# Stays in one side of the enclosure



## Rusky (Mar 7, 2018)

My Russian tends to have varying periods of inactivity and sleeping all day to vigilantly patrolling and pacing his enclosure, without any noticeable difference in his environment. At the moment, he seems to spend 95% of his day occupying one-third of his enclosure, where he has a half-log hide, a feeding rock and a basking spot. The rest of the enclosure has an ambient temp of around 70 degrees. Is this normal behavior?


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## Tom (Mar 7, 2018)

Rusky said:


> My Russian tends to have varying periods of inactivity and sleeping all day to vigilantly patrolling and pacing his enclosure, without any noticeable difference in his environment. At the moment, he seems to spend 95% of his day occupying one-third of his enclosure, where he has a half-log hide, a feeding rock and a basking spot. The rest of the enclosure has an ambient temp of around 70 degrees. Is this normal behavior?


Sounds fairly normal.

If a tortoise stays mostly on the warm side, it might be too cool or too dark on the other side.
If a tortoise stays mostly on the cool side, it might be to hot or the lighting might be too harsh on the other side.

Try adding some heat and light to the cool side, and see what behavioral changes you get.


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## Rusky (Mar 7, 2018)

Tom said:


> Sounds fairly normal.
> 
> If a tortoise stays mostly on the warm side, it might be too cool or too dark on the other side.
> If a tortoise stays mostly on the cool side, it might be to hot or the lighting might be too harsh on the other side.
> ...


Thanks. Forgot to mention this, but I also added a second heat bulb to make a sort of half-way basking spot of 85 degrees on the other side, but he still doesn't go there much.


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## Tom (Mar 7, 2018)

Rusky said:


> Thanks. Forgot to mention this, but I also added a second heat bulb to make a sort of half-way basking spot of 85 degrees on the other side, but he still doesn't go there much.


Try adding a florescent tube over the length of the enclosure and set it on the same timer as the basking bulbs. Tubes in the 5000-6500K color range will work best. Or you can buy a ZooMed 10.0 tube if that seems easier to you. These make nice "natural" looking light.


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## Rusky (Mar 7, 2018)

Tom said:


> Try adding a florescent tube over the length of the enclosure and set it on the same timer as the basking bulbs. Tubes in the 5000-6500K color range will work best. Or you can buy a ZooMed 10.0 tube if that seems easier to you. These make nice "natural" looking light.


There is also a 6500K fluorescent tube over that end. Does he maybe just have a favorite side? He literally never goes into the hide on that side also, which is constructed from bricks and covered with the substrate to make a sort of burrow into the mound.


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