Does he look healthy? Any tips?
- Thread starter Kristylm14
- Start date
He looks fine in the pictures, but telling us how he is housed, lit, and fed, would give us more insight into how healthy he might be, compared to a picture.
Kristylm14
New Member
Thanks. Previous owners were using inadequate lighting (from what I've learned) first picture is theirs. I got the new lighting as soon as I got him and also got rid of the wood chips they had and got top soil and cocoa coir for his enclosure. I started some seeds for his food but they haven't done much yet so I'm feeding mustard greens and collard greens with dried plantain, dandelion, and nettle and hibiscus that I ordered off etsy and soak before feeding. Along with the repetivite, calcium, and a few pellets every other day equaling the size of his shell.
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Over all good, but I see a few issues. I point this out to be helpful, not mean:
1. The dried options are a great food additive, but collard and mustard are once in a while type greens, not daily feeders. Favor endive and escarole. Totally fine to use the lettuces with your calcium and dried leaf amendments. Also look for arugula, cilantro, dandelion greens and more.
2. Top soil is no good and should never be used as reptile substrate. There is no way to know what is in that bag. Coco coir is good, but messy. It needs to be a thick layer and hand packed.
3. Those enclosures aren't suitable for any species or age tortoise. That is much too small for an adult Russian. They need something around 4x8 feet as a minimum.
4. Halogen bulbs are not good for tortoises either. You need a regular incandescent flood bulb.
So going back to your first question: You are offering some good variety in the diet, but you need some different greens. With springtime upon us, weeds and leaves should become available soon. Your UV bulb is good, but your basking bulb needs to change. Substrate needs to be changed out to get rid of the soil, and you need a much larger enclosure.
Are you soaking him a couple times a week in warm water? What are your four temperatures? Warm side, cool side, basking area and over night low? Is there a shallow water dish in there? Food bowl?
Kristylm14
New Member
Thank you for your reply!
1. I will adjust his greens. I live in a rural area and don't have a lot of options here so I'm frantically ordering and growing food for sure! Thank you for the suggestions.
2. I actually used reptisoil which I hope is better but is it not ideal to use soil? What is ideal?
3. Thank you. This is the enclosure that was rehomed with him and we are planning to diy a bigger one this summer! He does get some free roam time (almost) every day.
4. I will replace the bulb! Thank you.
I soak him on feed days so every other day in 85⁰ water. The cool side is probably less than 70⁰ (that's where his water dish and covered spot is he rarely goes there except he does drink on his own) and the cool spot in the other area is 70⁰ most of the time. His shell is at 95⁰ while basking under his light and not entirely sure the overall temperature. It's between 40 and 55 for humidity at all times.
Thank you so much for taking the time! I want to do the best I can and I went into getting him with about a year of research first bit there's a lot of info out there!
1. I will adjust his greens. I live in a rural area and don't have a lot of options here so I'm frantically ordering and growing food for sure! Thank you for the suggestions.
2. I actually used reptisoil which I hope is better but is it not ideal to use soil? What is ideal?
3. Thank you. This is the enclosure that was rehomed with him and we are planning to diy a bigger one this summer! He does get some free roam time (almost) every day.
4. I will replace the bulb! Thank you.
I soak him on feed days so every other day in 85⁰ water. The cool side is probably less than 70⁰ (that's where his water dish and covered spot is he rarely goes there except he does drink on his own) and the cool spot in the other area is 70⁰ most of the time. His shell is at 95⁰ while basking under his light and not entirely sure the overall temperature. It's between 40 and 55 for humidity at all times.
Thank you so much for taking the time! I want to do the best I can and I went into getting him with about a year of research first bit there's a lot of info out there!
