Housing and Environment

The short version

• Skip the glass tank. Use a tortoise table, stock tank, large tub or plywood pen with solid sides [1][8].
• One adult needs at least 7 × 3.5 ft (2.1 × 1.1 m) of floor. A juvenile can start in 4 × 2 ft (1.2 × 0.6 m) [1].
• Give a 95°F (35°C) basking spot, a 75°F (24°C) cool side, and a T5 HO UVB tube on a timer [1].
• Keep the air fairly dry but give a humid hide and slightly damp soil below the surface [1][4].
• Provide 6 in (15 cm) of diggable soil for adults [1].

Where Russians come from

The Russian tortoise lives in the dry steppes of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and western China, up to about 8,200 ft (2,500 m) [2]. It spends most of the year underground. It hibernates through a cold winter, is active mainly in spring, and may go back underground to wait out the hottest, driest weeks of summer [2][3].

That history explains almost every rule below. It wants dry air to sit in, damp soil to dig into, strong sun, and a sparse, fibrous diet.

Indoor enclosures

Glass aquariums are a poor fit. They are too small, they have poor airflow, and the tortoise paces the clear walls trying to get through. Use a tortoise table, a large stock tank, a plastic storage tub, or a built plywood pen with opaque sides [1][8].

A handy rule of thumb used by German herp societies: make the enclosure 8 times the adult's shell length long, 4 times as wide, and 2 times as tall [1]. Walls should stand at least 12 in (30 cm) above the substrate. These tortoises climb corners and stack on hides.

Outdoor pens

In a northern climate like upstate New York, the outdoor season runs roughly late May to September. Daytime sun and real grazing do more for shell and bone health than any lamp. A good pen has [1][3]:

• Walls 12–18 in (30–45 cm) tall, sunk 12 in (30 cm) into the ground, because Russians dig out. Solid walls (boards or block) beat wire they can see through.
• A full lid of hardware cloth. Raccoons, dogs, crows and hawks all take tortoises.
• Shade, a dry covered retreat, a shallow water tray, and a planted grazing area.
• A spot that gets early-morning sun and stays sunny most of the day [3].

You do not need extra heat outdoors in summer. If nights drop below 50°F (10°C), add a lightless, outdoor-rated heater on a thermostat set to 60°F (16°C) inside the covered retreat, or bring the tortoise in [1]. Bring it indoors for good once nights fall toward 40°F (4°C), unless you are deliberately winding down for hibernation [2]. In upstate New York, plan on indoor housing about eight months of the year.

Heat and basking

Use halogen flood bulbs in ceramic dome fixtures: one 50 W bulb for a juvenile, two side by side for an adult so the whole shell warms. Put them on a timer, not a dimmer [1], and also run them through a thermostat with the probe at the basking spot as a safety cut-off, so a hot day or a failed setting cannot overheat the enclosure. Check the basking surface with an infrared temperature gun and the air with a digital probe thermometer.

Heat rocks and under-tank heat mats do not suit a burrower that cools itself by digging. Turn lights off at night. If the room drops below about 65°F (18°C), add a lightless heat source, such as a ceramic heat emitter or radiant heat panel, on a thermostat [1][2].

Photoperiod: about 14 hours of light in summer and 10 hours in winter [1].

UVB lighting

UVB is not optional. Tortoises make vitamin D3 in their skin under UVB, and without D3 they cannot absorb calcium from food. No UVB plus a low-calcium diet leads to metabolic bone disease, a common and preventable illness in pet tortoises [9]. Window glass and plastic block UVB, so a sunny windowsill does nothing [9].

How to set it up [1]:

• Use a linear T5 HO tube, 10–12% output, in a reflector fixture. It should cover about one third of the enclosure on the warm end so basking and UVB overlap.
• Mount it 14–16 in (35–40 cm) above the shell if the fixture sits on mesh, or 17–20 in (43–50 cm) with no mesh in between.
• Aim for a UV Index of 3–4 at the basking spot if you own a UV index meter. If not, follow the bulb maker's distance chart.
• Replace UVB tubes on a schedule, even though they still glow; output falls long before the light dies. Sources say every 6–10 months for fluorescent UVB [8][9]. Many keepers stretch T5 HO tubes to 12 months; that is keeper experience, so check with a UV index meter if you go longer.
• Skip compact coil UVB bulbs. They do not give enough UVB for a tortoise [8].
• Add a 6500K LED daylight strip over most of the length. UVB tubes alone are dim, and a bright enclosure helps your tortoise stay active and eat.
• Outdoors in unfiltered sun, no artificial UVB is needed [1].

Humidity and pyramiding

Pyramiding is bumpy, cone-shaped growth of each shell plate (scute). It is permanent, and it is mainly a problem of captive-raised tortoises. For years it was blamed on protein. A study at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna (on hatchling sulcata tortoises) found that humidity during growth strongly affected pyramiding, while high dietary protein had little effect. A keeper comparison of red-footed tortoise hatchlings, and reports from many European breeders, point the same way: hatchlings raised dry pyramided, and hatchlings raised humid did not. The real cause is still debated, and diet, calcium, UVB and overfeeding may also play a part [4]. The working theory is that dry conditions dry out the soft growth zones at the edges of the scutes [4].

Practical targets [1]:

• Keep air humidity at 40–75%, lower in the day and higher at night. The species comes from a dry climate, but it lives in a damp burrow.
• Give every enclosure a humid hide on the cool end, lined with moist substrate.
• Keep juveniles more humid overall than adults. Many keepers use a closed-top grow-out tub with damp substrate for the first two or three years, with some airflow so it does not turn stale. This is keeper experience, not proven.
• Keep the substrate lightly damp below the surface and dry on top. Never wet, never swampy. Wet, dirty bedding plus cool air causes shell rot and respiratory infection.
• One vet reference caps air humidity at about 65–70% [2].

Soaking is the other half of good hydration; see the Feeding chapter.

Substrate

Russians are born diggers. Shallow or hard-packed bedding frustrates them, and frustrated tortoises pace, climb and flip over. Give at least 4 in (10 cm) for juveniles and 6 in (15 cm) for adults [1].

Good mixes [1][8]:

• 40% organic topsoil (no fertilizer, no perlite), 40% play sand, and 20% clay burrowing substrate.
• Or a plain 50/50 mix of play sand and additive-free topsoil, or sand and coconut coir [8].

Pack it down so burrows hold their shape. A soil mix holds burrows and damp better than pure sand, which many keepers avoid because loose grit can get in the eyes and be swallowed (keeper experience, not proven). Also avoid rabbit pellets (they mold and hold no humidity), reptile carpet, bark chunks and walnut shell.

Spot-clean droppings and urates daily, and replace the whole bed every 3–6 months indoors [1]. Feed on a slate or tray so your tortoise is not swallowing grit with every bite [1].