Reptile & Amphibian Forums

He just arrived! I took the day off from school today so that I could wait for him to come. Every time I thought I heard a deisel engine I got anxious and pretty much ran to the door. It was a tense morning, but about 20 minutes ago, the fed ex truck finally pulled up the drive way

He is perfect! He's so tiny, and in awesome condition. I put him in his enclosure, and I figured he wasn't going to eat anything on his first day, but I guess when I pulled the greens out of his tank, I dropped on, and I came back to find that it was already gone, and that the little tortoise had moved over to his pile of Timothy hay, and had begun gobbling on some of that too! I put the dish back in for him in case he was hungry and wanted some greens, and now I'm going to leave him alone for a bit. He is adorable.

He's a funny little guy too. When I took him out of his packaging and set him in the enclosure, he sprawled his legs out right away and looked around slowly, then started walking around a little. LLLreptile did a fantastic job packing him up too. He got here and he was surprisingly warm. By the way, I think I see signs that he is a male (he holds his tail up and to the side like a male would). It's probably really too early to tell for sure though.

i was the same way, anoxiously awaiting my own baby and jumping up at every truck noise! mine was eating right away also... i was bracing myself for an initial stress-induced hunger strick, but no such thing happened.

one thing you didn't mention -- did you soak him? if not, you might want to let the little fella have a good, long soak, since the long trips can dehydrate them.

good luck with your new little baby!

I was considering soaking him, but I was mostly going to wait to see if he ate or not (since the greens have a lot of water to them). I am keeping him in an enclosure that allows for access to higher humidities, which will also help. Since he's in such great condition, I figured soaking him right away my do more harm than good (pschologically), so I think I'm going to let him adjust for a bit first.

his water bowl is pretty big (not deep at all...maybe a cm deep), so if he decides he needs to do some soaking, he's more than welcome to

Definitely soak him. Babies should be soaked every day for about 10 mins. They run a high risk of getting dehydrated, even if they eat.
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TurtsandTorts Discussion Group
2 Russians (Harley and Marley)
2 RES (Sunny and Fatty)
2 Gerbils (Sydney and Vienna)
1 Cat (Abby)

He decided to sit in the water dish for a few minutes. Stress is one of the biggest causes of problems in reptiles. Pulling the little guy out of his tank everyday and putting him into water is going to definately raise his stress level. The reason captive reptiles tend to get dehydrated so much is because people don't give them humid areas to go to, and they keep them on a bone-dry substrate. Tortoises need to either have no top, or a screen top, and that actually works against the tortoise. When you've got a screen top, a heat lamp going, and a dry substrate, it's basically like a big jerky maker. I have mine on soil, which automatically is less dry than most other substrates (but not so moist as to cause problems...I actually use it with my desert lizards...bearded dragon, mali uromastyx). The added benefit to this is that some of the hide spots are very humid, and he seems to like hanging out underneath his haypile, which is also a humid place (since the hay holds the humidity of the dirt down from evaporating through the screen top).

If I find that I really need to soak him, I will, but in my opinion it's just more important that he isn't kept in a bone-dry cage. No reptile can be kept that way and not be at least a little dehydrated. Water is the key to life, so every reptile's environment should be made up of some water. Even if they are desert reptiles.

I add water to the soil in my enclosures about every other day or so. With the heat lamps going, the water evaporates pretty quickly. That's basically what it's doing to the reptiles too. That's why in the wild they develop ways to keep their bodies hydrated, like hiding under objects, and burrowing and such.

Hi ryan. Well russian tortoises dont like humidity. They get RI and shell rot from high humidity. They are from deserts and Iraq. I soak my greeks 1 time a week. It does not stress them out really at all. I see them sucking down the water and they are happy again. You want to soak them at least 1 time a week. ALso keep the humidity down. Your russian will be getting most of his water from the vegies and leafs he eats and not humidity.

Congrats. on getting him by the way.

Major mistake here. Desert species do seem to prefer humidity. During times of hot weather and drought they spend their time in burrows. Their most active periods are during the rainy season. This is not to say they should be kept moist but they should be offered a choice of a humid hide or, as in the case of the above post, they should be moistened and allowed to dry out. This should avoid any shell fungus problems. I like the idea of a humid hide because it gives them a more natural choice.

>>Hi ryan. Well russian tortoises dont like humidity. They get RI and shell rot from high humidity. They are from deserts and Iraq. I soak my greeks 1 time a week. It does not stress them out really at all. I see them sucking down the water and they are happy again. You want to soak them at least 1 time a week. ALso keep the humidity down. Your russian will be getting most of his water from the vegies and leafs he eats and not humidity.
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>>Congrats. on getting him by the way.
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Ed @ Tortoise Keepers
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

yeah, that's what I was getting at. I don't want anyone to get worried and think that my enclosure is a rainforest or something It's just not bone dry (a common term used by monitor keepers for setups encorporating substrates such as sand, or other dry materials). The humidity stays down in the overall enclosure, due to the screen top (a lot of moisture evaporates, just like it's doing to the reptiles themselves), but in places that are covered, it creates a humid area that they can hide in. It's a good, natural setup. Something I kind of stole from monitor keepers and applied to my reptiles.