New to the Greek tortoise

Dennis S

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Ok braught this little guy home, planning on building a much larger space, I had a box turtle 30 years ago and remember keeping it in a 100gl enclosure, beyond that I can't remember care for it and it seems through reading Greek tortoise are a bit different in care, now I think he is dehydrated and he tends to head to the cave and sleep in the cold a lot, I changed out the heat bulbs from 100W to a 75W day and a 50W red for night, am thinking of no light at night and getting him a heat rock,I have bathed him twice in four days, got a good poop out of him today, any help will be greatly appreciated

IMG_20200504_170524180.jpgIMG_20200504_085938639.jpgIMG_20200504_085843999.jpg
 

iAmCentrochelys sulcata

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That’s not a Greek tortoise it’s a Russian tortoise. You’ll need to get a bigger enclosure. Way bigger, you shouldn’t be using Red heat bulbs. Don’t use them, you can turn off any heat source at night.
As long as it’s warm during the day.
I’ll let other experienced members come.
 
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Dennis S

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Reno
That’s not a Greek tortoise it’s a Russian tortoise. You’ll need to get a bigger enclosure. Way bigger, you shouldn’t be using Red heat bulbs. Don’t use them, you can turn off any heat source at night.
As long as it’s warm during the day.
I’ll let other experienced members come.
It was sold to me at PetSmart as a Tetsudo Tortoise, so I do not know the difference between Russian and Greek
 

nicoleann2214

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Ok braught this little guy home, planning on building a much larger space, I had a box turtle 30 years ago and remember keeping it in a 100gl enclosure, beyond that I can't remember care for it and it seems through reading Greek tortoise are a bit different in care, now I think he is dehydrated and he tends to head to the cave and sleep in the cold a lot, I changed out the heat bulbs from 100W to a 75W day and a 50W red for night, am thinking of no light at night and getting him a heat rock,I have bathed him twice in four days, got a good poop out of him today, any help will be greatly appreciated
Soak him for at least 30 min everyday to help with hydration, and you should use a Che bulb for night heat, or some type of heat bulb that brings heat down onto the tortoise. The tortoise should not go at night without some sort of heat.
 

Dennis S

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Soak him for at least 30 min everyday to help with hydration, and you should use a Che bulb for night heat, or some type of heat bulb that brings heat down onto the tortoise. The tortoise should not go at night without some sort of heat.
Thank you,
 

Randy Micheals

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No heat rock. As mentioned, top down heating is best. Ceramic heat bulb or even RHP for night time. Temp under lights can be optimized by adjusting the height. Aim for arround 95 degrees for the basking spot. Use a flat rock or a tile under the basking spot and you get enough of the heat rock effect just from the warmth of the bulb. Mist food daily to help with hydration. Good luck :)
 

KarenSoCal

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You have an adult, wild caught Russian tortoise.

You do need a basking bulb. No red bulbs. You can use a regular incandescent flood bulb for this. Try a 60 watt, and mount the light either higher or lower to maintain a basking temp of 90-95.

You do need a much larger space for him. Indoors, it should be a minimum of 8x4ft. Outdoors, it should be as big as possible.

He should be soaked for 30 min every day for a while, then every other day.

If you take him outside in the sunshine for an hour or so 2x/week, you don't need any UVB bulbs.

At night, it should be dark. If your house temp is above 60 deg at night, you do not need extra heat at night.

Please read this care sheet. It has lots of good info on caring properly for your tort.

Welcome to the forum! Ask any questions you have. We'll be happy to explain why we do what we do.

 

Yvonne G

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Hi Dennis, and welcome to the Forum!

You'll find lots of good information in that link in the above post for the Russian tortoise care sheet. Glad you've found us.
 

KronksMom

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Welcome, Dennis! All the information, especially the link, Karen provided is perfect. Russian tortoises and Greek tortoises are both in the Testudo tortoise family, but yours is a Russian. They have almost the same needs as Greeks but are a little smaller and, from what I've heard, have more spunk. Unlike some other species, these guys do not need any night time heat unless your house is colder than 60 degrees. It's important for them to have that nightly cooldown.
 

Dennis S

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No heat rock. As mentioned, top down heating is best. Ceramic heat bulb or even RHP for night time. Temp under lights can be optimized by adjusting the height. Aim for arround 95 degrees for the basking spot. Use a flat rock or a tile under the basking spot and you get enough of the heat rock effect just from the warmth of the bulb. Mist food daily to help with hydration. Good luck :)
Any suggestions on wattage of the ceramic heater?
 

Randy Micheals

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Up to 100W is ok. You want to be careful using CHEs to prevent burning the top of the shell. There are several threads archived here illustrating this unfortunate outcome. This can be a slow burn and not immediately apparent, so important to get it dialed early on.

No closer to 10 inches from top of shell, and personally, if you are using a full 100w, I would go 12'' minimum. Using two 100w or lesser bulbs to space out heating is better than trying to use one higher powered bulb.And use a thermostat.
 

Dennis S

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Reno
Up to 100W is ok. You want to be careful using CHEs to prevent burning the top of the shell. There are several threads archived here illustrating this unfortunate outcome. This can be a slow burn and not immediately apparent, so important to get it dialed early on.

No closer to 10 inches from top of shell, and personally, if you are using a full 100w, I would go 12'' minimum. Using two 100w or lesser bulbs to space out heating is better than trying to use one higher powered bulb.And use a thermostat.
Yup got one thermometer in it, want two more so I get an idea of over all temp, so I'm thinking of the 75w till I can get a larger enclosure
 

Dennis S

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You have an adult, wild caught Russian tortoise.

You do need a basking bulb. No red bulbs. You can use a regular incandescent flood bulb for this. Try a 60 watt, and mount the light either higher or lower to maintain a basking temp of 90-95.

You do need a much larger space for him. Indoors, it should be a minimum of 8x4ft. Outdoors, it should be as big as possible.

He should be soaked for 30 min every day for a while, then every other day.

If you take him outside in the sunshine for an hour or so 2x/week, you don't need any UVB bulbs.

At night, it should be dark. If your house temp is above 60 deg at night, you do not need extra heat at night.

Please read this care sheet. It has lots of good info on caring properly for your tort.

Welcome to the forum! Ask any questions you have. We'll be happy to explain why we do what we do.

How do you know it is wild caught and a Russian?
 

KronksMom

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Look at some pictures of Russian tortoises and some pictures of Greek tortoises. Once you've seen a bunch, they're pretty easy to tell apart. As far as how to know whether or not it's wild caught, the more bumps and lumps on the shell, the more likely that your tortoise previously lived in the wild. Mine was wild caught, he's got all kinds of old battle wounds. They're all healed, but just little dents and dings that show he lived a wild life before coming to me.
 

Dennis S

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Ok
Look at some pictures of Russian tortoises and some pictures of Greek tortoises. Once you've seen a bunch, they're pretty easy to tell apart. As far as how to know whether or not it's wild caught, the more bumps and lumps on the shell, the more likely that your tortoise previously lived in the wild. Mine was wild caught, he's got all kinds of old battle wounds. They're all healed, but just little dents and dings that show he lived a wild life before coming to me.
, Had to ask, I read somewhere that PetSmart uses breakers, but hey I live in Reno Nevada, our climate is almost a mirror of where they come form as far as I can tell
 

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