Average Annual Budget for a Russian Tortoise

[acthereptilian]

I just joined this forum, and have been wanting to have a tortoise for so long, Russian is my top pick so far, I've read they are the best for first-timers. Anyway, I want to be prepared before I get one, so does anyone know the average annual cost to have one? Answer is appreciated if early, thanks.

 

[wellington]

No I don't. However, if you brumate them for winter, about 2-3 months, it will be cheaper.
The initial expense is the biggest one. Tortoise, Lights, heat, proper enclosure, substrate, etc. if you get a hatchling, you then have to upgrade the enclosure once it grows to adulthood, which would be around 3 years or so.
If you grow a lot of their food, broad leaf weeds, it's cheaper than if you have to buy grocery greens and then weed/flower leaf additives to make the grocery greens complete.
If you get them outside for sun 3 times at least a week, you don't need uvb light.
All kinds of things play a part in the cost.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Hello and welcome!

I can’t really answer to annual cost, but there’s electrics to consider, if anything ever goes wrong vet bills can be expensive, but providing you’re set up and diet is correct with him you shouldn’t ever have to worry about that, they aren’t the kind of pet you need to take for check ups for the sake ofthen obviously there’s the food, which again can be virtually free if you’re prepared to mainly grow your own!

Your biggest spend is going to be getting him set up properly, with the right lighting and heating, tbh the uv will be one of the main spends, generally the uv we recommend for the time we say to have it one for, needs replacing every 2 years or so, potentially longer but the only way to know for sure is to have a uv meter, which are also kind of expensive, but not a bad investment.

Babies might be considered more expensive to set up cause you have to account for ways to make it a closed chamber and upgrading, though there’s cost effective ways to go about it

Give these threads I made a read for the housing side of things, I cover correct equipment, levels, sizing, appropriately maintaining humidity, there’s lots of visual examples for everything and a good diet link to check out! They are very similar threads, but humidity is the key difference when it comes to babies.
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/housing-young-russian-herman.217806/

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

This one is also really good to familiarise with, especially as this is all new to you, it’ll help you avoid the wrong bulbs, substrates, housing etc, I also encourage you to double check things here before you buy!

Common keeping errors

Hello everyone! I’d been a long time lurker on this site long before joining just under a year ago now, over that time I’ve seen these husbandry issues come up time and time again, sometimes with dire consequences☹️ I thought this thread might serve as a good visual guide for these common...

tortoiseforum.org

These are also a good read with a bunch of helpful information

Info For New People. Please Read This First.

Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...

tortoiseforum.org

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

tortoiseforum.org

Hope this helps! More questions always welcomed

 

[SinLA]

Greetings from LA! Once you get them a good healthy setup - that's where the major expense is going to be.

What part of CA are you in? The good news is you can get pretty much year round edible foods for them in many (most?) places of CA.

you don't need to give specifics, but general town/area would be helpful.

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

Welcome to the forum! You already got some good advice her. I recommend you get the enclosure set up and ready before getting a tortoise.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Welcome to the forum! You already got some good advice her. I recommend you get the enclosure set up and ready before getting a tortoise.

Yes that’s probably one of the best bits of advice to give, always get a set up ready before getting tortie