Russian tortoise sleeping a lot

[Romanov]

I have a young Russian tortoise around 1 year old. He seems to sleep a lot during the day. I’ll feed him and bathed daily and after he eats he usually digs a hole an and goes to sleep in the same spot under the light. It seems like he’s only awake around 4-5 hours a day. Now this isn’t conclusive either as I’m not around during the day during the week and the only time I can observe this excessive napping is at the weekend. His set is large and has lots of things for him climb on. The lighting and uvb is correct, as is the humidity. Now this could just be a case of him just happening to be napping anytime I seem to check on him and that maybe he’s more active when I’m not around and maybe he just naps for a while after eating. His diet is a good mix of dark leafy greens and I have make to give him his vitamins as needed.
Any suggestions?
Thanks

 

[TammyJ]

How are you sure that you have the correct types of lights and humidity, temperatures?
Can you let us see the details of what is there?
Pictures of your tortoise and the enclosure would be great. Thanks .

 

[Romanov]

How are you sure that you have the correct types of lights and humidity, temperatures?
Can you let us see the details of what is there?
Pictures of your tortoise and the enclosure would be great. Thanks .

Humidity’s around 65% and he has a Arcadia uvb bulb and the basking area is around 33 degrees c

 

[TammyJ]

@Alex and the Redfoot @wellington @Tom

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Humidity’s around 65% and he has a Arcadia uvb bulb and the basking area is around 33 degrees c

As he’s younger, generally it’s recommended to maintain humidity closer to 80, but that won’t be the cause of the current issue, is it a t5 tube uv you have? Because Arcadia also sell the compact screw in uv bulbs which aren’t appropriate. Is the basking bulb a floodlight?

Directly under your basking bulb you want it reaching 35-37c, 33 is a little too cool. What are the rest of your temperatures like? Middle, cooler side and night temps?

 

[Romanov]

As he’s younger, generally it’s recommended to maintain humidity closer to 80, but that won’t be the cause of the current issue, is it a t5 tube uv you have? Because Arcadia also sell the compact screw in uv bulbs which aren’t appropriate. Is the basking bulb a floodlight?

Directly under your basking bulb you want it reaching 35-37c, 33 is a little too cool. What are the rest of your temperatures like? Middle, cooler side and night temps?

Ya it’s a t5 tube and uva bulb isn’t a floodlight it’s just a standard 100watt incandescent bulb. The temperature of the rest of the enclosure is usually whatever the room is so generally 18-20 degrees

 

[zovick]

Ya it’s a t5 tube and uva bulb isn’t a floodlight it’s just a standard 100watt incandescent bulb. The temperature of the rest of the enclosure is usually whatever the room is so generally 18-20 degrees

18-20C is too cool. You need a temp of about 25-26 in the coolest part of the enclosure to allow for proper digestion and activity.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Ya it’s a t5 tube and uva bulb isn’t a floodlight it’s just a standard 100watt incandescent bulb. The temperature of the rest of the enclosure is usually whatever the room is so generally 18-20 degrees

Ok cool, Arcadia do the floodlights quite cheap;


I think temperatures might be your issues here, do you have digital monitors? Because I’m noticing analog gauges in the photos, they aren’t very accurate unfortunately, again you can get digital ones quite cheap from hardware stores, I’d also recommend a temperature gun to scan the enclosure with. Once you’ve got those I’d double check all the ground temperatures in there, if the rest of the enclosure does indeed range 18-20 during the day, you’ll have to look into ceramic heat emitters on a thermostat, 18-20 is too cool for day temps, you want the middle ranging 80-85f(26-29c) and the cooler end more 75f(23c) then obviously your basking area around 95-100f.

Hopefully you might find this useful to read over, it covers all the correct ground levels and photo examples of ceramic heating/how to mount everything

Housing young Russian/Herman

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Having a closed chamber definitely helps in retaining heat too, so you might find this one helpful as well

Visual inspiration

Hi guys! I’ve had some lovely messages complimenting me on my care sheets I made for all the visuals they include! That makes me so happy because as a visual learner myself, that was my goal🥰 I’ve recently had some requests for some more visual inspiration for set ups that can house babies/...

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This one is really good to be familiar with too

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Hello everyone! I’d been a long time lurker on this site long before joining just under a year ago now, over that time I’ve seen these husbandry issues come up time and time again, sometimes with dire consequences☹️ I thought this thread might serve as a good visual guide for these common...

tortoiseforum.org

Hope they help! Ultimately I think a temperature boost is needed, should help perk him up

 

[Romanov]

Ok cool, Arcadia do the floodlights quite cheap;
View attachment 390940

I think temperatures might be your issues here, do you have digital monitors? Because I’m noticing analog gauges in the photos, they aren’t very accurate unfortunately, again you can get digital ones quite cheap from hardware stores, I’d also recommend a temperature gun to scan the enclosure with. Once you’ve got those I’d double check all the ground temperatures in there, if the rest of the enclosure does indeed range 18-20 during the day, you’ll have to look into ceramic heat emitters on a thermostat, 18-20 is too cool for day temps, you want the middle ranging 80-85f(26-29c) and the cooler end more 75f(23c) then obviously your basking area around 95-100f.

