unlikelyrussian
New Member
Hi, I joined in November 2021 after taking on a sad Russian tortoise that seems to have been neglected for a lot of his previous ten years.
He is doing much better! An exotics vet treated him for parasites and we gave him antibiotics because his white blood cells were elevated.
He is now in a large tortoise table made from a repurposed bookcase. It has UVB light and a hide and a place to soak, etc. I feed him a varied diet. I basically am following the recommendations on here for a temperate region tortoise.
He now marches around energetically and enjoys digging.
Sometimes he relentlessly paces back and forth at one end of his enclosure, though, in a way that seems disturbed to me, like the stereotypical movements of animals in a zoo.
He also barely goes into the cooler side of his enclosure. I wonder if it would make sense to add another basking light area and if there is *too much* cool space.
Anyway, I will continue to work to make things better for him. I have a plan for an outside enclosure to build in the spring that will be bigger.
Thank you for the advice and encouragement on this forum.
He is doing much better! An exotics vet treated him for parasites and we gave him antibiotics because his white blood cells were elevated.
He is now in a large tortoise table made from a repurposed bookcase. It has UVB light and a hide and a place to soak, etc. I feed him a varied diet. I basically am following the recommendations on here for a temperate region tortoise.
He now marches around energetically and enjoys digging.
Sometimes he relentlessly paces back and forth at one end of his enclosure, though, in a way that seems disturbed to me, like the stereotypical movements of animals in a zoo.
He also barely goes into the cooler side of his enclosure. I wonder if it would make sense to add another basking light area and if there is *too much* cool space.
Anyway, I will continue to work to make things better for him. I have a plan for an outside enclosure to build in the spring that will be bigger.
Thank you for the advice and encouragement on this forum.
