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Yes, you are doing him a huge disservice by letting him in. The floor of the house is not safe, cannot be made safe, and no amount of supervision changes this. We see tragedy after tragedy as a result of people letting them roam free in the house. Nobody realizes how dangerous it is, or how many...

They aren't stressed. They are just marching. Much like a horse, tortoises rely on locomotion to keep the GI tract moving along. Think of the soaks like a hot walker for horses. Years ago @Yvonne G used the phrase "tortoise treadmill". It really does fit. While soaking for 45 minutes, your...

All of this sounds ideal. Longer soaks are better, as the mountain lady pointed out, but with two soaks a day, dehydration, constipation, and bladder stones can reasonably be ruled out. As an experiment, try switching back to the original diet with half romaine, before you added in the new...

My tortoises are the forces of destruction mentioned in the video...

Upland has great tortoise weather for DTs! The heat shouldn't matter indoors. I'm trying to see a reason for the reduced appetite. How often do you soak them? What sort of heating, lighting and UV are you using indoors? What are your temperatures indoors? What substrate are you using? Outside...

First: Are they housed separately? If the tortoise is grazing naturally, and with your huge variety of good stuff, you really don't need and supplementation. A tiny pinch of calcium now and then certainly won't hurt anything, but if they are eating a variety of weeds and all of those...

In addition to what Zovick said, this problem usually indicates poor care, incorrect hosing, and wrong diet. Just something to be aware of.

Closed chambers work much better and more efficiently if there is a solid top and all of the heating and lighting is contained inside. I'm not familiar with vivtech, but here is a breakdown of the four heating and lighting essentials: Basking bulb. I use 65 watt incandescent floods from the...

Switch to orchid bark. It works better. When using coco coir, it is important to keep it damp and firmly hand pack it down. Looks like yours is damp enough, but I can't tell if its hand packed or not.

Fir is a type of pine. But if it doesn't designate which type of pine then it's more iffy. On the other hand, if the reptile shop has been using it with no issues, then I bet it is fine. On the other hand, reptile shop use that Pets at Home brand over there with the calcium bits mixed in with...

My best answer is probably. Your 45 watt bulb for a smaller tortoise is probably fine. Personally I'd rather use the 65 watt and dial it down a little bit with a rheostat. Check the temperature under it by laying a digital thermometer on its back and letting it cook for a while. That will give...

Rheostat. https://www.amazon.com/REPTITRIP-Reptile-Thermostat-Temperature-Controller/dp/B0CMTN1CDC/?tag=exoticpetnetw-20

I agree with Fluffy. People do tend to keep Russian tortoises drier and less hydrated because of misunderstood assumptions of how they live in the wild, but this leads to dead Russian tortoises with bladder stones, more than is typically seen with hermanni. All tortoise species need at least...

Mr. Z, in all my years, I've never encountered this problem. Is it common? All of my adult females have always had a male for breeding, but I've not ever heard of other people's females needing to be spayed when not bred. I'm learning something new today. Would breeding this tortoise solve the...

The parasol is a great idea for shade. Just be sure to mount it securely so that it can't be blown away or knocked over and leave your tortoise to cook. Plants, shade cloth and hides should also be used to build up multiple layers of safety. Ants can swarm a tortoise and kill it. Its a protein...

Agreed. That is why I won't let them take my animals to the back without me. Same with my child. People can't be trusted. Ignorance and greed abound.

Usually, rocks in the native dirt are not a problem. Can we see a picture?

In additional to the hole, this tortoise has been in the wrong conditions and started poorly. Soak him every day for the next couple of years, and house him in a large closed chamber to keep humidity high. More here...

Contact: @TylerStewart @Carol S @biochemnerd808 @HoosierTorts

I just read the whole thread. It sounds like you were doing everything right, and I don't see an obvious cause of your problem. My best guess is the prolonged June gloom we had this year, so the warm temps probably helped prevent this from being an even bigger problem. I would leave the temps...