Hello!
So i just recently got my first Russian Tortoise, Leon. I got him a couple of days ago and i'm not sure if his behavior is just because he is new or what.
The very first day i got him, he was decently active in his enclosure when i wasn't around, but anytime i came into the room he would hide back in his shell. In order to start getting him acquainted with my touch, i soaked him the second night and same thing, he spent a majority of the time in his shell. Then on the third day, he had crawled under a little half log and burrowed himself super deep as the top of his shell isn't even visible anymore. The part of his enclosure has about 4-5 inches of substrate so i'm guessing he went down decently far. He has been down there now for 2 days and i'm starting to get a little worried. i tried moving the substrate around a little bit and i couldn't find him. He also has not come up to eat or drink and i've been changing his food and water every day, chopped up Romaine Lettuce as the food. Over the entire closure, i have a ExoTerra Reptile Desert UVB 150 and a ExoTerra 100W Infared Basking for general heat about 18 inches above on a stand. then on top a ramp i have a ExoTerra 150W Intense Basking Spot about 13 inches above. The enclosure is custom built and I thought i had done enough research and was doing everything correctly. I've been trying to do research on all these behaviors and they all seemed normal but i wasn't for sure since he is new.
I live in Iowa and it's winter right now so very very cold outside. I got the infrared light because i didn't want it to get too cold during night time as it's currently -2.
Attached is a photo of the enclosure, the corner be buried himself into, and the basking spot. The first night he did find the basking spot just fine and hung out there for a bit. I know the sand is bad for them and i'm working on getting that replaced at the top of the ramp. The rest of the substrate is 2 bags ZooMed Loose coconut fiber and 1 bag of ZooMed Cyprus Mulch mixed together
So i just recently got my first Russian Tortoise, Leon. I got him a couple of days ago and i'm not sure if his behavior is just because he is new or what.
The very first day i got him, he was decently active in his enclosure when i wasn't around, but anytime i came into the room he would hide back in his shell. In order to start getting him acquainted with my touch, i soaked him the second night and same thing, he spent a majority of the time in his shell. Then on the third day, he had crawled under a little half log and burrowed himself super deep as the top of his shell isn't even visible anymore. The part of his enclosure has about 4-5 inches of substrate so i'm guessing he went down decently far. He has been down there now for 2 days and i'm starting to get a little worried. i tried moving the substrate around a little bit and i couldn't find him. He also has not come up to eat or drink and i've been changing his food and water every day, chopped up Romaine Lettuce as the food. Over the entire closure, i have a ExoTerra Reptile Desert UVB 150 and a ExoTerra 100W Infared Basking for general heat about 18 inches above on a stand. then on top a ramp i have a ExoTerra 150W Intense Basking Spot about 13 inches above. The enclosure is custom built and I thought i had done enough research and was doing everything correctly. I've been trying to do research on all these behaviors and they all seemed normal but i wasn't for sure since he is new.
I live in Iowa and it's winter right now so very very cold outside. I got the infrared light because i didn't want it to get too cold during night time as it's currently -2.
Attached is a photo of the enclosure, the corner be buried himself into, and the basking spot. The first night he did find the basking spot just fine and hung out there for a bit. I know the sand is bad for them and i'm working on getting that replaced at the top of the ramp. The rest of the substrate is 2 bags ZooMed Loose coconut fiber and 1 bag of ZooMed Cyprus Mulch mixed together