Water Temperature for Russian Baby Soaking

Jess84

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What is the ideal water temperature for soaking your baby Russian Tortoise?
 

tinkerbell1189

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I don't measure the temp as such, but I use the same principle for bathing a baby. I test the water before putting my tort in by putting the inside of my wrist in the water to see its not too hot. Then throughout the soaking you will prob need to top up the warm water, so the temp doesn't drop. I found my tort prefers his water to be slightly warmer than luke warm (which is suggested).
 

Jess84

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Sep 22, 2015
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I don't measure the temp as such, but I use the same principle for bathing a baby. I test the water before putting my tort in by putting the inside of my wrist in the water to see its not too hot. Then throughout the soaking you will prob need to top up the warm water, so the temp doesn't drop. I found my tort prefers his water to be slightly warmer than luke warm (which is suggested).
Thank you!
 

Jess84

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How often do you soak your tortoise?
Zero times yet -- she's on her way here in about an hour! (New Tort Mom here!) I'm all set up to give her the out-of-the-box arrival soak, but I wanted to make sure there wasn't a heat protocol to that bath I was missing. Since temps are so important in their enclosures, I wanted to make sure soaking water temps were on point as well :)
 

Gillian M

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I don't measure water temp either. I check the temp with my hand, as I now know what temp suits OLI.

And a warm welcome to the forum.
 

SarahChelonoidis

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Another non-measurer here. I also opt for a little warmer than luke warm (and test it on the inside of my arm). When it's warm enough, all the legs kick back and you have a visually very relaxed tortoise.
 

tinkerbell1189

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Also helps if you use a container that they can't see out of (I.e. Not see through sides or shallow sides) otherwise they tend to just focus on escaping. My Russian is only soaked a few times a week but he isn't a baby, they should be soaked more. Also you should always give your tortoise access to clean water in his enclosure as some will drink from it or some even soak themselves (mine likes to trample dirt all through his and then maybe poop too, just to annoy me )
 

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