A writer who does not accept critisim !! no one is perfect and no one can write the perfect book, the book jumps from topic to another so fast before elaborating on anything, some information are incorrect at best. let alone the title is misleading "Russian tortoise" where you barely write about...
that's what I thought, if the animal is freshly wild caught you wouldn't see this beak, but if he has been in captivity for a while then all the nutritional problems will show some way or another.
I find it strange for this animal to be wild caught and having a large beak like that, I used to think that this is a development problem that has to do with incorrect nutrition (which does not happen in the their natural habitat)
it's likely a combination of diet and UVB/ heat availablity, I would recommend to increase the leafy greens in his diet (possibly make it the only diet) no need to sprinkle calcium if you have cuttlebone as the tortoise knows when to take extra calcium.
also check if he has adequate heat or too...
I have 2.12 (I don't remember the accurate count) Russians that I keep outdoors, I had them for over 3 years, always housed together with no issues, you will see some aggression from the males during spring, but that's only a natural breeding behavior ( I guess my 2 males are too busy mating...
I agree with Ryan, females have to be at least 6" however small males can still be sexually mature, but I think they have to be at least 4.5" (from my observation)
RE: Russian Subspecies
I never heard of this ! subspecies of Russians, I have all 3 "assumed" subspecies, but then I have Russians that look different than all 3, so does that mean there are more subspecies or that is it?
I tend to see the 3 pictured above as all similar with natural...
I like the idea of covering the hide boxes with plants, I am going to do that this summer, but probably will get some ready ground cover flats from home depot instead of waiting weeks to grow them :) , thanks for sharing the information.
I never heard of Radiata magazine, I will check it out...
Thank you all for your input, filing the beak seems like a difficult job, I will try feeding on a hard surface as suggested, I never had a tortoise develop over grown beak while in my care, I always have a cuttlebone and feed large unchopped greens with stems, I also keep few rocks in their...
I recently acquired a tortoise that has an obvious beak, it is not affecting feeding or nutritional status, but wanted to know if generaly people trim or file these beaks or what do you do to correct it?
I noticed that on 2 of my Russian female tortoises few days back, one of them was mounting the other one raming the shell few times and emitting high pitched sounds then she urinated !!!, I know it is a sign of aggression, but never seen it happen exactly like a mating process.