Review my setup? New owner

[izzy&pearl]

Hello all!

My name is Izzy and I just adopted Pearl (i believe a Russian, but any confirmation would be great!) from a coworker who could not take care of her anymore. She came with the overall cage and a few other things, but after reading through this forum I went and bought new substrate, a UVB light, and some other things!

She’s been eating and been very active, so I think that is a good sign that she is at least moderately healthy! I believe she is 12 years old, and I don’t plan on having hatchlings.

I want to make sure everything is safe and adequate for my tort. Please let me know if there are any immediate concerns!! I’ll post pictires of the current setup, and any feedback would be greatly appreciated!! Thank you all so much!!

Izzy&Pearl <3

 

[Thomas tortoise]

That's a Russian tortoise all right! And it looks like you have a pretty good set up but I don't know much about Russians so I could be wrong lets wait till some Russian experts get involved.

 

[wellington]

Yes that is a Russian and unfortunately the enclosure is way too small. An adult Russian needs a minimum of a 4x8 foot enclosure.
Also needs a bigger water dish, one she can fit into. The clay saucers are good just needs to be much bigger.

 

[wellington]

That's a Russian tortoise all right! And it looks like you have a pretty good set up but I don't know much about Russians so I could be wrong lets wait till some Russian experts get involved.

Just an FYI for you. Those premade enclosures like the OP has is not really good for any tort. Hatchlings need a closed chamber type enclosure and adults of even the smaller species need much bigger then most premade store bought offers.

 

[Lyn W]

Hi and welcome,
It's very good of you to give Pearl a home.
There's a lot to learn but this is the caresheet that will help you.
(Apologies if you've already found it)

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

Ask as many questions as you like, there's usually someone here to point you in the right direction.

 

[izzy&pearl]

Yes that is a Russian and unfortunately the enclosure is way too small. An adult Russian needs a minimum of a 4x8 foot enclosure.
Also needs a bigger water dish, one she can fit into. The clay saucers are good just needs to be much bigger.

Thank you! It is too bad that the enclosure is not big enough... this is what I received from my coworker, and they had even less substrate and no UVB, so I am hoping to at least improve her living conditions slowly and I would like to get a bigger enclosure for her eventually...

 

[izzy&pearl]

Hi and welcome,
It's very good of you to give Pearl a home.
There's a lot to learn but this is the caresheet that will help you.
(Apologies if you've already found it)

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

Ask as many questions as you like, there's usually someone here to point you in the right direction.

Thank you so much! That is very helpful. The next question I have come across is how deep to put the substrate down... I got Reptile Bark, and it is currently an inch deep. Pearl has already started digging a lot more, because before she didn't even have enough substrate to dig! Should I make the layer thicker, or is it okay for her to be scraping the bottom?

I want to try to give her a better life than the one she had before. Any advice is helpful

 

[wellington]

Thank you! It is too bad that the enclosure is not big enough... this is what I received from my coworker, and they had even less substrate and no UVB, so I am hoping to at least improve her living conditions slowly and I would like to get a bigger enclosure for her eventually...

You can always try to add onto this enclosure. The sad thing with tortoises are the pet stores have no clue about their proper care. They don't have the space for proper sized enclosures so they just make do and sell the crap to us. Just like the gold fish bowl. A gold fish needs a minimum of a 10 gallon for one gold fish and actually will eventually need a 20 gallon if taken care of properly. Most of the crap pet stores sells is just that crap.
I'm sure the previous owner was just doing what a pet store told him/her and they didn't know anything different.

 

[izzy&pearl]

You can always try to add onto this enclosure. The sad thing with tortoises are the pet stores have no clue about their proper care. They don't have the space for proper sized enclosures so they just make do and sell the crap to us. Just like the gold fish bowl. A gold fish needs a minimum of a 10 gallon for one gold fish and actually will eventually need a 20 gallon if taken care of properly. Most of the crap pet stores sells is just that crap.
I'm sure the previous owner was just doing what a pet store told him/her and they didn't know anything different.

Yes, for sure! Thank you so much again!

 

[Lyn W]

Thank you so much! That is very helpful. The next question I have come across is how deep to put the substrate down... I got Reptile Bark, and it is currently an inch deep. Pearl has already started digging a lot more, because before she didn't even have enough substrate to dig! Should I make the layer thicker, or is it okay for her to be scraping the bottom?

I want to try to give her a better life than the one she had before. Any advice is helpful

Russians love to dig and will sometimes bury themselves, so make it as deep as you can. They are also great climbers so when you update his enclosure for something bigger make sure it is quite deep or something you can cap the edges with to stop them making a great escape!
If you're not able to make something yourself you could look for an old bookcase with deep shelves that you can lay flat and line etc. Lifetime do a great raised garden bed kit that you could use. There are two 4 x 4 beds that you can stack, and then maybe add a second one to get 4 x 8 as he grows, but they only come with corner fixtures so you would have to find a way to join the 2 kits.

 

[Ddflinn]

Hello all!

My name is Izzy and I just adopted Pearl (i believe a Russian, but any confirmation would be great!) from a coworker who could not take care of her anymore. She came with the overall cage and a few other things, but after reading through this forum I went and bought new substrate, a UVB light, and some other things!

She’s been eating and been very active, so I think that is a good sign that she is at least moderately healthy! I believe she is 12 years old, and I don’t plan on having hatchlings.

I want to make sure everything is safe and adequate for my tort. Please let me know if there are any immediate concerns!! I’ll post pictires of the current setup, and any feedback would be greatly appreciated!! Thank you all so much!!

Izzy&Pearl <3

looks like a boy to me

 

[izzy&pearl]

I have another question... when feeding Pearl, do her greens need to be chopped up small? Chopped big? Left whole? and should these be put in a dish, on a rock, or how?

 

[biochemnerd808]

I have another question... when feeding Pearl, do her greens need to be chopped up small? Chopped big? Left whole? and should these be put in a dish, on a rock, or how?

Good question! It kind of depends on what your tortoise eats (what you feed it) and on her personality. Ideally, you give her the dark leafy weeds whole, planted in the ground, so she find them and graze them. If this isn't an option, if she will eat what you offer, leaving them whole is best.

Sometimes if I have a picky eater who e.g. was formerly fed grocery store greens, and who doesn't voluntarily eat weeds, then I'll chop everything smaller, mixing increasing amounts of weeds into grocery store greens until it's all weeds. They can't sort through the tiny pieces and just eat it all, getting a taste for the many different things.