Hi all. I need some advice from those more experienced than me. I've had Russians in years past, but housed them primarily indoors, with outdoor enclosures for fair weather. I've also been studying everything I can find about them for the last two or three years now, but we now how that goes, from our sulcata experience.
My project: I'm setting up some large outdoor pens with the intention of having several Russian breeding colonies. There will be plenty of room to mix and match and separate or isolate individual "combatants". I intend to use all backyard bred captive stock and I am not in a rush. The pens will be completely enclosed with welded wire on a wooden frame and around 13' wide x28' long x8' high. Â They will be planted with various broadleaf weeds and Testudo seed mixes. I also grow cactus, grape leaves, African hibiscus, mulberry leaves and a whole host of other weeds that occur naturally. Each enclosure will have a 4x8' planter box/shade table too for them to get under in warmer weather. And a few small bushes and logs or rocks here and there. I live in the Santa Clarita area of Los Angeles. It could be classified as high desert. We have summer days with highs in the 100s and nights in the mid 60s. Winter days are usually in the 60s with occasional cold days, like today, that barely get to 50. Winter nights are usually in the 30s, only occasionally dropping into the 20's.
On to my question: In the last couple of years I have been building and experimenting with various underground tortoise boxes for my other species. All my older tortoises live outside 24/7, but I have heated thermostatically controlled shelters that I lock them in at night after they all retire. Here is an example of one of my underground shelters: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-28662.html
The underground shelters stay cool in the summer and warm in the winter. It can't collapse or flood and I have access to the tortoises anytime I want. I intend to do something similar with the russians, but I am worried about our wildly fluctuating inconsistent temps here in Southern CA. In summer they can go underground when it gets too hot. I also run sprinklers and misters in really hot weather. What I am worried about is the warm winter spells we occasionally get. We had about six weeks in 2011 before and after Christmas of highs in the 80s. This plays havoc with reptiles that are supposed to be hibernating. It gets cold here, but not consistently for the duration of winter. I am worried that they will go to ground to hibernate as they should in the fall, and then a warm winter spell will cause them to come up and possibly start grazing. When the cold returns And they go back underground, I don't want them to have a bunch of food in their gut. The temps in my underground burrows hover around 80 all summer long, and around 50 all winter long. Very consistent.
Finally the question: What to do about winter? With my fluctuating above ground temps will they figure out what to do and be okay? Should I put them in a temp controlled fridge over winter so they have the perfect hibernation temps? Some people have suggested that 50 is too warm for them to properly hibernate. Is 50 okay underground in a somewhat "natural"enclosure? We will sometimes have a week or two straight where night temps are in the 20's and day temps barely reach 50 under cold ominous skies, but then we have other winter weeks where highs are in the 70's, sunny and gorgeous for weeks in a row.
Any insight is welcome. I really don't want to learn what to do through trial and error. I am not used to housing non-tropical species outside here.
My project: I'm setting up some large outdoor pens with the intention of having several Russian breeding colonies. There will be plenty of room to mix and match and separate or isolate individual "combatants". I intend to use all backyard bred captive stock and I am not in a rush. The pens will be completely enclosed with welded wire on a wooden frame and around 13' wide x28' long x8' high. Â They will be planted with various broadleaf weeds and Testudo seed mixes. I also grow cactus, grape leaves, African hibiscus, mulberry leaves and a whole host of other weeds that occur naturally. Each enclosure will have a 4x8' planter box/shade table too for them to get under in warmer weather. And a few small bushes and logs or rocks here and there. I live in the Santa Clarita area of Los Angeles. It could be classified as high desert. We have summer days with highs in the 100s and nights in the mid 60s. Winter days are usually in the 60s with occasional cold days, like today, that barely get to 50. Winter nights are usually in the 30s, only occasionally dropping into the 20's.
On to my question: In the last couple of years I have been building and experimenting with various underground tortoise boxes for my other species. All my older tortoises live outside 24/7, but I have heated thermostatically controlled shelters that I lock them in at night after they all retire. Here is an example of one of my underground shelters: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-28662.html
The underground shelters stay cool in the summer and warm in the winter. It can't collapse or flood and I have access to the tortoises anytime I want. I intend to do something similar with the russians, but I am worried about our wildly fluctuating inconsistent temps here in Southern CA. In summer they can go underground when it gets too hot. I also run sprinklers and misters in really hot weather. What I am worried about is the warm winter spells we occasionally get. We had about six weeks in 2011 before and after Christmas of highs in the 80s. This plays havoc with reptiles that are supposed to be hibernating. It gets cold here, but not consistently for the duration of winter. I am worried that they will go to ground to hibernate as they should in the fall, and then a warm winter spell will cause them to come up and possibly start grazing. When the cold returns And they go back underground, I don't want them to have a bunch of food in their gut. The temps in my underground burrows hover around 80 all summer long, and around 50 all winter long. Very consistent.
Finally the question: What to do about winter? With my fluctuating above ground temps will they figure out what to do and be okay? Should I put them in a temp controlled fridge over winter so they have the perfect hibernation temps? Some people have suggested that 50 is too warm for them to properly hibernate. Is 50 okay underground in a somewhat "natural"enclosure? We will sometimes have a week or two straight where night temps are in the 20's and day temps barely reach 50 under cold ominous skies, but then we have other winter weeks where highs are in the 70's, sunny and gorgeous for weeks in a row.
Any insight is welcome. I really don't want to learn what to do through trial and error. I am not used to housing non-tropical species outside here.