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I am theorizing that the conditions for my russian are way too hot, and that he may be attempting to aestivate. He is highly lethargic, hardly eating, and not nearly as enthusiastic about his soakings as he used to be. His habitat is primariliy in my garage, with 3-4 hours of direct sunlight (although he typically likes the shadowy area of the outside enclosure) It's bee boiling hot in North Carolina lately (95 daytime, maybe 70-75 at night)

Any input from anybody? Thanks!

mm

I livein Missouri, and the conditions here have been on the hot and humid side lately. Temps in the 90-100 range.

I've kept my russians out from spring to fall the last four years. I've noticed that during these hot stretches they spend more time inside their tortoise house (wooden hide box) during the peak heat of the day, and do most of their grazing and basking in morning/evening. They also dig short tunnels and scrapes under plant routes, logs and rocks.

Mine have full access to the sun all day. Do your guys get some artificial light when they are in the garage? If they are only getting 3-4 hours of light (sun or artificial), that would probably cause them to slow down, too.

Thanks for the input. He gets approximately 10 hours of total light a day; 3-4 outside and the remainder under a UVB tube and a full spectrum basking bulb (which he doesn't use) I'm quite sure I bought him wild caught, despite the assurance that he was not. (It was at a herp show, and the vendor seemed a bit shady) In any case, he was eating a bit better prior to the all the hot weather. What I am going to do is move him inside so at least he'll get a more significant night-time temp drop, and the cool side of his enclosure will be cooler during the day.

Thanks again for your input!

mm