Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well my (or I should say, my dad's) russian tortoise is doing well. He eats like a champ, and we know he's been pooping, but he usually hides it on us... weird. Anyways, assuming he keeps on doing well, I figure once he hits about the 3-4" mark, we'll move him into his new enclosure (which we will be building this winter...probably a 4'x2', unless we buy more plywood).

So I was figuring, as long as my dad is still planning on keeping this tortoise when I move out, and as long as my husbandry is good (which we will find out with him), as well as various other variables (like financial stability and future outlook)...I was kind of thinking that maybe once little simon...aka: the russian tort, gets to adult size and is in his final enclosure, I might get a red-footed tortoise, or perhaps another russian as a pet for myself. I figure I'd still have the starter setup, which seems to be yielding good results (it's basically a rubbermaid container about 34"x14"x14" with dirt, hay, hidespots, and lighting), so I thought maybe I could start out a hatchling red-footed tortoise in it, and then by the time he/she was starting to reach larger size, I would have moved out already and I would be able to build a nice, big, and probably poorly crafted () enclosure for the little dude to live in....and I'm hoping I'd be able to get a house somewhere where the little tort could come out in the summer (we're building an outdoor pen for the russian here).

I guess the main question is, what's the growth rate of a red-footed tortoise? What do you feed them? I heard they are omnivorous, but I can't really envision a tortoise running after crickets....just any good websites about them would be of interest to me.

thanks.

Oh, and also, when we are able to find the russian tortoise's poop, we never find urates....what's up with that? He seems well hydrated (because he always eats his greens, and he sometimes likes to walk through his water dish anyways....plus the fact that he has areas of high humidity that he can go to in his enclosure).

They poop and pee al at onece somewhat like a bird. So you will not find any pee hope fully. Good job with your tort. HAve you ever been to turtltimes?

It sounds like your husbandry is fine and your animal is doing well. I only occasionally see urates, and I am told that grainy is not good, but "creamy" is acceptable. Maybe one of the vets monitoring will set us straight on urates, they do cause a lot of concern on these forums!