Sargent Banjo

[SargentBanjo]

Russian tortoise

Hello!
My boy friend and I got a male Russian Tortoise last Wednesday, June 26. His name is Sargent Banjo. The store (petco) did not know his exact age but they said he was around 6 months old! We have changed his "cage" 3 times, and now are with a 40 gallon glass with all 3 lights! We also put a background on it and have painters tape on the inside walls about 4 inches up so he cannot see his reflection! We take him outside and watch him then put him inside. To keep the air flow in the cage we leave the room fan on, his little habitat temp is at 82-85. We feed him strawberries, spinach, or lettus with the little colorful balls of store bought food! His water bowl is big enough to where he can soak in it, there is ceitter wood chips on the bottom, and we bought fake trees for the surrounding. Are we doing everything right??
Here is a picture:

 

[SargentBanjo]

Hello!
My boy friend and I got a male Russian Tortoise last Wednesday, June 26. His name is Sargent Banjo. The store (petco) did not know his exact age but they said he was around 6 months old! We have changed his "cage" 3 times, and now are with a 40 gallon glass with all 3 lights! We also put a background on it and have painters tape on the inside walls about 4 inches up so he cannot see his reflection! We take him outside and watch him then put him inside. To keep the air flow in the cage we leave the room fan on, his little habitat temp is at 82-85. We feed him strawberries, spinach, or lettus with the little colorful balls of store bought food! His water bowl is big enough to where he can soak in it, there is ceitter wood chips on the bottom, and we bought fake trees for the surrounding. Are we doing everything right??

 

[hunterk997]

Hello!
My boy friend and I got a male Russian Tortoise last Wednesday, June 26. His name is Sargent Banjo. The store (petco) did not know his exact age but they said he was around 6 months old! We have changed his "cage" 3 times, and now are with a 40 gallon glass with all 3 lights! We also put a background on it and have painters tape on the inside walls about 4 inches up so he cannot see his reflection! We take him outside and watch him then put him inside. To keep the air flow in the cage we leave the room fan on, his little habitat temp is at 82-85. We feed him strawberries, spinach, or lettus with the little colorful balls of store bought food! His water bowl is big enough to where he can soak in it, there is ceitter wood chips on the bottom, and we bought fake trees for the surrounding. Are we doing everything right??

Your tortoise is most likely not six months. Probaby any where between 5-10 years old. The pet shops never really know, they almost always say under a year old. And for the temperature, you only need two light. A UVB/UVA (not the coil) then a normal incandescent bulb on one end that will create a basking are at around 95-100*F. And you don't want to constantly be moving him, especially when you first get him. The diet, it's not good for a solid diet of what you're supplying. Strawberries should be only a treat maybe once a month, if that. Spinach shouldn't really be fed, it's not the healthiest thing for them. You can feed dandelion weeds, plantain (not the fruit), and more on a website called thetortoisetable.org
Substrate, it would probably be best to have soil, eco earth, a mixture of these, and some people even do repti bark. These are the most preffered for russian tortoises. Never use sand.
For plants, you could put a spider plant in the enclosure, or an aloe vera plant. More of these are also on the tortoise table. Good luck.


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[Mrturtle527]

Welcome and congrats! I am nowhere close to an expert but id venture to guess your tort, like mine bought from Petco, is more like 4-7 years old not 6 months.

Feeding sounds good with strawberries on rare occasions. Ill let others chip in that know more.


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[SargentBanjo]

I have all those lights, we aren't moving him a lot anymore other than going outside. We just had to get everything set up. And with the diet, okay

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And also, is the glass container really an issue?

 

[hunterk997]

Some people are against it, because of air circulation, but that's not really the issue. It's the size. 40 gallons is too small for a russian tortoise. So you may want to build a tortoise table. And the lighting, you mentioned you have 3 lights? What's the third for?


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[JoesMum]

Hello!
My boy friend and I got a male Russian Tortoise last Wednesday, June 26. His name is Sargent Banjo.

Congratulations!

The store (petco) did not know his exact age but they said he was around 6 months old!

The store is wrong. They only sell wild caught tortoises and they are on average 5 years old when sold. It is much too big to be 6 months old. we cannot age it exactly as they all grow at different rates. We can only guess.

We have changed his "cage" 3 times, and now are with a 40 gallon glass with all 3 lights! We also put a background on it and have painters tape on the inside walls about 4 inches up so he cannot see his reflection!

Your tort needs UVB from the sun, a tube UVB lamp or an MVB lamp (which combines as a basking bulb) . UVB light helps your tort make Vitamin D3 which it needs to process dietary calcium to makes its bones and shell strong. If Petco have sold you a compact (coil) UVB stop using it and get a tube or MVB. Compact UVB damage tortoise eyes and can cause permanent blindness.

Your tort needs no light overnight and temperatures should be allowed to fall away to around 65F at night.

I cannot tell from your picture how long your tortoise is, but 40 gallons sounds rather small. He would be better off in an open tortoise table at least 4' x 2'. he will outgrow that and need something bigger, preferably outside in the next couple of years.

We take him outside and watch him then put him inside.

Your tort is better off in his enclosure. He will stress easily. They are solitary creatures. they don't get lonely, or need or want company.

To keep the air flow in the cage we leave the room fan on, his little habitat temp is at 82-85.

There are 4 important temperatures in your enclosure: warm end, cool end, directly under the basking lamp (105F) and the overnight minimum. Measure them accurately and let us know what they are.

We feed him strawberries, spinach, or lettus with the little colorful balls of store bought food! His water bowl is big enough to where he can soak in it, there is ceitter wood chips on the bottom, and we bought fake trees for the surrounding. Are we doing everything right??

Your tortoise's diet should be a variety of leafy greens. He cannot digest the sugars in fruit properly so fruit, including bell pepper, carrot and tomato should only be fed very occasionally otherwise he will get sick.

Make a list of the leafy greens that you find growing outside (herbicide and pesticide free) and the ones that you can buy and look the up on The Tortoise Table Plant database for suitability to feed http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/site/plant_database_14.asp

Arugula, turnip greens, romaine, cactus, collard greens, dandelions, clover, hibiscus, etc all make great food.

 

[hunterk997]

And also, one end, the basking end, needs to be around 95 degrees as stated above, but you also need a cool side. A good temperature for this is 75-80 degrees. And do you have a hide log as well?


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