Begonia, my russian tortoise

TurtleTab

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Aug 11, 2014
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beg1.JPG beg2.JPG

This is Begonia. I rescued her from CL for $30. The owner passed away and left her to his nephew. When I got her, her upper beak had grown way past her lower jaw and I had to trim it. She is very scared of me and won't let me trim it all the way down, but I got it level with her bottom beak. I keep her food on a concrete slab so I think that is helping as well. The owner's nephew said she was a "he" and was named Shelton. I compared russian tortoise tails by gender and quickly realized that she was a female and renamed "Begonia". We chose Begonia because she is big and I like flower names. So...big, Begonia. It fits. In the second picture, she is standing infront of her tunnel entrance. I dug a tunnel into a small hill in my yard and made it go all the way through, so she now has two entrances or two exits, however you want to look at it. But, Big ole Begonia decided to dig into and up into her tunnel and thinks that by doing so she can escape. this hole has been dug up into my other turtle enclosure so now her tunnel is filling up with water. She dug right into the waterway (my trench to recreate a small creek). I think it's funny in a sense that she is hiding in her tunnel, digging her heart out being sneaky, only to escape into my other turtle enclosure. She has also dug a hole that goes straight back into her own enclosure and sometimes I find her sitting in that hole staring at her enclosure like "What the heck, I'm back where I started". But as for the flooding, is there anything I can do to make the tunnel more durable and less leaky? I thought about cement but that takes away from the natural dirt hole that I wanted her to love and feel safe in. I doubt it can dry being it's deep into the hill, like my whole arm in one way and my whole arm in on the other side. it was hard to dig but by golly I dug it. Maybe I can seal it on the other side and prevent the waterway from leaking into her tunnel. That seems like the only logical thing right now. Oh and...since I am new to russian tortoises, what is the best type of enclosure for her? As in dirt. I added sand to the dirt so she can easily burrow into but it stays wet, absorbs the rain and she doesn't like wetness. She barely ever ventures over to her waterhole to drink. I know they're not into much water. So what can I offer her in the enclosure that will make her more happy?
 
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