9 month old tortoise poor appetitie and hiding all day

omtherussian

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Our Russian is about 9 months old and we have had him for about 3 months. In the last few weeks he gets a bath and goes straight back to his corner until I take him out to bath the next day. If I put him next to food he might eat a few leaves. He gets 12 hours of UV light and his heat lamp is regulated to 33 degrees celcious, the ambient temperature of his table ranges from about 20 to 24 degrees. Humidity averages 65%. He has coco coir substrate in a 4x3 ft table. Any advice? Thank you.
 

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Jan A

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Our Russian is about 9 months old and we have had him for about 3 months. In the last few weeks he gets a bath and goes straight back to his corner until I take him out to bath the next day. If I put him next to food he might eat a few leaves. He gets 12 hours of UV light and his heat lamp is regulated to 33 degrees celcious, the ambient temperature of his table ranges from about 20 to 24 degrees. Humidity averages 65%. He has coco coir substrate in a 4x3 ft table. Any advice? Thank you.
In general, he needs more places to hide in order to feel safe, whether from
 

wellington

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Agree with Jan A more plants will help it feel safe.
Basking spot needs to be 95-100F over all day temp can range between 75-80F and night can drop into the 60'sF.
Humidity as close to 80% as possible
 

omtherussian

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Added some more plants and a hide. Still not much improvement hiding a lot. We are growing more plants for him.
 

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zovick

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Added some more plants and a hide. Still not much improvement hiding a lot. We are growing more plants for him.
This is the time of year when Russian Tortoises are "programmed" to start slowing down in preparation for their winter brumation period. You will very likely need to keep things quite warm to dissuade the tortoise from thinking it is time to brumate. Another trick is to increase the total amount of time your lights are on each week so that the perceived day length is longer rather than shorter.
 
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