Newbie,

Cstrace

New Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2018
Messages
2
Location (City and/or State)
Arkansas
HI everyone. I'm a new Russian Tort mom an I'm worried about my little guy, Nikolai. When I first brought him home, about 2 months go, he was eating and pooping machine. In the last week he hides more eats less and hasn't pooped since Friday.

I bath him every other day, but won poop during bath time either. He does still run around when I let him out for exercise.

He is super picky about his food so I get what he likes mixed greens with a hint of carrots. Any thing not green or orange he wont touch. He also has one of the cactus, calcium chew blocks that he thinks is just for looks.

He has a natural substrate of mixed Aspen and Cyprus. His condo is 22 inches by 34 inches and has a 100 watt lamp in the condo.

If you have advice on how to get him back to his normal please let me know.

Thanks everyone. 20180113_102941.jpg
 

Cheryl Hills

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2016
Messages
2,334
Location (City and/or State)
Youngstown, Ohio
Ok, for one, he should never be roaming around on the floor. He could get hurt, eat something that will hurt him etc. The enclosure you are describing is way too small. He needs an 8’ by 4’ minimum. What are you temps? What kind of bulbs are you using? We need to see pictures of the enclosure and tort. We do have a Russian tort section under the tortoise specific area. There is a lot of good info there. Be sure to read the stickies at the top of the page. All the info you will need is there. Come back and ask any questions you may have. We will try to figure this out.
 

RosemaryDW

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2016
Messages
4,144
Location (City and/or State)
Newport Coast, CA
Welcome! We are glad you are here.

Early guess is he isn’t warm enough and/or isn’t getting enough exercise. Cheryl is right, that enclosure is far too small. In the wild your tortoise roamed for miles and miles to find food. Without enough exercise, she can’t properly digest her food.

Take a look at the care sheet, then come back with some pictures of her enclosures so we can give more specific advice.

He’s adorable, by the way.
 

Alex Z

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Sep 15, 2016
Messages
794
Location (City and/or State)
NYC
HI everyone. I'm a new Russian Tort mom an I'm worried about my little guy, Nikolai. When I first brought him home, about 2 months go, he was eating and pooping machine. In the last week he hides more eats less and hasn't pooped since Friday.

I bath him every other day, but won poop during bath time either. He does still run around when I let him out for exercise.

He is super picky about his food so I get what he likes mixed greens with a hint of carrots. Any thing not green or orange he wont touch. He also has one of the cactus, calcium chew blocks that he thinks is just for looks.

He has a natural substrate of mixed Aspen and Cyprus. His condo is 22 inches by 34 inches and has a 100 watt lamp in the condo.

If you have advice on how to get him back to his normal please let me know.

Thanks everyone. View attachment 228087


Welcome to the forums. I will start by saying your enclosure is not good at all. Your tort needs to thermoregulate and walking around the house will not allow your little one to do so. A quick solution is building a wooden box. 6x3 is solid for one. 8x4 is best. A sheet of wood at homedepot cost from 28-34.
 

Cstrace

New Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2018
Messages
2
Location (City and/or State)
Arkansas
Welcome to the forums. I will start by saying your enclosure is not good at all. Your tort needs to thermoregulate and walking around the house will not allow your little one to do so. A quick solution is building a wooden box. 6x3 is solid for one. 8x4 is best. A sheet of wood at homedepot cost from 28-34.
Thank you everyone for the comments and the help. My little guy is fine. My issues all boiled down to simple math.... if you increase the size of his dish and still fill it up, then, no he can't possibly eat twice as much food. I also found out the little guy really doesn't need the bath to poop or pee, he's been doing all along. I just panicked. I still give him is bath time, I just know that he won't always poop.

As for his house, it's in the works. We're building him something larger.

Thanks again for all of the advice.
 

New Posts

Top