Temperature

[hrrll_mchl]

I'm sure this question gets asked a lot and I see many varied answers various places about what is too cold overnight for a russian tortoise. I live in central Florida and have recently moved my tortoise to an outdoors enclosure. Currently night time temps have been in mid to high 60s but a couple nights later this week are showing lows of 49 degrees. In doing searches I see some say anything below 60 to bring them inside and some say anything below 40 bring them inside. What would a safe overnight low temp be? During the day it will be mid 70s.

 

[Tom]

I'm sure this question gets asked a lot and I see many varied answers various places about what is too cold overnight for a russian tortoise. I live in central Florida and have recently moved my tortoise to an outdoors enclosure. Currently night time temps have been in mid to high 60s but a couple nights later this week are showing lows of 49 degrees. In doing searches I see some say anything below 60 to bring them inside and some say anything below 40 bring them inside. What would a safe overnight low temp be? During the day it will be mid 70s.

The solution, no matter what answer you get to this question, is to have a proper insulated temperature controlled shelter. With that, it doesn't matter what the outside temperature does, as you can set your box temp to whatever you think it ought to be. This box will also provide shelter from the hot summer sun, rain storms, and offer protection from predators and varmints.

To answer your question now, Russians can tolerate night temps in the 40s as long as they can warm up the next day. In your humid climate, this might be different than it is elsewhere, and you should probably err on the safe side. They can "tolerate" cold night temps, but I find 60-70 works quite well for them too. I would argue that 50 is certainly "survivable", but 60-65 at night is "optimal".

 

[hrrll_mchl]

The solution, no matter what answer you get to this question, is to have a proper insulated temperature controlled shelter. With that, it doesn't matter what the outside temperature does, as you can set your box temp to whatever you think it ought to be. This box will also provide shelter from the hot summer sun, rain storms, and offer protection from predators and varmints.

To answer your question now, Russians can tolerate night temps in the 40s as long as they can warm up the next day. In your humid climate, this might be different than it is elsewhere, and you should probably err on the safe side. They can "tolerate" cold night temps, but I find 60-70 works quite well for them too. I would argue that 50 is certainly "survivable", but 60-65 at night is "optimal".

Thanks for the guidance, I will look into doing that!

 

[Tom]

Thanks for the guidance, I will look into doing that!

There are pics and an explanation in the "Outdoor Housing" section of this thread and questions are welcome:

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

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