Hi tortoise-loving folks,
I'm looking for advice. (Sorry in advance for the long post.)
I live in a one room apartment with my husband and cat and our Russian tortoise (he's cool with the cat, and she's cool with him; they both fall asleep on my lap occasionally with no trouble). His terrarium is the bare minimum recommended size (4'*2'*1.5' tall) for a Russian tortoise. (He's young and I'm trying to follow herp vet and exotic pet shop recommendations for cage sizing as he grows up. He's a little over 2 years old now.)
There is an empty lot next to my building that at some point (probably going to need to seriously work on this next year) I will try to use for an outdoor pen for him. For now, I'm trying to find other ways of giving him more space to roam safely indoors. I'm also trying to find other things to feed his curiosity.
I saw somewhere online a tortoise parent giving their tortoise a ball, which it pushed around and seemed to enjoy doing, as far as I could tell. There might have been treats in the ball, but I forget now.
I've also seen pics online where some people created a sort of railroad track / passage with shelves for cats that's kind of like something out of Pee-wee's playhouse. Ordinarily, I'd be a little skeptical of these things, but I previously raised a Schneider's skink (a sand-burrowing lizard) for 15 years until he passed, and one thing I came across online that wasn't in any reptile parenting book but which he ended up loving was a hamster wheel to run in. So I think there may be room for creative solutions to helping animals have a more fulfilling life indoors.
I have a long hallway, maybe 12'-18' long, as well as maybe 8' of space under a south facing window (fairly warm) that I could try to utilize as an extra space for him to roam around in.
My question is:
A lot of you have raised tortoises for years, even decades. Do you have any suggestions for other sorts of things one could do to give an apartment tortoise more room? (Maybe in line with the above or totally different?)
For some background:
My Russian tortoise is a little over 2 years old now. I purchased him from an exotic pet shop near me when he was a few months old. I think they're well regarded (the East Bay Vivarium in Berkeley, CA). I think that age is typically only allowed to sell to teachers, but I think they knew me a bit because of my pet lizard before. The shop seems to work closely with an exotic herp vet nearby and their former owner bred Russian tortoises in his Southern California home. My little dude came from this guy. I take him to the vet at least once a year.
Aside from a few mistakes I've made (trying to curb early signs of what I think is shell rot with betadine (doc's suggestion over email; got an actual appointment with the vet coming up)), he's been a pretty healthy happy and super curious and friendly little dude.
But he definitely wants more space, as he sometimes tries climbing the sides.
His habitat and food situation:
I have a thermostat set up to keep the cool side cool (daytime's usually at 80, evening is between 70 and 80) and the warm side warm (usually in the 90s), a ceramic heat emitter for a basking spot, and there's a bit of slate in there, two hides, a big ramekin with water, and he gets a varied diet and vitamins, and his substrate was cocosoft coco coir until that got harder to find, so that detail is still being worked out.
If you managed to read through my novel, that is amazing and thank you! Just wanted to try and preemptively address q's I see in other posts, so hopefully this overload of info is helpful.
Thanks for any suggestions you all have!
I'm looking for advice. (Sorry in advance for the long post.)
I live in a one room apartment with my husband and cat and our Russian tortoise (he's cool with the cat, and she's cool with him; they both fall asleep on my lap occasionally with no trouble). His terrarium is the bare minimum recommended size (4'*2'*1.5' tall) for a Russian tortoise. (He's young and I'm trying to follow herp vet and exotic pet shop recommendations for cage sizing as he grows up. He's a little over 2 years old now.)
There is an empty lot next to my building that at some point (probably going to need to seriously work on this next year) I will try to use for an outdoor pen for him. For now, I'm trying to find other ways of giving him more space to roam safely indoors. I'm also trying to find other things to feed his curiosity.
I saw somewhere online a tortoise parent giving their tortoise a ball, which it pushed around and seemed to enjoy doing, as far as I could tell. There might have been treats in the ball, but I forget now.
I've also seen pics online where some people created a sort of railroad track / passage with shelves for cats that's kind of like something out of Pee-wee's playhouse. Ordinarily, I'd be a little skeptical of these things, but I previously raised a Schneider's skink (a sand-burrowing lizard) for 15 years until he passed, and one thing I came across online that wasn't in any reptile parenting book but which he ended up loving was a hamster wheel to run in. So I think there may be room for creative solutions to helping animals have a more fulfilling life indoors.
I have a long hallway, maybe 12'-18' long, as well as maybe 8' of space under a south facing window (fairly warm) that I could try to utilize as an extra space for him to roam around in.
My question is:
A lot of you have raised tortoises for years, even decades. Do you have any suggestions for other sorts of things one could do to give an apartment tortoise more room? (Maybe in line with the above or totally different?)
For some background:
My Russian tortoise is a little over 2 years old now. I purchased him from an exotic pet shop near me when he was a few months old. I think they're well regarded (the East Bay Vivarium in Berkeley, CA). I think that age is typically only allowed to sell to teachers, but I think they knew me a bit because of my pet lizard before. The shop seems to work closely with an exotic herp vet nearby and their former owner bred Russian tortoises in his Southern California home. My little dude came from this guy. I take him to the vet at least once a year.
Aside from a few mistakes I've made (trying to curb early signs of what I think is shell rot with betadine (doc's suggestion over email; got an actual appointment with the vet coming up)), he's been a pretty healthy happy and super curious and friendly little dude.
But he definitely wants more space, as he sometimes tries climbing the sides.
His habitat and food situation:
I have a thermostat set up to keep the cool side cool (daytime's usually at 80, evening is between 70 and 80) and the warm side warm (usually in the 90s), a ceramic heat emitter for a basking spot, and there's a bit of slate in there, two hides, a big ramekin with water, and he gets a varied diet and vitamins, and his substrate was cocosoft coco coir until that got harder to find, so that detail is still being worked out.
If you managed to read through my novel, that is amazing and thank you! Just wanted to try and preemptively address q's I see in other posts, so hopefully this overload of info is helpful.
Thanks for any suggestions you all have!
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