Hello - New to site and also have a few questions...

[jennifresh]

Hi. My name is Jenni; I live in New Jersey and was just given a Russian Tortoise by a couple that couldn't take care of him anymore. I think he's about 3 years old now. I named him Nikolai, Niko for short.

I've only had him for about a week now and when I got him, he wasn't in a great environment. Small, 2x2 glass enclosure with a household light bulb as a heating lamp and no UVB. I felt so bad and jumped on building him a custom enclosure ASAP. My mom found a bookcase at her job that no one wanted so we took that and began working on it. I cut it down to 4.5 ft. x 2.5 ft., lined it with heavy duty plastic and used a play sand/topsoil mixture for his bedding. I have a UVA and UVB lamp. I would like some tips and pointers on anything I may have missed or if I should set it up differently. I think I may need to position the lamps differently, but for now I just wanted to get them up.

Also, I know I should really take him to the vet for a check up. I think after living like he was before I got him, he may not be in the best of health. Can anyone tell me how much this might cost? I don't have a ton of money, but want to make sure he's okay. Any kind of information would be great.

Thanks!

I'm going to attempt to attach some pictures... lol)


When I first got him...



Soaking him...



Old enclosure, new bedding...



Tried getting him to walk around a little (exercise)...



Working on the bookcase...



Final result (for now)...

 

[dmarcus]

Hello Jenni and welcome to the forum, you have a nice enclosure and tort. You might wanna add a hide of some sort for him...

 

[coreyc]

Welcome to the forum Jenni It's great you got him a bigger table what kind of bulbs are you using? Just for a vet checkup if there is nothing wrong with him I would say $ 40 -50 but prices will vary he does did his nails trimmed

 

[DixieParadise]

Wow what a change in enclosures... Welcome and enjoy the forum. Your little guy needs a hide of some sort...but looks good.

 

[jennifresh]

Hello Jenni and welcome to the forum, you have a nice enclosure and tort. You might wanna add a hide of some sort for him...

Thank you! I actually do have a hide in the one corner underneath the ivy... It's hard to see with the dark shadows, I'll have to get a better picture, but I think it's too small anyway. I'm going to work on making a bigger one.

 

[dmarcus]

Hello Jenni and welcome to the forum, you have a nice enclosure and tort. You might wanna add a hide of some sort for him...

Thank you! I actually do have a hide in the one corner underneath the ivy... It's hard to see with the dark shadows, I'll have to get a better picture, but I think it's too small anyway. I'm going to work on making a bigger one.

Okay cool, I have to get a bogger one for my hatchling as well he has grown so fast...

Just looked at the last photo and saw the hide under the ivy, lol

 

[jennifresh]

Welcome to the forum Jenni It's great you got him a bigger table what kind of bulbs are you using? Just for a vet checkup if there is nothing wrong with him I would say $ 40 -50 but prices will vary he does did his nails trimmed

Thanks Corey
For the bulbs I'm using a Exo Terra Repti Glo 10.0 and Zoo Med 100 watts basking spot lamp. Is this good enough?

That's sounds very reasonable for the vet check up, I'm going to call the vet within the next 2 weeks for him to go.

 

[coreyc]

I believe the Repti Glo 10.0 is a coil bulb I would not use it they are said to cause blindness if you went with a MVB ( Mercury Vapor Bulb) you could loss the basking light the MVB puts out heat pluse UVB/UVA for now if it is a coil bulb I would just use the basking bulb until you can get a replacement

 

[jennifresh]

Hello Jenni and welcome to the forum, you have a nice enclosure and tort. You might wanna add a hide of some sort for him...

Thank you! I actually do have a hide in the one corner underneath the ivy... It's hard to see with the dark shadows, I'll have to get a better picture, but I think it's too small anyway. I'm going to work on making a bigger one.

Okay cool, I have to get a bogger one for my hatchling as well he has grown so fast...

Just looked at the last photo and saw the hide under the ivy, lol

LOL, guess I did a pretty good job at camouflaging it.

---

I believe the Repti Glo 10.0 is a coil bulb I would not use it they are said to cause blindness if you went with a MVB ( Mercury Vapor Bulb) you could loss the basking light the MVB puts out heat pluse UVB/UVA for now if it is a coil bulb I would just use the basking bulb until you can get a replacement

Oh WOW, I had no clue about that. Good thing you asked. I will look into the MVB. That sounds like a better option anyway. I'll only need one lamp then... Thanks for the tip.

