Hi all ☺️
I got my Russian tortoise Cadwell about 5 weeks ago. When I got him he was quite dehydrated and lathargic. His urates were like crumbled chalk so I don't think he had great care when I got him. On top of that he was being bullied and bitten by his cage mate blink (my partners tortoise we got at the same time from the same cage in the shop) we separated as soon as we noticed within 2 days. Then I took him to the vet and she said his shell and bottom jaw were a little soft and he seemed run down and that he hadn't had access to decent uv growing up. He's about 14 months old. So basically he's had a rough start. I got a uv tube and he has a Mercury vapor bulb so his whole table is flooded with good uv. I got some uv detection cards and he has uv pretty much everywhere I also supplement with nutribal. His improvement since ( about a week) has been amazing. Hes more active, walks taller, basks more and looks "podgier". The only issue now is that hes lazy. He doesn't get out of bed until about 11-12 and goes back to bed about 5-6. So he's not getting alot of hours of uv per day. He does nap in the basking spot alot though. When he's not doing that he loves to climb and dig and knock his plants over.
So basically I have 2 questions
What times should I be turning the lights on and off.I go to work at 630 am is that too early?
Is it normal for Russians to actually sleep under the basking light ?
Basking temp 100, surrounding area 90, cool end 25 humidity usually 50-60 occasionally reaches 70.
I got my Russian tortoise Cadwell about 5 weeks ago. When I got him he was quite dehydrated and lathargic. His urates were like crumbled chalk so I don't think he had great care when I got him. On top of that he was being bullied and bitten by his cage mate blink (my partners tortoise we got at the same time from the same cage in the shop) we separated as soon as we noticed within 2 days. Then I took him to the vet and she said his shell and bottom jaw were a little soft and he seemed run down and that he hadn't had access to decent uv growing up. He's about 14 months old. So basically he's had a rough start. I got a uv tube and he has a Mercury vapor bulb so his whole table is flooded with good uv. I got some uv detection cards and he has uv pretty much everywhere I also supplement with nutribal. His improvement since ( about a week) has been amazing. Hes more active, walks taller, basks more and looks "podgier". The only issue now is that hes lazy. He doesn't get out of bed until about 11-12 and goes back to bed about 5-6. So he's not getting alot of hours of uv per day. He does nap in the basking spot alot though. When he's not doing that he loves to climb and dig and knock his plants over.
So basically I have 2 questions
What times should I be turning the lights on and off.I go to work at 630 am is that too early?
Is it normal for Russians to actually sleep under the basking light ?
Basking temp 100, surrounding area 90, cool end 25 humidity usually 50-60 occasionally reaches 70.