Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello All,
This little guy was abandoned at my job(can't imagine why). The person who left him told me he's a box turtle. After taking a closer look at him I kind of thought that he isn't a box turtle, but some sort of tortoise. I could be wrong, but he has a rough shell unlike a smooth box turtle. The head also looks more a like a tortoise head. Anywho, I took pics with a quarter for size reference. The best gues that I have after some research is a Russian Tortoise. Am I right? Anybody have an idea? Also, how old does he look? Thanks in advance for a reply.
-Cathy

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Yep looks like a Russian. Several months old. He is definitely not a fresh hatchling. Very cute. Are you going to keep him? Hope that you do. I just don't understand people and why they do these things.

Steve

Oh yes I'm keeping him. He's wonderful. I don't think he was taken care of very well. Seems to have a bit of a cold or something. He's active and eating well though. Anybody know what to do for it? He itches his eyes alot, gapes his mouth, and I've seen little bubbles coming from his nose. Any kind of home remedies or does this require a trip to a vet? I'm keeping him nice and warm with a 50W basking bulb and a heat pad on one side of the tank. He's in a 20L btw.
-Cathy

sounds like a respitory infection you should get the little guy to the vet for antibiotics. But he should be fine after that. Great job on the rescue!

Its great that you plan to keep him. He'll eventually need at least 4 times the amount of space a twenty long provides.
I'd ditch the heat pad and get a ceramic heat emitter if you are worried about night time cold temps.
Make sure the basking area is warm enough.
Get calcium into his food as much as you can as well.
And yes do the vet thing asap.
And by all means go to russian tortoise.org when you get a chance

He's doing much better now, after I took him to the vet(had a bit of a respitory issue). Although she wondered where I got such a little guy(under 4" is illegal to sell in CT), so I told her my story. Checked his temps and everything is perfect(thanks for the heat emitter advice, much better). I think the lady who abandoned him wasn't keeping very good care of him, because the respitory issue and the fact that he was very skinny and extremely dehydrated. That's not surprising though. He is feeling much better and gaining some weight already. His eyes aren't itchy and swollen anymore. He also eats like a pig for his size. I've been chopping up a nice salad mixture that I give to my beardies also. It's one part Romaine, one part Collard Greens, and one part Dandelion. Some RepCal sprinkled on there too. He loves it. I also had a few more questions. At work I saw and bought this canned Tortoise food by Vitakraft and gave him a little spoon of it today. He ate a little of it, but wasn't crazy for it like his salad. Is this ok for a treat every once and a while? Should I Nix it altogether? Or is it good for him? It supposed to be enriched with extra Vitamins and stuff. Also, what are your feelings on mixing different Tortoise species in the same pen? I've been looking into getting a Sulcata baby and was thinking of putting them in same pen when they're bigger. Is the size difference going to be a conflict? Alrigty, this post is getting way too long, just thought I'd update ya guys. Thanks for all the kind words and advice also.
-Cathy

It looks like a Hermann tortoise