Hi guys,
This has been going on honestly for years now but I feel like I finally want an answer. I have had my Russian tortoise Griswold for almost 7 years now and in general he seems to be doing as well as I can tell from a tortoise's demeanor. His shell is round and his eyes and bright and alert.
Now, in the winter he eats less and tries to dig a hole and hibernate. That makes sense and I don't have questions about that. He'll sometimes not eat or barely eat during this time for two months but he seems healthy so I've let that be. The warm part of his enclosure during this time is 25-27 C (~77 F) but I think it's just the amount of actual sunlight that he can sense and knows it's winter.
But why does he also do something similar in the summer? At this time the temperature is closer to 34 C (~95 F) which I'm told is just what the warm part should be but every time I put him there to eat his food, he just looks for 5 seconds, and then walks to the cold part of his enclosure and goes to sleep. Shouldn't he be more active and eating in the summer? At first I wanted to leave the lightbulb on so he would experience summer and not get confused but this morning it was clearly on track to hit 36-37 so I just turned it off. His diet is mostly dandelion greens and pellets. I'll sometimes add other types of dried tortoise food that has yams and such. I'm trying swiss chard but he sticks his nose at it. I think maybe I'll pick up romaine lettuce from the store next time I'm there just because I don't think it's healthy for him to eat dandelions for three years.
Otherwise I'm very happy he's made it seven years. I suspect he's around 11 or 12 actually, but that's mostly guessing. This community has definitely helped.
PS: I saw a post that mentioned husbandry as a part of the site. Is there a section I can fill out so I don't have to describe him every time?
This has been going on honestly for years now but I feel like I finally want an answer. I have had my Russian tortoise Griswold for almost 7 years now and in general he seems to be doing as well as I can tell from a tortoise's demeanor. His shell is round and his eyes and bright and alert.
Now, in the winter he eats less and tries to dig a hole and hibernate. That makes sense and I don't have questions about that. He'll sometimes not eat or barely eat during this time for two months but he seems healthy so I've let that be. The warm part of his enclosure during this time is 25-27 C (~77 F) but I think it's just the amount of actual sunlight that he can sense and knows it's winter.
But why does he also do something similar in the summer? At this time the temperature is closer to 34 C (~95 F) which I'm told is just what the warm part should be but every time I put him there to eat his food, he just looks for 5 seconds, and then walks to the cold part of his enclosure and goes to sleep. Shouldn't he be more active and eating in the summer? At first I wanted to leave the lightbulb on so he would experience summer and not get confused but this morning it was clearly on track to hit 36-37 so I just turned it off. His diet is mostly dandelion greens and pellets. I'll sometimes add other types of dried tortoise food that has yams and such. I'm trying swiss chard but he sticks his nose at it. I think maybe I'll pick up romaine lettuce from the store next time I'm there just because I don't think it's healthy for him to eat dandelions for three years.
Otherwise I'm very happy he's made it seven years. I suspect he's around 11 or 12 actually, but that's mostly guessing. This community has definitely helped.
PS: I saw a post that mentioned husbandry as a part of the site. Is there a section I can fill out so I don't have to describe him every time?