Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been informed that I am tending a Russian tortoise.
He has the run of a room that has daylight and food though perhaps not as varied as he might like (Boston lettuce greens and a few grapes were all he took in about 3 weeks ago). He took to "burrowing" but would emerge every 3 days or so. Now it is close to a week with no food intake. He seemed quite healthy but I am perplexed whether to "bother" him with waking and perhaps a bit of lukewarm water immersion with the option of checking out the greens selection that I've assembled for him. I'm worried that he did not get to optimize his winterization.
Thoughts?

That's a beautiful Russian you have there! He might be winding himself down for hibernation. Here are some sites with good hibernation advice:
http://www.turtlestuff.com/hibernation.html
http://www.chelonia.org/Articles/hibernation_journey.htm
http://www.thetortoisehouse.com/
You say he has the run of the house. Does he have adequate exposure to UVB light (either a UVB fluorescent tube or the combined heat and UVB mercury vapour lights? This is essential. Also, if he is running around the house it might not be warm enough for him to work up an appetite (russians need a temperature range of around 90F to around 70F in the daytime, and they go from one area to the other to thermoregulate. And no heat or light indoors at night.
Re feeding - have a look at the diet lists on
http://www.russiantortoise.org/
He really shouldn't be having grapes or any fruit at all (and that includes tomato), as his gut isn't designed to cope with fruit and it can cause a proliferation of the wrong kind of gut flora which can lead to diarrhoea.

Nina