 

[Fernando]

HI! Welcome to TFO!

 

[jennifresh]

Thank you!

 

[pdrobber]

welcome!

 

[Maggie Cummings]

I am very proud of you that you have done so good by him. Is that sand you have as a substrate? Sand sometimes causes impaction, you might want to change that to something better...Cypress mulch or coir. For now just make sure you feed him on something hard and broad so he's not eating the sand with his food...You've done a really good job tho...

 

[October]

Welcome to TFO! He looks like an inquisitive little guy!

The new setup looks good, a ton better than before, no doubt. Besides changing out that coil bulb, I would add some interest for him. Even simple things like pieces of wood, large rocks, mounds of dirt (until he plows through them), silk plants. Just stuff to break up the long line of sight from one side to the other. Hides can be anything really. Plastic shoebox tubs with a hole cut in the side, flower pots, boxes. Even trailing silk plants are a hit cause they burrow down into the "rootballs".

His beak is a little long. Pick up a piece of slate tile or other such rough surface to feed him on and you wont have that problem any longer. The vet might even shorten that up for you. Or it's easy enough to do with a fingernail file.

Try and get him as much natural sunlight as you can. What is his diet?

Funny coincidence, btw: Long story short, I owned two male Russians this weekend for about 45 minutes (sellers remorse) and one was going to be Nikola Tesla.

 

[jennifresh]

I am very proud of you that you have done so good by him. Is that sand you have as a substrate? Sand sometimes causes impaction, you might want to change that to something better...Cypress mulch or coir. For now just make sure you feed him on something hard and broad so he's not eating the sand with his food...You've done a really good job tho...

Thanks Maggie - I only decided to go with the sand because it was cheap and was recommended on a few different websites when I did my research. I had the coir mix in his smaller enclosure. Do you know if any stores online sell the coir for cheap or in bulk?

I will definitely get something to put his food on so he's not eating the sand. Thanks for the tip. Right now I just have a regular food dish and some of his food does get into the sand...

So glad I joined this forum. Learning a lot!

---

Welcome to TFO! He looks like an inquisitive little guy!

The new setup looks good, a ton better than before, no doubt. Besides changing out that coil bulb, I would add some interest for him. Even simple things like pieces of wood, large rocks, mounds of dirt (until he plows through them), silk plants. Just stuff to break up the long line of sight from one side to the other. Hides can be anything really. Plastic shoebox tubs with a hole cut in the side, flower pots, boxes. Even trailing silk plants are a hit cause they burrow down into the "rootballs".

His beak is a little long. Pick up a piece of slate tile or other such rough surface to feed him on and you wont have that problem any longer. The vet might even shorten that up for you. Or it's easy enough to do with a fingernail file.

Try and get him as much natural sunlight as you can. What is his diet?

Funny coincidence, btw: Long story short, I owned two male Russians this weekend for about 45 minutes (sellers remorse) and one was going to be Nikola Tesla.

Thanks so much! I agree with adding some things in there for him. I was just a little hesitant because I didn't wanna put anything in there that was bad for him. I want to put some rocks in and I do have a flower pot that I'm not using that I can put in there as well. With regard to the rocks - can I just grab some from outside, clean them up and put them in? Or do they have to be a certain kind...

Regarding the beak... I wouldn't feel comfortable doing it myself. Hopefully the vet will do it and I'll have to go out and get something for him to eat on.

Since I live in Jersey, the weather isn't always great. In the summer when it's warm enough out, I plan on having him out in my mom's yard (with the proper enclosure of course...) to get some nice natural sunlight and some good exercise, etc... but for now, I think inside is the safest for him.

For his diet, I've just been following a list I found on here... I picked up a few different things from the store and have been alternating daily. Some of them are: red and green leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, dandelion leaves, collards and kale. I've only had him for a week so I haven't been able to go out and find more of a variety yet.. hehe.. I figured that was good enough to start with..

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Jenni:

Welcome to the forum!!

 

[jennifresh]

Thanks so much!

 

[Tim/Robin]

Welcome to the wonderful world of tortoises! One word of caution, they are very addicting! How long can you just have one?

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

Welcome.

 

[jennifresh]

Welcome to the wonderful world of tortoises! One word of caution, they are very addicting! How long can you just have one?

LOL, you are so right! I'm already thinking about getting another one...