Good info at www.russiantortoise.net

Ed Pirog (EJ) has a book out on Russians that is very helpful.

55 gallon rubbermaid is just fine. Out in the wild they would have the great outdoors.

Use an incandescent bulb in a dome lamp for heat. You can get them at the hardware store like Home Depot. Just clamp it on the side and point it down onto one half of the tub. To regulate temps, just move the lamp up and down or use different size bulbs. You want a hot spot of about 95F, and the other end of the tub will be 70-80ish. At night all the lights go off and temps down in the 60s are fine. The tort will dig into the substrate at night. A little extra lighting (during the day) from a full spectrum fluorescent is good, too. You don't really need the expensive UV bulb (in my opinion), just something to brighten up the enclosure.

Be sure to sprinkle a little calcium/d3 powder (Repcal powder is good) on the food every other meal.

Substrate: topsoil (from the store with no chemicals or pearlite, etc.) and sand, or soil and coco fiber, or coco fiber, etc. NO corncob, pine shavings, cedar.

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