New turtle , sorry help.

[SnugglesMuggles]

New turtle hides in corner, I know glass is not the best but I can not afford anything else till payday and my dad is slowly building him a wooden turtle table. So my new turtle has a heat lamp and he sits in the corner right near it and doesn't even explore the other side. His turtle cover arch thing comes in today finally, I got him saturday. His shell is starting to look different. Is he sitting under too long? He spends all day in that left back corner. He eats but I have to put the lettuce right near him. Any advice or help. He has a UV bulb overhead which is all I could find in town. Shipping out here takes a month. Any advice ): Please don't yell at me, I have all the time with this guy and I am willing to make it work however other forums are so rude. My mom is retired and planted dandelion greens for him too. We are going to a farmers market next week to get him more varied food. Any tank advice or placement would be great thanks I am just so worried. My mom said I just need to give him time. I had a shoebox in there for him to hide under and he still went to back left corner.

 

[wellington]

That is an adult Russian tortoise. Should be living in a 4x8 foot enclosure and have an outdoor enclosure for warm weather.
The water dish needs to go and be replaced with a clay saucer.
Diet needs to be a lot more than lettuce.
Do not use a mercury vapor bulb for heat and uvb, you need a incandescent flood bulb and a tube florescent uvb.
Because you just got him, he will need lots of time to adjust.
Please read the care sheet on this forum for the proper care. Also make the enclosure size change ASAP!

 

[SnugglesMuggles]

That is an adult Russian tortoise. Should be living in a 4x8 foot enclosure and have an outdoor enclosure for warm weather.
The water dish needs to go and be replaced with a clay saucer.
Diet needs to be a lot more than lettuce.
Do not use a mercury vapor bulb for heat and uvb, you need a incandescent flood bulb and a tube florescent uvb.
Because you just got him, he will need lots of time to adjust.
Please read the care sheet on this forum for the proper care. Also make the enclosure size change ASAP!

oh my gosh really? Petsmart and the reptile person told me it was a hermans ... hes only 5 inches maybe 4 wide ?

 

[Yvonne G]

I concur. . . Russian.

 

[SnugglesMuggles]

oh my gosh really? Petsmart and the reptile person told me it was a hermans ... hes only 5 inches maybe 4 wide ?

Well..If it is for sure a russian I will have to return him. I can not afford to buy a bigger enclosure, my dad just finished the frame on the 5x5 for outside but still. /: Guess I will look into morphmart. I am annoyed because petsmart is a 2 hour drive for me, so I will head back into town this afternoon. Everything I got is what I researched for a hemanns /:

 

[jsheffield - In Memoriam]

Hello and welcome to TFO!

I concur, that's a Russian.

Here's a good guide to any of the Temperate Torts:

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

tortoiseforum.org

It talks about enclosure and food and soaking and UV and heat, and is worth reading a few times to get a feel for more specific questions about your situation, or your tortoise.

Glad you checked in!

Jamie

 

[SnugglesMuggles]

Hello and welcome to TFO!

I concur, that's a Russian.

Here's a good guide to any of the Temperate Torts:

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

tortoiseforum.org

It talks about enclosure and food and soaking and UV and heat, and is worth reading a few times to get a feel for more specific questions about your situation, or your tortoise.

Glad you checked in!

Jamie

Thank you..I had been preparing for hermanns, Only reason we got the glass for now is because it was on sale, My dad is building a wooden box. We are making the trek to return him this afternoon and my parents will find me a hermanns. I was caring for an egyptian that was mine but lost it in the divorce by someone petty blah I just want a turtle again lol thanks for the help guys.

 

[methos75]

The care for Hermanns and Russians is pretty much the same

 

[wellington]

Thank you..I had been preparing for hermanns, Only reason we got the glass for now is because it was on sale, My dad is building a wooden box. We are making the trek to return him this afternoon and my parents will find me a hermanns. I was caring for an egyptian that was mine but lost it in the divorce by someone petty blah I just want a turtle again lol thanks for the help guys.

The Hermann needs the same size enclosure as the Russian. Maybe you need to wait until you can afford to give the proper care.
There are a few that can live in smaller enclosures, not the aquarium you have but, but a little smaller than the 4x8. The pancake and one of the Star species, but they are usually more expensive and likely not found at a pet store which btw is the worse place to buy a tortoise as they know very little to nothing about them as you have found out.

 

[SinLA]

Yeah so unfortunately the problem is not the tortoise its the pet store. Doesn't matter Hermanns vs Russians, they still need more space than a fish tank. If a fish tank is all the space you can provide, i'm sorry to say there's no tortoise you can keep in a healthy, proper conditions - REGARDLESS of what the petstore tells you. Their job is to sell you a product, not to make sure what they sell have good lives.

You may want to consider a different pet until you could have proper space for a tortoise.

Also Petsmart sells wild-caught tortoises (regardless of what the salesperson tells you) so its not really a great practice to support...