New owner

[StephandTay]

Hi! So glad I found this site! Yesterday we bought our first tortoise, he's a Russian. I found him on Craigslist and the family said they had him 4 years but I don't think they knew what they were doing. Kind of feel like we rescued him. My 11 yr old named him Tiny we soaked him today in the tub. I just covered the very bottom with water should there have been more? Also he just hid in his shell I am thinking they may never had soaked him they didn't say anything about that. They do not have him in the right substrate either cannot wait to get something different tomorrow for him. I hope he starts to like being soaked we want to give him the best life possible. Have to get him a flat rock to climb on and eat for his beak and claws to file down his claws seem long. It looks like they had crushed up bird seed in his enclosure.

 

[JoesMum]

Hello and welcome

Have you read the TFO guides to keeping Russians? They'll answer many of your questions.

They're written by species experts working hard to correct the outdated information widely available on the internet and from pet stores and ,sadly, from some breeders and vets too.

Beginner Mistakes
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/

Russian Care
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/russian-tortoise-care-sheet.80698/

Soaking water should come just up over the line between the shell and the plastron by the way

 

[StephandTay]

I did read the beginner mistakes I'm going to read the other one too.

 

[RosemaryDW]

It's pretty normal for them to be nervous when they have just been introduced to a new home, whether it was the first soak or not.

Welcome to the forum and thank you for doing the best for your tortoise.

 

[Tortoise_Wrangler]

It makes me happy he didn't end up in a petdumpster (Animal Shelter) and instead is with a new family that wants to provide for him. I have a Russian that I acquired in a similar way, mine was in bad shape and I've owned her awhile now but her recovery has been slow. For the first time in a year she is finally starting to act normal but due to her lack of weight I won't be hibernating her, I wouldn't recommend hibernating your little guy this year and it won't hurt him to keep him awake over the winter. In fact I don't hibernate my juveniles at all, don't see a point seeing that they can't breed yet. As for yours, if you think he's never been soaked, I would recommend taking him to the vets for an xray, he could have hardened urine (The white stuff that you find with the poop.) Unless you've seen him pass normal looking urine, then he's probably fine, just shy. Though a vet check up is a good thing to do when you adopt, you never know what the previous owners neglected to provide. Anyways good luck and thanks for adopting. People like you make this world a better place for animals, which we treat worse than humans, and that's just sad considering how horrible we are to each other.

 

[RussianTortKing]

Sand is never good for any type of tort including russians