Newbie

[skyline223]

Hey there everyone.

I just purchased my first tortoise yesterday. She is a female Russian Tortoise that I believe is about one or two years old. You can tell I am still finding things out about her!

Right now she is in a temporary enclosure. I have a 40 gallon terrarium with all of the sides covered to eliminate the glass' transparency. Soon I will begin the construction of a custom design tortoise table and I will document that build in the enclosure area of the forum.

I'll try to get some pictures of her. She is still being shy!

Will Tucker
Memphis, TN, USA

 

[dmmj]

Welcome
I have had 3 russians for many years now. They are a great little tortoise. At 1 or 2 years of age you can't sex them reliably just quite yet.

 

[Zamric]

Welcome to the Forum!

 

[slowpoke]

Welcome to the forum , RT's are great ... What made you pick a russian for your first tort ?

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

Welcome!

 

[JoeTheLion]

Welcome to the forum!

I like the idea of covering terrarium walls - never heard of that being done before. Moving to a tortoise table is definitely the best idea long-term. It sounds like you have habitat pretty much handled.

My main piece of advice to you would be to read up as much as you can about caring for russian tortoises. http://russiantortoise.org/ is a good site, with a very thorough list of edible and inedible plants. http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/ , http://tortoisetrust.org/ and http://howtocareforatortoise.com/ are pretty good too.

Do you have a plan for what you're gonna feed her?

 

[dmarcus]

Hello Will and welcome to the forum...

 

[Laurie]

Hello and welcome

 

[Arizona Sulcata]

Welcome!

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Will:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

 

[nicoleandrocky]

Welcome
Cool that you got a russian

 

[skyline223]

Thanks so much for the warm welcome, everyone!

Here is a picture for everyone. Happy to climb all over things after a good 20 minute soak!

@dmmj I was told by the pet store owner that the tort was a female. However, I'm not so sure. (And not so sure about age either!) Here is the best picture of the tail that I could get. I haven't been able to get a good look at the cloaca yet. What do yall think for gender?

@slowpoke I did a good amount of research and came to the conclusion that a Russian best fit my wants as far as size, food requirements, care, and habitat. I guess it was just the one that immediately made sense.

@JoeTheLion - The store was feeding her (or him?) hard pellet type tortoise food. I bought some just in case that was all she/he was used to. I also have provided some offerings of fresh greens. However, been having her for a little over 24 hours now, she really hasn't eaten much of anything. I have been figuring it was the stress of environment changes.

I went out and bought all my supplies and materials for the table build. I will pick up over on my build thread!

 

[TORTOISEMAN1]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[pam]

Welcome

 

[Jacqui]

Welcome! Looks like she is much older then just two years. How large is she actually? (pictures can be deceiving). You also might want to mix in more of the substrate your using to lower the amount of sand. It looks just a tad too sandy in there to me.

 

[slowpoke]

i would have to agree with jacqui , sand can cause impaction ... and to me it looks like a female , and might be a bit older than 1 or 2 ... more like about 4 or 5 just from the looks of the size of her ... she looks good though ...

 

[skyline223]

Thanks for all the great advice! I'll try to get a good measurement when I get home but as I said I really had no idea for the age!

We are building her tortoise table today so I will be sure to use less sand in the substrate.