Hello! New russian tortoise owner

[Bernie's Mom]

Hi guys! Glad to be here, I have been half heartedly looking into getting a tortoise for several years now. They've always been my favorite type of reptile, but I've been holding off theoretically until I got the fence to allow for an outdoor space for my tort. I'm a vet assistant in school to be a vet tech and last Thursday as we were closing my clinic we found a russian tortoise had been left in a box at our door. We waited a couple days and put out ads to see if we could find the owner, but no one came forward, so I took her home. We named her Bernadette, Bernie for short. At the moment, she is in a 40 breeder I had laying around, a larger, more appropriate enclosure is on the way for her and should be here in a few days. She is a big, active, friendly girl - 7 inches long! Anyway, I'm rambling now lol. Just wanted to introduce myself and my girl, I've been reading caresheet after caresheet like a crazy person since I brought her home and figured it would be a good idea to make an account here. Pics of Bernie below, before anyone gets mad about the glass tank - I know it's not ideal, the enclosure I ordered is 4ft x 6ft and made of wood. Hoping she will be in the new setup by this weekend at the latest

 

[Lyn W]

Hi and welcome,
Pleased that whoever left her had the sense to leave her at your clinic but strange they didn't bring her in to be sure she was safe, maybe they were worried you wouldn't take her.
In case you haven't already found it this is the most up to date caresheet for Med species and if you follow that your tort should thrive.

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

tortoiseforum.org

You could do with a slightly larger enclosure because 4 x 8 is the minimum recommended for the smaller species, but the bigger the better - maybe you can find a way of adding an extension in time.
I'm sure she'll have a lovely home with you and being a member of this forum is a great education that will help you in your job - there's lots to learn!!
The caresheet will give you best advice but just a few tips that are common mistakes to save you some money -
no sand or pellets for substrate,
no coiled or cfl type bulbs (will burn tort eyes) and mvb bulbs dry and damage shells
no red lamps (colour encourages them to eat things they shouldn't
spot basking bulbs are too intense - go for flood
no clamps - they often fail and start fires - hang lamps
shallow terracotta plant saucers are ideal and safe water dishes
dial type thermometers aren't reliable a digital thermometer/hygrometer is better
Good luck and looking forward to seeing more pics.

 

[Beasty_Artemis]

Omg! What a beautiful shell to have on a rescued Russian! She is a beautiful creature to say the least! I hope she was gifted a caring new owner . You obviously ARE one as you have already joined the tortoise forum , since you care.

 

[Jan A]

Hi guys! Glad to be here, I have been half heartedly looking into getting a tortoise for several years now. They've always been my favorite type of reptile, but I've been holding off theoretically until I got the fence to allow for an outdoor space for my tort. I'm a vet assistant in school to be a vet tech and last Thursday as we were closing my clinic we found a russian tortoise had been left in a box at our door. We waited a couple days and put out ads to see if we could find the owner, but no one came forward, so I took her home. We named her Bernadette, Bernie for short. At the moment, she is in a 40 breeder I had laying around, a larger, more appropriate enclosure is on the way for her and should be here in a few days. She is a big, active, friendly girl - 7 inches long! Anyway, I'm rambling now lol. Just wanted to introduce myself and my girl, I've been reading caresheet after caresheet like a crazy person since I brought her home and figured it would be a good idea to make an account here. Pics of Bernie below, before anyone gets mad about the glass tank - I know it's not ideal, the enclosure I ordered is 4ft x 6ft and made of wood. Hoping she will be in the new setup by this weekend at the latest
View attachment 336206View attachment 336207View attachment 336208

Welcome to the forum. Bernie is gorgeous. I'm glad she found you.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Welcome from south Florida

 

[Lyric Aarhaus]

Hi guys! Glad to be here, I have been half heartedly looking into getting a tortoise for several years now. They've always been my favorite type of reptile, but I've been holding off theoretically until I got the fence to allow for an outdoor space for my tort. I'm a vet assistant in school to be a vet tech and last Thursday as we were closing my clinic we found a russian tortoise had been left in a box at our door. We waited a couple days and put out ads to see if we could find the owner, but no one came forward, so I took her home. We named her Bernadette, Bernie for short. At the moment, she is in a 40 breeder I had laying around, a larger, more appropriate enclosure is on the way for her and should be here in a few days. She is a big, active, friendly girl - 7 inches long! Anyway, I'm rambling now lol. Just wanted to introduce myself and my girl, I've been reading caresheet after caresheet like a crazy person since I brought her home and figured it would be a good idea to make an account here. Pics of Bernie below, before anyone gets mad about the glass tank - I know it's not ideal, the enclosure I ordered is 4ft x 6ft and made of wood. Hoping she will be in the new setup by this weekend at the latest
View attachment 336206View attachment 336207View attachment 336208

