Care Sheet for TortoisesAverage Rating Given To This Care Sheet Is 4.00 (1=lowest, 5=highest) Last Updated: 01/30/2005 |
Main Category: | Aquatic/Land |
Sub Category: | Tortoises |
Care Sheet Submitted By: | Milda |
Years Experience: | 1 to 2 Years |
Species: | Russian tortoise |
Other Species or Phases this Care Sheet May Cover: | Other common names for russian tortoises are:
Afghan tortoise, Horsfield’s tortoise, Steppe tortoise, Central Asian tortoise, Four-toed tortoise. |
Sexing and Characteristics: | When fully grown, females tend to be larger than males. The tail of the male is longer and thicker than that of a female. The female tail is very small and looks a lot like a triangle. |
Mostly Active During: | Day |
Substrate and Water Needs: | The best substrate for inside housing would be 50/50 of sand and bed-a-beast. The hay you can get for rodents could be used for hiding and climbing around. A shallow water bowl is great for soaking and drinking. |
Lighting and UVB: | UVB and UVA lighting, unless you live in constantly warm, sunny climate. |
Temperatures and Humidity: | During the day: 20-25C (70-80F)
During the night: around 15C (around 60F)
Basking spot: abt 35C (abt 95F)
Humidity: around 50%, but temperatures are more important than humidity, so if you can’t make it to 50% w/o reducing temps, it’s ok. |
Heating and Equipment: | NO heating rock. The tortoises don’t like it, can easily be cooked that way. :( |
Caging Provided: | 50-40-20 cm or 20-15-10 inches. But the bigger-the better. |
Diet: | Herbivorous |
Description of Diet: | A large variety of plants, lettuce.
Edible greens:
Romaine lettuce
Red and green leaf lettuce
Endive
Escarole
Radicchio
Turnip greens
Mustard greens
Kale
Collards
cabbage
Green Beans
Hibiscus (flowers and leaves)
Hosta
Sedum
Mulberry leaves
Ice Plants
Prickly pear flowers, fruit and pads (burn the spines off)
Dandelion (A FAVOURITE!!)
Plantain Mallow (flowers and leaves)
Henbit
Rose (flowers and leaves....make sure no systemic pesticides were used)
Chrysanthemum flowers
Cornflowers
Forsythia (flowers and leaves)
Dayflower Commelina diffusa (flowers and leaves)
You can give your little guy occasionally apples (for calcium). Fruits should better be avoided (too much sugar). |
Supplements, Nutrition and Usage: | Raffy vital, 2 pellets every other day. |
Maintenance: | The tortoises don’t make a large mess, but it’s better to do 100% cleaning every three weeks. Water, food should be changed daily... Give your tort a bath in lukewarm water about once a week to make sure it doesn’t get too dry. |
Some Words on this Species: | The russian tortoise can be found in russia, afghanistan, uzbekistan. Most common problems- over eating and worms. so watch out! ;) Believe it or not, they’re quite easy to train! |
How Members Rated
This Care Sheet | Rate This Care Sheet
Please keep all comments constructive to Russian tortoise husbandry methods and care. Any degrading, sarcastic, or disrespectful comments will be removed. |
Total Members Rating: 15
| 1 |  ( 1 ) |
| 2 |  ( 0 ) |
| 3 | ( 5 ) |
| 4 | ( 1 ) |
| 5 | ( 8 ) |
|
|
