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New Russian Totrtoise Indoor Habitat

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ The Tortoise Forum ]

Posted by ravexl on April 16, 2003 at 13:36:45:

I've had a russian tortoise, CJ, for about 6 months now. He was kept indoors in a box I built for him about 16" x 52" with a height of approximately 2 feet. Half was dried soil the other half was timothy hay. At first he wasn't too agreeable and didn't eat very much at all. Then once I moved him by a window, he started to eat a whole leaf of green per day (mustard, romaine, endive, etc).

He never did much in the enclosure and very rarely went to the timothy hay side (heat lamp was above soil side of course). So I decided to make hinm a newer bigger home with fun things. I placed some empty copy boxes on the bottom of our spa tub and lined it with pond liner from home depot andlined the very top with trash bags. I then proceeded to fill the tub with dirt, about 20 gallons worth of dirt. I left one side mostly empty and filled with hay.

I moved over all his previous contents, minus the hay, it was getting old. There's a heat light and a ceramic heat lamp. Under the ceramic is high 80's under heat light is high 70's and room temperature for the rest.

Here's the point of all of this. I think he hates all my effort. It's been two weeks since he got his new home and he eats nothing except the one time I gave him some veggies. He's still by a window and gets good natural light, and should enjoy his new environment.

I noticed I got some black ants with the dirt and have been irradicating them one by one. Would these ants be the only cause of such hatrid towards my good intentions? How could I do this a better way? Is soil even a good ground?

I think I'm going to build a large table on wheels so I can wheel it out the patio door onto the deck during good weather. I live in Wisconsin, so, that'll happen about every... oh, wait, I haven't ever seen that happen. haha. :P

Pics of CJ and his old home are at http://www.bolterstudios.com/digipics/cj/ (He writes letters to mom, who is up north finishing her degree)

This forum has been very helpful in silently answering my questions, thanks much guys!


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