2 Russian Torts. Ovie and Stolie

[Jillgp]

Hello all.
Fairly new to this forum. Posted this past early spring about my small backyard pond in Northern Virginia and my three water turtles not living thru last winter. Have since gotten a new baby painted turtle, Squirt, and he has tripled in size and is very happy all summer. Hopefully he will be ok this winter…
But now I am posting about my two Russians. I’ve had them for over 5 years. They live all summer in an outdoor enclosure and in past years I have always brought them inside to a very small enclosure w heat lamp. They seem ok w that. I continue feeding them and soak them weekly and they bask under the lamp.
This summer we had to rebuild our deck and will have to redo the tort enclosure after it’s finished. I would really like to include a hibernation/brumation burrow for them to over winter in from now on. I have been researching and this forum always comes up.
I would appreciate any and all advice. If it turns out I don’t go w the over winter outside is there a solution to do it in an unheated garage?
Thx guys. J

 

[DoubleD1996!]

Hi. I recently had to rebuild my russian tort enclosure after we had a tree taken down during the winter.

My torts stay out year round here in Tennessee, unless they are having some sort of medical issues.

I don't allow them to burrow, as the rains here are hit and miss. Some winters we get pounded with rain, some we don't.

What I've done over the past years is build them winter boxes. It's simply a box with a lid, and a water proof seal and some roofing shingles I happen to have lying around.

These boxes get filled with mulch, dirt and leaves, and the torts burrow themselves over winter. I rest the boxes in a sunny spot, but I learned it can actually get too hot. So I like to have it in a partially shaded area, or crack it slightly some days.

You could also purchase small cold frames with polycarbonate panel lids.


I don't add any heat or anything. I just let them go through the winter. I give them a good soak a few weeks before the temperature gradually goes down and stop feeding them to void their systems of food. They still will graze on their own on warmer days, but not much.

Hope this helps, or inspires your own ideas.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Hello and welcome! I just wanted to give you a heads up that tortoise of any species should NEVER be housed in pairs under any circumstances, they’re incredibly territorial, behaviours that look cute to us really aren’t, following one another and sleeping huddled up is all bullying the the tortoise world, you’ll eventually see more extreme signs of aggression. Anyone who tells you pairs are fine, have no idea what they’re talking about.

Small groups are ok when there’s lots of land and the correct male to female ratio.

These two will need their own set ups, feel free to check out this thread below for the indoor side of things

Housing adult Russian and Hermans indoors

Hello there! In this thread I’m going to include some information an example of an appropriate indoor set up for an older Herman/russian. As much as it’s encouraged to have tortoises in a safe outdoor enclosure, I understand being from the uk myself, that some climates make it difficult to...

tortoiseforum.org