They are adorable! Also I'm glad the stars aligned

Hi guys! Glad to be here, I have been half heartedly looking into getting a tortoise for several years now. They've always been my favorite type of reptile, but I've been holding off theoretically until I got the fence to allow for an outdoor space for my tort. I'm a vet assistant in school to be a vet tech and last Thursday as we were closing my clinic we found a russian tortoise had been left in a box at our door. We waited a couple days and put out ads to see if we could find the owner, but no one came forward, so I took her home. We named her Bernadette, Bernie for short. At the moment, she is in a 40 breeder I had laying around, a larger, more appropriate enclosure is on the way for her and should be here in a few days. She is a big, active, friendly girl - 7 inches long! Anyway, I'm rambling now lol. Just wanted to introduce myself and my girl, I've been reading caresheet after caresheet like a crazy person since I brought her home and figured it would be a good idea to make an account here. Pics of Bernie below, before anyone gets mad about the glass tank - I know it's not ideal, the enclosure I ordered is 4ft x 6ft and made of wood. Hoping she will be in the new setup by this weekend at the latest
View attachment 336206View attachment 336207View attachment 336208

Bernie is an adorable tort! Looks good and healthy! I'm sure she has found a good a good home. I'm about to become a Russian tortoise owner here soon. Keep us updated on Bernie's journey through life

 

[Yvonne G]

Welcome!

 

[Bernie's Mom]

Hi and welcome,
Pleased that whoever left her had the sense to leave her at your clinic but strange they didn't bring her in to be sure she was safe, maybe they were worried you wouldn't take her.
In case you haven't already found it this is the most up to date caresheet for Med species and if you follow that your tort should thrive.

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

tortoiseforum.org

You could do with a slightly larger enclosure because 4 x 8 is the minimum recommended for the smaller species, but the bigger the better - maybe you can find a way of adding an extension in time.
I'm sure she'll have a lovely home with you and being a member of this forum is a great education that will help you in your job - there's lots to learn!!
The caresheet will give you best advice but just a few tips that are common mistakes to save you some money -
no sand or pellets for substrate,
no coiled or cfl type bulbs (will burn tort eyes) and mvb bulbs dry and damage shells
no red lamps (colour encourages them to eat things they shouldn't
spot basking bulbs are too intense - go for flood
no clamps - they often fail and start fires - hang lamps
shallow terracotta plant saucers are ideal and safe water dishes
dial type thermometers aren't reliable a digital thermometer/hygrometer is better
Good luck and looking forward to seeing more pics.

You would be surprised how many unwanted pets get left at our doorstep. Especially around the holidays, its ridiculous. Usually we do refer people to the humane society when they can't care for their pets anymore, so I would assume that's how poor Bernie was left at our door after hours. I'm just glad they left her before we'd left for the day, it was raining and they left her in an open box. She looks pretty good and is very friendly, so we assumed someone was missing her, but no one ever came forward. Personally my theory is someone took good care of her and either died or was no longer able to keep her and a family member dropped her off. We've had that situation a few times unfortunately. That's how one of our doctors wound up with a 50 year old macaw.

Ah dang! I thought the one thing caresheets agreed on was 4x6 for the minimum! Thanks for the heads up, I was planning on upgrading her indoor space eventually anyway, so I'll just make it a priority. Hopefully my fence will be up come spring and I can get a start on her outdoor pen for the summers, I was planning on 8ft x 8ft for that. I'm keeping her on paper towels for the first month at home to monitor her poops better (poor kiddo has some nasty diarrhea at the moment - no worms thankfully!), then I was going to do orchid bark which I'm glad to see was ok'd by the caresheet! I got a reptisun uvb tube light and an mvb bulb, I'll swap that one out asap. Thank you for the tip on the water dish! There isn't anything in her size at the pet stores, I'll hit up a garden store for that. I use a heat gun for all my leopard geckko, so I've got that covered at least lol. It's been a learning curve the past couple days with her. She's an amazing little critter and I'm so happy to have her in my life, just wish I could've finalized planning and research like I usually do before I brought her home. I've never flown by the seat of my pants like this before with my other pets it was literally months of planning and research and building before they came home.

