I am having a major problem

[Bobo's Dad]

My tort Bobo is 2 years old. I am having a problem with him barley eating and trying to escape all the time by trying to climb the walls of his plastic container. I work very long hours now and he is in silence for most of the day. I have him in a cement mixing container I bought him a long time ago at home depot. Any suggestions?

Darren

 

[Yellow Turtle01]

Hi, could we have just a smidge more info? All kinds of things can cause your 'problem'. What lights does he have? (what temps too) Is he a full indoors tort? What's his diet like? How large is the enclosure? So on so on.
Is he 2 years old? Or have you had him for two years?

 

[Bobo's Dad]

He is a fully indoor tortoise he had a basking light with dome and is usually 92 degrees at that point and 67-75 degrees on the cool side. His enclosure is shown below. I feed him romaine, green leaf, kale, with TnT powder he also has a 2 foot UVB bulb spanning the enclosure and yes he was 2 August 16th I bought him as a hatchling. All he does is look up out of the enclosure and scratch at the walls/ He just recently started doing this about a month ago. I have a feeling he is out growing his enclosure.

 

[russian/sulcata/tortoise]

i would increase the enclosure size. in my opinion for a russian tortoise the smallest cage he can be put in is a 4ft by 8ft.

 

[Bobo's Dad]

here are some pics

 

[tortdad]

Actually sounds like your guy feeling is correct.


0.0.1 Redfoot (Spike)
0.0.1 Cherryhead Redfoot (Bruce Wayne)
1.0 Sulcata (Hal Jordan)

 

[russian/sulcata/tortoise]

Don't listen to this guy, he doesn't even have a girlfriend




0.0.1 Redfoot (Spike)
0.0.1 Cherryhead Redfoot (Bruce Wayne)
1.0 Sulcata (Hal Jordan)

why you so mean

 

[Bobo's Dad]

and no those are not pot leaves they we some plants from petsmart. hahaha

 

[Bobo's Dad]

anyone have plans for a good tort table?

 

[russian/sulcata/tortoise]

yoyo where do you live? is it possible to make an outside enclosure?

 

[russian/sulcata/tortoise]

my russian enclosure

 

[Bobo's Dad]

I live in ohio so we are hitting snow season

 

[tortdad]

I have that same mixing tub and I can tell you that it's too small for your Russian and it's not deep enough. Russians like to burro so you need 4"-6" deep sub straight for them to dig. Walmart has bigger plastic tubs or you can go back to Home Depot and get son lumber to build a bigger one with 12" tall walls so you have room for deep soil.


0.0.1 Redfoot (Spike)
0.0.1 Cherryhead Redfoot (Bruce Wayne)
1.0 Sulcata (Hal Jordan)

 

[Bobo's Dad]

I would like to build one any plans? with sizes and all?

 

[tortdad]

How much space to you have? Got room for a 4x8' enclosure


0.0.1 Redfoot (Spike)
0.0.1 Cherryhead Redfoot (Bruce Wayne)
1.0 Sulcata (Hal Jordan)

 

[Magilla504]

I would definitely get him in a bigger enclosure. That's about the size of a 40 gallon tank. Torts and especially Russians are very curious and pretty active when the temps are right. To be honest, he is probably bored out of his mind. If outside is no option and if you can't afford right now to build or buy a tortoise table than buy a few Rubbermaid 50 gallon bins. Cut the ends off and combine them together. You would be able to add tons of plants and hides to keep your curious guy happy. If you need any enclosure/tortoise table help just send me a message

 

[Alaskamike]

Just a suggestion : I have a friend who bought two plastic bins meant for storing Christmas trees. They are big ( not sure of size but looked to be 2'x5' or thereabouts. He wired them together and cut a hole to go between them putting a plywood box as the tunnel between. They were deep enough to have 4-5" of substrata.
He does not have Russians- but cherry foots
He put the lids back on with holes cut out for the heat bulb on one end and a UVB light in the Other one. He also cut a big square out of each and glued plexiglas to the top so he could see in
He uses Zilla temp probs to monitor the temps - 2 of them.

With a bit of adjustment he got the home just right - temps , humidity , 2 nice " hides" and space. And really spent less than for a big aquarium These are only used in winter when cold out. The rest of the time they have a big outside enclosure.

There are many ways to accomplish the same thing. Be inventive!