For only $20 the animal was surely imported, not captive bred. Also, I'm not really into RT's but I am almost positive that they will never reach 14". You had a full grown adult, that was probably sick and/or dehydrated which caused its death. Check out http://russiantortoise.org there is a lot of info on russians on this site. Also, the diet of broccoli and fruit is far less than optimal, the site above will tell more accurately what a RT should be fed. However bad the diet was I wouldn't expect that this was the cause of the animals death because of the short time you had the animal.

Your cage (concrete mixing pan I am assuming) might be a bit small for an adult but sounded adequate (depending on what size pan was actually used). A few questions: was any heat provided, was the "UV" bulb just a UV bulb or was it a UVB bulb (there is a big difference, UVB is the beneficial rays, UVA and UVC are not really important (and UVC may actually be harmful in some way, im not quite sure), was the animal/cage kept outside or inside, could the RTs have baked in the sun, what were the temps in the cage? None of these factors would likely have likely have led to such a quick death but are factors to consider for future tortoise purchases (except maybe the baked in the sun question, that could kill even a healthy tortoise: when outside in the yard the animal need some place to retreat from the hot sun).

After reading the info on the site above if you stilll feel up to keeping a tortoise you ought to try a CAPTIVE BRED russian, probably a real baby (maybe 2-4 inches). You would probably have much better results!

Good Luck

-Ian

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