Water dish size/depth

[Aufilia]

We are caring for my son's teacher's classroom tortoise for some time, perhaps all school year. The tortoise is a Russian tortoise about 6" long.

He came with quite a large water dish which he never seems to pay any attention to, and which is large enough that it's awkward to move it in and out of the cage to refresh the water and clean it. (Especially for my 10-year-old who is theoretically supposed to be caring for this tortoise!). His current dish is large enough he could bathe in it, although in fact he seems to hate bathing in any circumstance.

How big of a water dish does a 6" Russian tortoise really need? How deep is deep enough vs too deep? I'm wondering if we could replace the dish with something a bit smaller, perhaps even a plastic or ceramic dish that could go into the dishwasher for more reliable cleaning. We have a plastic tub to bathe him in outside of his enclosure.


(I know his home seems kind of boring even for a tortoise! I've got plans to liven it up a little but that's a topic for another post.)

 

[Golden Greek Tortoise 567]

That water bowl is much to big, it needs to be shallow. That’s probably why he isn’t using it. I see a lot of things that need fixing this care sheet will explain it all...

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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[Minority2]

We are caring for my son's teacher's classroom tortoise for some time, perhaps all school year. The tortoise is a Russian tortoise about 6" long.

He came with quite a large water dish which he never seems to pay any attention to, and which is large enough that it's awkward to move it in and out of the cage to refresh the water and clean it. (Especially for my 10-year-old who is theoretically supposed to be caring for this tortoise!). His current dish is large enough he could bathe in it, although in fact he seems to hate bathing in any circumstance.

How big of a water dish does a 6" Russian tortoise really need? How deep is deep enough vs too deep? I'm wondering if we could replace the dish with something a bit smaller, perhaps even a plastic or ceramic dish that could go into the dishwasher for more reliable cleaning. We have a plastic tub to bathe him in outside of his enclosure.


(I know his home seems kind of boring even for a tortoise! I've got plans to liven it up a little but that's a topic for another post.)

That enclosure looks small for an adult Russian tortoise. Tortoises actually need a lot of room for themselves. They need areas to explore, exercise, and thermo-regulate. Small enclosures like that wouldn't give them enough temperature zone options to move around to. I understand the tortoise doesn't belong to you but the owner needs to know that they're providing enough room for their captive tortoise.

Terracotta plant saucers make very good water and feed dishes because they're heavy, low to the ground, shallow enough for self soaking, and designed easily to allow tortoises to climb in and out with much effort. They're also much cheaper than those overpriced resin reptile branded dishes.

Make sure to soak the tortoise a few times per week. Adult tortoises will still benefit from frequent soakings because it encourages them to poop more often than needed, thereby flushing out their wastes in exchange for fresh water.

My guess is that the diet you're currently giving the tortoise will probably need to be improved simply by judging the setup and likely advice you were given from the owner. Broad leafy weeds, flowers, and succulents should be fed most. None of that is usually available in grocery stores but can be bought online from tortoise retailing sites like https://kapidolofarms.com/

Mesh tops like the one you have there will physically block a significant amount of uv(B) rays from entering the enclosure. If your current uv(B) reptile rated bulb is already under-powered as it is, for example. say a 5.0 bulb versus a 10.0 or even 12% bulb then that would mean the tortoise would get even less uv(B) as a result of the combination of bulb and mesh cover.

 

[Tom]

We are caring for my son's teacher's classroom tortoise for some time, perhaps all school year. The tortoise is a Russian tortoise about 6" long.

He came with quite a large water dish which he never seems to pay any attention to, and which is large enough that it's awkward to move it in and out of the cage to refresh the water and clean it. (Especially for my 10-year-old who is theoretically supposed to be caring for this tortoise!). His current dish is large enough he could bathe in it, although in fact he seems to hate bathing in any circumstance.

How big of a water dish does a 6" Russian tortoise really need? How deep is deep enough vs too deep? I'm wondering if we could replace the dish with something a bit smaller, perhaps even a plastic or ceramic dish that could go into the dishwasher for more reliable cleaning. We have a plastic tub to bathe him in outside of his enclosure.

(I know his home seems kind of boring even for a tortoise! I've got plans to liven it up a little but that's a topic for another post.)

Much needs to be changed there.

I would use a 10" terra cotta plant saucer sunk into the substrate for a 6" Russian. You can make do with an 8" saucer if the tortoise is getting soaked regularly and has a larger one in the outdoor enclosure.

 

[Aufilia]

Thank you all for your advice. We've replaced the water dish and I think we should also replace the food dish; it seems awkwardly shapred for him to get at. We are working on constructing a larger enclosure but it's going to take some time.

Yes, his diet is atrocious; that's what sent me to consult the Intenet in the first place. He refuses to eat the vast majority of things we have tried to feed him, although he does seem to like my aloe plant, but it's a tiny plant and I need more succulents now. The recent terribly smokey weather has been preventing me from executing our plan to buy a bunch of other tortoise-safe food plants to try on him (I know, we'll have to wait a few weeks to make sure they aren't prayed with something harmful). It's looking like we're going to be able to breathe the air outdoors safey this weekend, FINALLY.

 

[Aufilia]

I don't know what the rating on the UVB bulb is but will buy a new one just to make sure as I see elsewhere on here they go bad after awhile anyway. I'm also open to any suggestions on how to do a better UVB setup immediately. Orginally, the 3 bulbs were sitting right on the screen but one of our cats immediately got up there and moved all the lamps around while attempting to cuddle, and it's lucky he didn't either melt the bars of the cage topper, bust through the screen, or burn down the entire house. We got metal stands to hang the lamps from, but then had to add an old section of baby gate on top of the cage and 3 anti-cat spike strips around the edge to keep the cat from getting up there to bask in the heat lamps.