Many years ago I adopted a "wall surfer" tortoise that was previously kept in a backyard without any kind of plants or decorations in his enclosure. We provided a heavily structured enclosure where we made sure that he could not walk along the walls (big stones, plants, wooden barriers). We...
To me this looks like he scrubbed his scales of somehow. He is male- does he show typical male behaviour?
One of my boys tail looked similar after he humped his favourite stone too hard.
I lost one of my tortoises in 2021 to herpes virus. 3 others had it and survived. In the next year another one of my tortoises had it and also survived.
There are at least 3 different types of the virus that affect the species differently. While russian tortoises can survive, the chance of...
I would also suggest a greenhouse of some kind. Ideally you can install lamps (you don't need the fancy UV lamps, some par38 will work just fine). I also use a sleeping house where my tortoises live to sleep and where I installed a heating pad on the lid.
The pros of a greenhouse are...