Reptile & Amphibian Forums

how big sholud an enclosure be to comfortabley house 2 adult russians or is there a good equasion for this also what would the minimum be? thank you for reading.

I think it depends on the torts.

I have two captive bred russians that are sub-adults at 4.5 to 5 inches. They are generally happy in a 7 sq ft plastic tub I have, but then they've never lived in anything larger and have never lived outdoors.

If you have two wild-caught tortoises, used to roaming the steppes of Central Asia, they will probably not be happy in 7 sq ft. They will either spend a lot of time scratching around and trying to get out, or they will shut down.

Try for 10 sq ft if you can. That's only 5x2 or 4x2.5 (or some variation thereof) and would allow you to light it with standard shop lights.

If you must go smaller, try to make the space interesting. Create places to crawl over and under, things that will allow one tortoise to get away from the other one for awhile. In fact, varied terrain is good for any size setup.

If you have a male and a female, there may come a time when you'll have to seperate them. Males can be very persistent about mating, and can stress out and injure females who can't get away.

I once kept two females and one male in a 60 sq ft outdoor pen with rocks, small logs, and a hide house. The male still pestered the females endlessly.

Good luck!

thank you and my female can barley escape my male if he's motivated enough but she's bigger than he is and gets back at him by stealing and gaurding food sometimes. should you add supplaments to their food?

This website has good info on diet, housing, etc.

russiantortoise.net/russiantortoisediet.htm

Also, if you can build a bigger enclosure, do so. The tortoises are more active if they have more space. And if you can build something outdoors, even for a few month's use, do it.
They really enjoy being outdoors.

they already have a large outdoor enclosure and thank you for the website.