Russian tortoise enclosure

pashanikolayevich

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Joined
Aug 10, 2021
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1
Location (City and/or State)
New York City
IMG_3159.jpgIMG_3160.jpgIMG_3164.jpgHello,
so my Russian tortoise is a big man probably about 6 inches long. Since he grew, I changed his enclosure. Does this look okay? Its a large plastic storage bin with wood chip and hay substrate. I wanted to get him some other kind of decor for enrichment like a ramp. However, He is too big for anything they sell at petco! Should I make him a ramp? Is this enclosure too small?
I feel like I'm doing something wrong. No one I know has a tortoise.

Tortoise carapace: 6 inches
Inside of the storage bin: 40 in x 18 in

I soak him in a basin 4x a week
 

LeahK

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Aug 28, 2020
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79
Location (City and/or State)
Berkeley CA
Welcome to the forum!

I felt like I had to comment on here, because your enclosure looks almost exactly like mine did when I joined this website almost a year ago now. Actually, if you want to see it, here it is. I'm not proud of it now, and I'm not trying to show it off, but I thought it was funny how similar it was.

Most of your current setup needs to be changed. I literally made exactly the same mistakes you did, and I am willing to bet the pet store told you to set it up like this? Pet stores don't really know anything about how to properly house a tortoise.

Rather than type it out again, if you go to my old post and see the first comment from KarenSoCal, it's basically a list of everything you need to change as well (ignoring the vet advice for my tortoise's chip).

Everything I learned about tortoises I learned from this forum. Some of the people on here have been raising tortoises for decades, and I have been just trying to learn off of them. KarenSoCal's comment will be a good place for you to start, but this is a great place to learn and ask questions. Feel free to follow up with any questions, and I can try to answer them, or I am sure the experts here will be able to.
 

TaylorTortoise

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Joined
Mar 24, 2020
Messages
1,461
Location (City and/or State)
Abington
View attachment 330741View attachment 330742View attachment 330743Hello,
so my Russian tortoise is a big man probably about 6 inches long. Since he grew, I changed his enclosure. Does this look okay? Its a large plastic storage bin with wood chip and hay substrate. I wanted to get him some other kind of decor for enrichment like a ramp. However, He is too big for anything they sell at petco! Should I make him a ramp? Is this enclosure too small?
I feel like I'm doing something wrong. No one I know has a tortoise.

Tortoise carapace: 6 inches
Inside of the storage bin: 40 in x 18 in

I soak him in a basin 4x a week
First of all, that is very dangerous to have your light hanging like that. They get very hot. You need to come up with another way to hand those lights. You can find ideas on here, or look for stands
 

ArmadilloPup

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 15, 2019
Messages
307
Location (City and/or State)
NE Oklahoma
Don't even worry, we all had to learn!

@LeahK linked some good reading. Here's a list of recommended items I recently made up for someone else. A juvenile/adult Russian will need a bigger enclosure than a bin, though.

One immediate fix would be to remove the hay as substrate. Hay invites mildew into the enclosure (plus it can poke their soft bits). Get cypress or fir bark cheap from a hardware/garden store and make it deep so he can burrow. You don't need to replace the log even when he outgrows it, he can just burrow under it.

If you don't have any digital temp/humidity gauges, grabbing some would be a great next step to determine if your enclosure is too hot or dry.

No ramps, they are a flipping hazard. You can either get some real plants that are safe and leafy (like pothos and friendship plants), or get some fake soft-leafed plants.
 

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