Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello
I have snakes dragons hedgehogs rats...

I am getting my Russian Tortoise next week sometime.
Read every google sheet for 5 pages. watched every youtube video i can find.
But... Does no one follow any of those sheets.
Here is how I planned to set up my lil guys first enclosure, and my second planned one for a few weeks from now when I have a week off work. Then I will say what I find on youtube, and hopefully allow lots of people to nitpick and help me understand whats the proper way.

Hard for me to find any big bin bigger then 36"x20"x16"high.
So this is what I am doing to start.
Get this bin and fill it 5" deep with a coarse childrens playsand 50/50 with a clean soil(thinking about coco coir(but read some bad things)
One side I want to place slate tile over the substrate with a small support under it to stop it from falling 100%, and dig a bit of a burrow for him under that.
other side I would have a MVB 22"high 125W with a temp of 90-95 basking. Hills and rocks for obstacles. Cool end down to low 80's

In 3 weeks when I have time, I am going to take another bin 32x20x16, and cut it down the middle, and screw them together to form a cage 32x32x10. With the same substrate and burrow ideas.

youtube, people just have them on 1" of bark, with no burrow opportunity... sometimes on newspaper... and a hollow log with no sense of security above the substrate...
this is all wrong isnt it, a russian tortoise wants to burrow and dig?

So questions? anything I am wrong about? Am I right that youtubers are idiots?
What is considered the best substrate here?
Thanks

Your setup sounds good. I think the coconut coir might retain too much moisture, so just try the sand & soil mix I think you could get by with 3". When my torts dig in they are often happy with just being partially buried. 5" of sand is really heavy and may break through the tub.

Here's a company that makes larger tubs for not too much $$$

www.reptiletubs.com/

Look at the VE series tub. It's about 52x24x14.

Also look up vision tubs.

good luck.

I do not think a bin is easy to ship, the tortoise I got was smaller then I initially thought, it is only 3-4" so it should be ok for a few weeks for me to build a much bigger one.

Heres a picture of him. His lower carapace seems very deep, much more of his body then I thought from other pictures found online.
He has no pyramiding on his back, which is one of the things i looked for when buying him, but cant find any good pictures of a side picture.
Any one have others?

Your tortoise looks fine and healthy.

I only have one photo available right now. My two russians are hibernating. They are of a similar build to yours.

Looks like a WC one to me - get a fecal. Even if it is CB, get a fecal. A good CB is raised outdoors after a year or so, and will possibly have some intestinal parasites, too, just hopefully not as bad of a bioload.

You will want something for them to dig in - otherwise he'll make your life miserable banging around. The Tortoise Trust has good info on substrate (I haven't looked in some time, but think it was half sand and half top soil). www.russiantortoise.org has good info. It's hard to find top soil that doesn't have manure, though.

Oddly enough, Russians like to climb - they love to "play" King of the Hill - up one side, down the other, circle around, repeat.

Katrina

Thanks, I think you gave me a lot of that advice when I first posted him a month and a half ago.
He has a 2x50gal bin setup, with an 8" gap cut for him to go between.
50/50 coir/sand substrate, any where from 2"-10" around the cage.
He has 1 preferred hide, and is under MVB at 30" with a bask of 95o.
Fecal was clean a month ago, and again today.
Today I had a vet diagnose an ulcer in his eye.
Long story short, I was thoughtless and allowed him to get to close to his MVB, he itched his eye, and we suspect that caused the ulcer to form. A load of cash and 2 week of meds and I am told he should be fine.

Would anyone like to take a wild guess on his age from that pic?
I know thats like asking how old a mountain is, but still...

>>Would anyone like to take a wild guess on his age from that pic?
>>I know thats like asking how old a mountain is, but still...

You state in your first posting that the tortoise is 3"-4". Assuming that's roughly accurate, then that is a sub-adult russian tortoise. Since it looks wild caught, it may well grow another inch or three before it is done.

I had one old-looking male that barely grew after several years and topped out at about 4.5". I had another female that was 4" at time of purchase and grew to about 7". Both were wild-caught animals. My other males grew to about 5.5", and females about 6.5" .

Age doesn't really matter much. It's definitely not a hatchling, so the type of care given is all the same. Varied diet, spacious housing, etc.