From very slow to super active!?

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darthsmozers

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Hi all,

It has been a long time since posting, mostly because Journey's 2nd year with us was pretty easy. All the uncertainties and questions of the first year were no problem this past year.

I do have a question though:

Around November, Journey became very lethargic, which I assumed was his attempt to start hibernating. I remember last fall he was the same way. We got into the habit of pulling him out for breakfast each morning, and like last fall he snapped out of it and went back to normal. The last two weeks, though, the opposite happened: He has suddenly become SUPER active!!

By Super active, I mean good things - like being up before we are ready to eat, and also making an appearance in the evening. He's mostly content, just walking around, stretching his neck looking here and there, climbing over his log home, and burying himself in the bedding when he's through. The only downside to this is he's been waking us up extremely early these last couple of weekends! In all his walking around, his shell bangs the glass of the terrarium so we here this knocking sound all morning long. We don't have the room for a proper tort table, but the glass enclosure is large with plenty of room to walk around, climb, bask, bury, etc. But for some reason he feels the need to walk along the edge of the enclosure where his shell can bang on the glass along the way. The little guy has robbed us of much needed sleep! That aside, we're glad to see him so active.

So here's the question - does his sudden burst of energy have to do with not hibernating? He usually only gets this way in the spring time, perhaps tied to his biological clock. He has proper lighting and temperature, so I am surprised if he is sensing changes outdoors when he only has one little window in his room. But I am very curious where this energy is coming from. We feed him in the morning, usually red leaf lettuce and a tiny bit of collard greens, and at night when he's out again I usually sneak him a small snack of red leaf. I very much want to get out to Wegman's to buy him some dandelion and other variety, but since we moved away from our nearest Whole Foods the choices of greens have been slim. Even with the extra feeding, though, his weight has dropped a little, from about 420g in the summer to about 380 right now. This drop seems consistent with the past two winters, but this amount of energy is new.

Does anyone else have a similar experience with bursts of energy from their little ones?

Thanks!
 

Talka

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I don't know about bursts of energy, but I lined my tortoise's old glass enclosure with a cheap hermit crab climbing coconut sheet I got for $5 at petsmart. Look in the hermit crab section, it's good cheap lining and really dulls the sound of his shell! I cut it in strips and buried it in the substrate around the wall.
 

darthsmozers

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Talka said:
I don't know about bursts of energy, but I lined my tortoise's old glass enclosure with a cheap hermit crab climbing coconut sheet I got for $5 at petsmart. Look in the hermit crab section, it's good cheap lining and really dulls the sound of his shell! I cut it in strips and buried it in the substrate around the wall.

Does it just sit in there or did you attach it somehow (tape)?
 

Talka

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I found sticky velcro patches at Home Depot and stapled one side of the velcro to the lining, then the other side was sticky so it stuck to the glass. It hooked on like crazy, was hard to take off.
 

darthsmozers

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Talka said:
I found sticky velcro patches at Home Depot and stapled one side of the velcro to the lining, then the other side was sticky so it stuck to the glass. It hooked on like crazy, was hard to take off.

Thanks very much for the suggestion! I'll have to check it out at the store.

Anyone have any experiences with very active russians like I described?
 

GeoTerraTestudo

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My guys were normally active during the summer, but probably not quite that active. Right now, they're brumating in the fridge, and I don't expect to take them out until March or April.
 

darthsmozers

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GeoTerraTestudo said:
My guys were normally active during the summer, but probably not quite that active. Right now, they're brumating in the fridge, and I don't expect to take them out until March or April.

I just don't understand his newfound energy. Today we switched from red leaf lettuce and collards to some dandelion. He ate it up and has been running around is "home" all morning. Like yesterday he will likely settle down soon for the rest of the day but it's just weird. Is he just bored?
 

GeoTerraTestudo

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darthsmozers said:
GeoTerraTestudo said:
My guys were normally active during the summer, but probably not quite that active. Right now, they're brumating in the fridge, and I don't expect to take them out until March or April.

I just don't understand his newfound energy. Today we switched from red leaf lettuce and collards to some dandelion. He ate it up and has been running around is "home" all morning. Like yesterday he will likely settle down soon for the rest of the day but it's just weird. Is he just bored?

Is yours a male? I've noticed our male is much more active than our female, and this is backed up by the scientific literature; males have longer legs and walk faster than females. During the summer, there were plenty of times when our male ran "laps" around his pen. The female did this a few times, but the male much more often. Sometimes it was because they were hungry, but just as often it was just because they wanted to be let out. If the weather was nice out, I was happy to put them outside. However, I have given up on letting them walk around the house unless absolutely necessary, because they tend to poop and pee on the carpet.

Anyway, maybe your guy just wants to be let out. In nature, often the first things males do (in Russian tortoises and other turtle species) is look for females to copulate with. I'll betcha your guy is probably feeling pretty randy right now, or maybe he just needs the exercise. I don't know if you have an eligible female for him to mate with, but if you do, you could let them mate every now and then (but not too often, or he could exhaust or injure her). If not, then he would probably still benefit from some time outside his pen. Obviously, the weather outside is not nice enough yet, but if there's a part of your house where he could safely walk around a bit, that might help.
 

Utah Lynn

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darthsmozers said:
Talka said:
I found sticky velcro patches at Home Depot and stapled one side of the velcro to the lining, then the other side was sticky so it stuck to the glass. It hooked on like crazy, was hard to take off.

Thanks very much for the suggestion! I'll have to check it out at the store.

Anyone have any experiences with very active russians like I described?

Mine recently became very active again.
 

darthsmozers

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GeoTerraTestudo said:
Is yours a male? I've noticed our male is much more active than our female, and this is backed up by the scientific literature; males have longer legs and walk faster than females. During the summer, there were plenty of times when our male ran "laps" around his pen. The female did this a few times, but the male much more often. Sometimes it was because they were hungry, but just as often it was just because they wanted to be let out. If the weather was nice out, I was happy to put them outside. However, I have given up on letting them walk around the house unless absolutely necessary, because they tend to poop and pee on the carpet.

Anyway, maybe your guy just wants to be let out. In nature, often the first things males do (in Russian tortoises and other turtle species) is look for females to copulate with. I'll betcha your guy is probably feeling pretty randy right now, or maybe he just needs the exercise. I don't know if you have an eligible female for him to mate with, but if you do, you could let them mate every now and then (but not too often, or he could exhaust or injure her). If not, then he would probably still benefit from some time outside his pen. Obviously, the weather outside is not nice enough yet, but if there's a part of your house where he could safely walk around a bit, that might help.

Thanks so much for this insight. I am very late on replying because he has settled down. He is still out and waiting for his breakfast daily like clockwork but he isn't running laps anymore. We have replaced his normal red-leaf lettuce with a mix of that and dandelion now that we found a grocery nearby that carries dandelion. Maybe he appreciates the variety now. Thanks! Ps... No eligible females... Wouldn't that require the ability to have her lay eggs ?
 

GeoTerraTestudo

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darthsmozers said:
Thanks so much for this insight. I am very late on replying because he has settled down. He is still out and waiting for his breakfast daily like clockwork but he isn't running laps anymore. We have replaced his normal red-leaf lettuce with a mix of that and dandelion now that we found a grocery nearby that carries dandelion. Maybe he appreciates the variety now. Thanks! Ps... No eligible females... Wouldn't that require the ability to have her lay eggs ?

Yeah, better to let females mate only if they can lay their eggs in a suitable site.
 
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