Hopefully you might find this useful to read over, it covers all the correct ground levels and photo examples of ceramic heating/how to mount everything

Housing young Russian/Herman

Hello there! In this thread, I’m going to include some information on an effective way to tackle a starter set up/a way you can build a bigger size once your baby is an adult. I know it looks a lot to go over, I like to make sure all bases are covered, I’m happy to break down any information...

tortoiseforum.org

Having a closed chamber definitely helps in retaining heat too, so you might find this one helpful as well

Visual inspiration

Hi guys! I’ve had some lovely messages complimenting me on my care sheets I made for all the visuals they include! That makes me so happy because as a visual learner myself, that was my goal🥰 I’ve recently had some requests for some more visual inspiration for set ups that can house babies/...

tortoiseforum.org

This one is really good to be familiar with too

Common keeping errors

Hello everyone! I’d been a long time lurker on this site long before joining just under a year ago now, over that time I’ve seen these husbandry issues come up time and time again, sometimes with dire consequences☹️ I thought this thread might serve as a good visual guide for these common...

tortoiseforum.org

Hope they help! Ultimately I think a temperature boost is needed, should help perk him up

That’s perfect. Im actually in the process of finishing his new enclosure so I’ll put another heat source to help bring up the temp in the cooler side.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

That’s perfect. Im actually in the process of finishing his new enclosure so I’ll put another heat source to help bring up the temp in the cooler side.

Sounds good

 

[Romanov]

Ok cool, Arcadia do the floodlights quite cheap;
View attachment 390940

I think temperatures might be your issues here, do you have digital monitors? Because I’m noticing analog gauges in the photos, they aren’t very accurate unfortunately, again you can get digital ones quite cheap from hardware stores, I’d also recommend a temperature gun to scan the enclosure with. Once you’ve got those I’d double check all the ground temperatures in there, if the rest of the enclosure does indeed range 18-20 during the day, you’ll have to look into ceramic heat emitters on a thermostat, 18-20 is too cool for day temps, you want the middle ranging 80-85f(26-29c) and the cooler end more 75f(23c) then obviously your basking area around 95-100f.

Hopefully you might find this useful to read over, it covers all the correct ground levels and photo examples of ceramic heating/how to mount everything

Housing young Russian/Herman

Hello there! In this thread, I’m going to include some information on an effective way to tackle a starter set up/a way you can build a bigger size once your baby is an adult. I know it looks a lot to go over, I like to make sure all bases are covered, I’m happy to break down any information...

tortoiseforum.org

Having a closed chamber definitely helps in retaining heat too, so you might find this one helpful as well

Visual inspiration

Hi guys! I’ve had some lovely messages complimenting me on my care sheets I made for all the visuals they include! That makes me so happy because as a visual learner myself, that was my goal🥰 I’ve recently had some requests for some more visual inspiration for set ups that can house babies/...

tortoiseforum.org

This one is really good to be familiar with too

Common keeping errors

Hello everyone! I’d been a long time lurker on this site long before joining just under a year ago now, over that time I’ve seen these husbandry issues come up time and time again, sometimes with dire consequences☹️ I thought this thread might serve as a good visual guide for these common...

tortoiseforum.org

Hope they help! Ultimately I think a temperature boost is needed, should help perk him up

nearly finished the new enclosure now this morning. I put in another heat source to help the cooler end. You can see all temperatures in the photos, I’ll have to do a small bit of tweaking to get them right. It’s a 60 watt ceramic bulb with a wire lamp. I also have spare light dome that’s rated for a 160 watt bulb. Would the ceramic bulb work better with a light dome or would it overheat? Anything else you would suggest? I do have electronic hydrometers… somewhere upstairs in the house is a mess as I just finished his new enclosure and I am still taking apart the old one.

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Hello! The new enclosure looks really nice!
Ceramic heaters work best with wide domes (10-12") as they are not directed heat sources.

You can also hand-pack coco coir: it looks loose on the photos, that means it's more mess and it dries put quickly and becomes dusty.

And a minor note about water dish: you may put some flat large stones/pebbles around it to reduce amount of substrate dragged in the water. Also, terracotta saucers make the best water dishes - good traction and shallow enough to get in and out easily without risk of flipping (and they are cheap, as well).

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Aw wow nice job!! Hopefully Alex’s reply above helps

 

[COmtnLady]

I have a young Russian tortoise around 1 year old.

Where did you get your tortoise? Some places sell "wild caught" which tend to be older than the seller claims them to be. But, if the seller hatched the baby then there's a better chance of accurate aging. That is a bit important because all hatchlings need two or three years in a closed warm humid enclosure.

As everyone is saying above ~

Your tort is acting as though its chilly. Even adding a domed "shade" to the CHE will help a bit. Since heat rises, that cage currently on it doesn't do anything constructive except keep you from bumping your arm into the hot surface.

And if your tortoise is really a year old it should still be having 80% humidity or a bit higher.

The only way to do that is to have a closed chamber. I can't really tell from the pictures if you can "seal" the heat and humidity in with that draped plastic or not. But - you really need to be able to, otherwise all the heat and humidity dissipate off into the rest of the room. Paraphrasing Tom, "its like trying to heat your house in the winter time with no roof on it". It also takes a dampened substrate.

And the gray plastic water dish you are using is a drowning hazard. The surface is too slick, making it very difficult for our tortoise to get adequate traction to get into and out of it. The sides of those are too steep, making it even more difficult to get into or out of. Terracotta plant saucers, sunk down into the substrate to where the rim is about even with the surface of the substrate, and which are big enough for your tortoise to easily turn around in, are much better. They also help wear the nails down somewhat.

What is the broad-leafed plant near the CHE?

You've created a very nice looking enclosure.


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