don't necessarily approve, but she seems to enjoy the chance to explore the apartment and we put her back in the tank as soon as she settles in one area for a while. We use coconut coir as the substrate, have a UVB and heat lamp, and the enclosure contains a log hide, a food dish, and a large shallow water dish. The enclosure is 85-90 degrees in the light (we don't have a thermometer on the dark side, so I'm not sure of the temp there). We currently keep the UVB on 10-12 hrs a day and used to keep the heat lamp on permanently, although conflicting advice now has us turning it off at night. What should we do with the heat lamp - keep it on all the time or turn it off at night?
So my major question is about food and water. We keep standing water in the shallow water dish in her enclosure, and also soak her in a tub every 2 weeks or so (we've done it once so far, and she doesn't seem to be a huge fan of the process). She enjoys the water dish, and spends a good amount of time in there. She tends to release urate while soaking, which we clean up promptly. However, in the past several days the water has vanished at a surprising rate (aka we refill it every morning and it's gone by the night - we then refill it at night and then it's gone by the morning!). I'm not sure if it's pure evaporation or if she is drinking it for some reason. It seems unlikely to be evaporation since the temperature hasn't changed (although maybe the humidity in our apartment has? I don't think so but it's possible). However, we have seen her soaking a lot more and even drinking occasionally. Again, this "water disappearing act" is new (aka 3-5 days) and thus is disturbing us quite a bit, since we don't know the reason. Could she be too hot or not humid enough so she needs to drink a lot?
There's a similar situation with food. She has always been a good eater, and has eaten whatever we've given her - romaine, red/green lettuce, kale, spring mix, with (very rarely) carrots or apples and always a dusting of Repti-vite (is this a good supplement? It's what the pet store recommended). She is also incredibly active, always moving around inside her enclosure or our apartment when we let her out. We are unsure of how often and how much to feed her. At first we fed her once a day in the morning about a handful of lettuce (it took her ~30 mins to eat it all). But now she recognizes us, and whenever we check on her in the rubbermaid she stands in the food bowl, looks up and begins clawing in our direction. It it possibly the cutest thing I've ever seen, and as a result we end up feeding her again (about 1/2 the amount in the evening). The main problem is we don't know HOW much to feed her, or how often. Whenever she looks like she wants food, I supply it and she always gobbles it up. I definitely don't want to overfeed her though, so I'd like some guidance on exactly how much to feed.
So in conclusion, my main concerns are about the water disappearing (evaporation? drinking?) and how much/how often to feed my RT. All help would be appreciated!
Thanks for all your help!