bigger home and digging

[e22203]

Hi! I'm officially new to the forum although I've been reading old posts for months and learning a ton. I have a Russian Tortoise, Slowey, and want to give him a bigger, more appropriate home. I've read a lot of ideas for tortoise tables and my question is how are they cleaned? It seems like if they're so big, changing the substrate would be difficult, messy and expensive? Plus sometimes Slowey goes to the bathroom and, not to be gross, crawls through it. Would the wood be hard to clean off?

Also, unrelated to the other question. He has always had a huge appetite (I feed him greens--collards, mustard, dandelion, turnip and spring mix usually 1x/day) and would bury about 1/2 his body in the substrate so I could still see his shell. Lately he has been eating less and now completely burying himself. To the point I can't even see him. He also used to be awake as soon as his heat lamps turned on, now an hour into it he's still buried under the substrate. He's still eating, as I said, just less. And he seems to move around a lot, just strange with him so hidden.

Just new with tortoises and checking if this is typical.
Thanks for the input.

 

[WillTort2]

He may be detecting the shortness of the days and getting ready for winter. Or maybe he's just bored with the enclosure.

What times are your lights on?

How large is your enclosure and what variety of diversions and scenery does he have?

 

[e22203]

He may be detecting the shortness of the days and getting ready for winter. Or maybe he's just bored with the enclosure.

What times are your lights on?

How large is your enclosure and what variety of diversions and scenery does he have?

Thanks for reply. Lights on from about 7 am to 9 pm. Enclosure not very large. 30 gallon tank. I was given quite a bit of misinformation prior to obtaining him, I'm afraid, which is why I'm working towards getting him larger enclosure. He has a big hide, food/water dish (he likes sitting in water dish) and little cactus block, and not too much else. I move his stuff around to try to keep things interesting. I put food in different locations. And sometimes I build little mounds of substrate for him to crawl over. Trying to be creative to entertain him, but not sure what he likes to do....besides dig dig dig. Which is why I have been making the substrate deeper. Although the situation can always been improved, he seems content and comes when he hears us enter the room. Thanks for the thoughts.

 

[lynnedit]

Sounds like you are doing everything you can with your current set up. They spend a lot of time digging, and basking.

In a larger enclosure, you only have to change the substrate every 6-12 months if you spot clean.
You do have to add water and mix to keep the underlayers moist.
You will be soaking your tortoise if it is an inside enclosure; he will do some of his business there.

There are some great links to creating an enclosure from a used bookcase, if you want them.

Ideally, you aim to set up an outside enclosure, even for part of the year.