Rescued a Russian, Could Use Help!

[robinson468]

Hello

If the following looks familiar I talked about my situation in the Introductions section Hello from Bakersfield, CA. Moderator, if I picked the wrong section for this post please move or let me know. Thanks

My wife's aunt found a tortoise in her backyard last weekend. She is preparing to move out of state, so we agreed to take the tortoise and see if we could find its owner, if not we would take it in ourselves. We posted a pic on the other thread and someone confirmed it to be a Russian tortoise.

We currently have a craigslist ad in lost and found, plus we've been watching for ads posted, flyers in her neighborhood, etc. It's been a week now since she found him but no luck so far finding his home.

So we are in the situation of learning about tortoises after acquiring one; which is opposite of how it should be I've learned.

We want him to be safe while we learn about care, acquire supplies and build the perfect enclosure. Unfortunately this process will take a few weeks or more with our schedules of work and kids. So currently we are looking for the best temporary option until we can prepare a more ideal enclosure and diet, etc.

Currently he is in an above ground planter that we dug out the weeds and cleaned up. From our other post, @Tom recommended switching substrates and gave us the proper care sheet. I'll be trying to acquire the substrate tomorrow. (orchid bark, cypress mulch or coco coir)

My initial question is this:
1.) Until we devise a suitable enclosure which may take several weeks should we:
a: Keep him in the outdoor above ground planter with umbrella for shade (Current Bakersfield Temps Highs 100-108; lows 75-80)
b: buy a kiddie pool or similar and keep him indoors for the meantime (temp between 78 -80) No lamps purchased yet
c: both of the above and split his time between out and in
d: look for a more suitable caregiver until we can get set up properly
e: something else we haven't thought of

I know none of this is ideal, but it's gonna take time for us to be able to afford and acquire and build all the right stuff, and I want to do the best I can in the meantime. And I'll be going out of town for about a week on Tuesday so I probably won't be able to get thermometers, lamps, etc. until I get back.
And I realize you can't provide me a perfect answer without coming and seeing everything firsthand. But if anyone has some input on how they think I could provide the
least harm to the little fellow in this situation, I'd appreciate it

 

[Tom]

Hello

If the following looks familiar I talked about my situation in the Introductions section Hello from Bakersfield, CA. Moderator, if I picked the wrong section for this post please move or let me know. Thanks

My wife's aunt found a tortoise in her backyard last weekend. She is preparing to move out of state, so we agreed to take the tortoise and see if we could find its owner, if not we would take it in ourselves. We posted a pic on the other thread and someone confirmed it to be a Russian tortoise.

We currently have a craigslist ad in lost and found, plus we've been watching for ads posted, flyers in her neighborhood, etc. It's been a week now since she found him but no luck so far finding his home.

So we are in the situation of learning about tortoises after acquiring one; which is opposite of how it should be I've learned.

We want him to be safe while we learn about care, acquire supplies and build the perfect enclosure. Unfortunately this process will take a few weeks or more with our schedules of work and kids. So currently we are looking for the best temporary option until we can prepare a more ideal enclosure and diet, etc.

Currently he is in an above ground planter that we dug out the weeds and cleaned up. From our other post, @Tom recommended switching substrates and gave us the proper care sheet. I'll be trying to acquire the substrate tomorrow. (orchid bark, cypress mulch or coco coir)

My initial question is this:
1.) Until we devise a suitable enclosure which may take several weeks should we:
a: Keep him in the outdoor above ground planter with umbrella for shade (Current Bakersfield Temps Highs 100-108; lows 75-80)
b: buy a kiddie pool or similar and keep him indoors for the meantime (temp between 78 -80) No lamps purchased yet
c: both of the above and split his time between out and in
d: look for a more suitable caregiver until we can get set up properly
e: something else we haven't thought of

I know none of this is ideal, but it's gonna take time for us to be able to afford and acquire and build all the right stuff, and I want to do the best I can in the meantime. And I'll be going out of town for about a week on Tuesday so I probably won't be able to get thermometers, lamps, etc. until I get back.
And I realize you can't provide me a perfect answer without coming and seeing everything firsthand. But if anyone has some input on how they think I could provide the
least harm to the little fellow in this situation, I'd appreciate it

For an outdoor enclosure you can use the native dirt, as long as its not too sandy and as long as there is not perlite or potting soil mixed in.

100+ temps are too hot. If that umbrella blows over, he will cook. Even with full shade, next week's heat wave is going to make it too hot above ground. They do best with an underground retreat of some sort to escape the heat. Dig down to the bottom of the planter making a sloped entrance. Put some plywood over the hole and then mound up a whole bunch of dirt on top of the plywood. Check the temp under there by putting your thermometer down there during the heat of the day. With this sort of enclosure, you will be okay with him outside full time until mid October when the night temps really start to drop. At that point, you can bring him into a large indoor enclosure at night, and use the outdoor one for warm days, or hopefully, you will have a night box built by then.

 

[robinson468]

For an outdoor enclosure you can use the native dirt, as long as its not too sandy and as long as there is not perlite or potting soil mixed in.

100+ temps are too hot. If that umbrella blows over, he will cook. Even with full shade, next week's heat wave is going to make it too hot above ground. They do best with an underground retreat of some sort to escape the heat. Dig down to the bottom of the planter making a sloped entrance. Put some plywood over the hole and then mound up a whole bunch of dirt on top of the plywood. Check the temp under there by putting your thermometer down there during the heat of the day. With this sort of enclosure, you will be okay with him outside full time until mid October when the night temps really start to drop. At that point, you can bring him into a large indoor enclosure at night, and use the outdoor one for warm days, or hopefully, you will have a night box built by then.

Thank you Tom, I was afraid the above ground planter might be an issue with temperature.

With the amount of dirt and tangle of roots it still may take us quite awhile to prepare it the way you mentioned; particularly with me leaving town for a week and my wife at work. Do you think in the meantime we should bring him in and temporarily have him in a kiddie pool or sweater box with some substrate?

 

[Tom]

Thank you Tom, I was afraid the above ground planter might be an issue with temperature.

With the amount of dirt and tangle of roots it still may take us quite awhile to prepare it the way you mentioned; particularly with me leaving town for a week and my wife at work. Do you think in the meantime we should bring him in and temporarily have him in a kiddie pool or sweater box with some substrate?

If you don't have time to make up the outdoor enclosure properly, then indoors in a large kiddie pool with a heat lamp will suffice temporarily. Mount the heat lamp securely, and do NOT use the clamp that comes with it. Hang it from over head.

 

[SinLA]

I was in the same boat. This is not ideal, but I had two of those 2x 3 "tortoise boxes" they sell online (terrible things!), and I joined them together into one 2'x6' space and kept that in a temp controlled garage until I could get the outdoor space properly set up. I may bring him inside as well during next week's heat wave. Its not ideal for them, but they can manage that for a number of weeks until you get things sorted. I still keep that box as a "safe space" for him if it rains, or I want to keep him controlled for a bit. i did set up lamps for it though. Follow Tom's advice, its good...