You're all very kind, thank you for welcoming Bernie and I here! I will have to share more pictures soon, she's a very sociable girl.

 

[jsheffield]

Welcome from New Hampshire!

This is a great place to learn about the care requirements of your Russian.

I live with 5 rescue Russians... love the species!

Jamie

 

[Lyn W]

You would be surprised how many unwanted pets get left at our doorstep. Especially around the holidays, its ridiculous. Usually we do refer people to the humane society when they can't care for their pets anymore, so I would assume that's how poor Bernie was left at our door after hours. I'm just glad they left her before we'd left for the day, it was raining and they left her in an open box. She looks pretty good and is very friendly, so we assumed someone was missing her, but no one ever came forward. Personally my theory is someone took good care of her and either died or was no longer able to keep her and a family member dropped her off. We've had that situation a few times unfortunately. That's how one of our doctors wound up with a 50 year old macaw.

Ah dang! I thought the one thing caresheets agreed on was 4x6 for the minimum! Thanks for the heads up, I was planning on upgrading her indoor space eventually anyway, so I'll just make it a priority. Hopefully my fence will be up come spring and I can get a start on her outdoor pen for the summers, I was planning on 8ft x 8ft for that. I'm keeping her on paper towels for the first month at home to monitor her poops better (poor kiddo has some nasty diarrhea at the moment - no worms thankfully!), then I was going to do orchid bark which I'm glad to see was ok'd by the caresheet! I got a reptisun uvb tube light and an mvb bulb, I'll swap that one out asap. Thank you for the tip on the water dish! There isn't anything in her size at the pet stores, I'll hit up a garden store for that. I use a heat gun for all my leopard geckko, so I've got that covered at least lol. It's been a learning curve the past couple days with her. She's an amazing little critter and I'm so happy to have her in my life, just wish I could've finalized planning and research like I usually do before I brought her home. I've never flown by the seat of my pants like this before with my other pets it was literally months of planning and research and building before they came home.

You're all very kind, thank you for welcoming Bernie and I here! I will have to share more pictures soon, she's a very sociable girl.

Sounds like Bernie is in very good hands.
I had a very steep learning curve when my tort adopted me.
I didn't have any interest in torts or any reptiles before he came along - now I wouldn't be without him - unless for some reason I couldn't care for him properly. It's amazing how quickly they worm their way into your affections.

 

[TaylorTortoise]

You would be surprised how many unwanted pets get left at our doorstep. Especially around the holidays, its ridiculous. Usually we do refer people to the humane society when they can't care for their pets anymore, so I would assume that's how poor Bernie was left at our door after hours. I'm just glad they left her before we'd left for the day, it was raining and they left her in an open box. She looks pretty good and is very friendly, so we assumed someone was missing her, but no one ever came forward. Personally my theory is someone took good care of her and either died or was no longer able to keep her and a family member dropped her off. We've had that situation a few times unfortunately. That's how one of our doctors wound up with a 50 year old macaw.

Ah dang! I thought the one thing caresheets agreed on was 4x6 for the minimum! Thanks for the heads up, I was planning on upgrading her indoor space eventually anyway, so I'll just make it a priority. Hopefully my fence will be up come spring and I can get a start on her outdoor pen for the summers, I was planning on 8ft x 8ft for that. I'm keeping her on paper towels for the first month at home to monitor her poops better (poor kiddo has some nasty diarrhea at the moment - no worms thankfully!), then I was going to do orchid bark which I'm glad to see was ok'd by the caresheet! I got a reptisun uvb tube light and an mvb bulb, I'll swap that one out asap. Thank you for the tip on the water dish! There isn't anything in her size at the pet stores, I'll hit up a garden store for that. I use a heat gun for all my leopard geckko, so I've got that covered at least lol. It's been a learning curve the past couple days with her. She's an amazing little critter and I'm so happy to have her in my life, just wish I could've finalized planning and research like I usually do before I brought her home. I've never flown by the seat of my pants like this before with my other pets it was literally months of planning and research and building before they came home.

You're all very kind, thank you for welcoming Bernie and I here! I will have to share more pictures soon, she's a very sociable girl.

This is an awesome story. Glad you found bernadette in front of your clinic rather than outfront of a pet store dumpster.

She looks to be happy with you and in excellent condition. Feed her plenty of leafy greens, mazuri, some of us on here use @Kapidolo Farms dry food to put on top of fresh produce we get from the store. Uvb/ basking light is needed. 10 inches from shell no closer.

 

[TaylorTortoise]

Would love to see temporary set up, to new set up for comparison.