I got this female Russian off of craigslist. She's doing great so far. She's a little timid when I get close so I am going to wait a week or so to trim her beak. I haven't named her yet.
She is a beauty! It is nice to see one which has such nice smooth growth. Do you know how long the previous owner had her or where he/she got her? I'm just wondering how much of the smooth growth was in the wild vs. how much in captivity for my own curiosity.
I notice you turned her on her back to weigh her. A MUCH less stressful and more comfortable way to safely weigh her is to use an empty soup can (or other can).
If your scale has a TARE feature on it, put just the can on the scale and press “Tare “- the scale will note the weight of the can and AUTOMATICALLY subtract it from the next weights. If your scale doesn’t have a tare feature, just weigh the can by itself and remember to subtract it from the total weight.
Then, to weigh her, put the can on the scale and set her belly/plastron side down on the can, making sure to center her on it. She’ll wave her legs like she’s walking but she won’t be able to contact anything and fall off because she’s suspended up on her pedestal like the queen that she is!
Being on their backs is EXTREMELY uncomfortable for them and makes it harder for them to breathe because their lungs are way up high- TOPMOST in their back. They have no diaphragms, so all their internal weight is squashing their lungs when they’re upside down. Weighing her right side up will be another step in showing her that she can trust you not to harm her.?❤️