Keep Oppo Russian Tortoise

"Amoore100" (amoore100) 06/19/2015 at 20:10 • Filed to: tortoise, turtle

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Just keeping up with all the shelled creature posts around here with this crappy picture of Leafy, our 15 year old Russian tortoise...

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We got him about 10 years ago from my maternal grandmother after one of her painting students (she is a retired accountant who now is an artist) found this tortoise in her mother’s backyard. Not knowing what to do with it, my grandmother’s student brought it to her class and my grandmother obligingly threw it into her fishpond. Now, tortoises do swim (albeit badly) but they do not live in water, so when we went over to her place for dinner a few days later we were confronted with a very grouchy tortoise who was making his way around the watery environment... We then were given custody of him and have had him ever since! His favorite foods are mainly dandelion and kitchen vegetable scraps (since my mom is a bit of a health nut and cooks a lot of kale and collard greens...)

So, how are you celebrating this turtle/tortoise day?

El Rivinado > Amoore100 06/19/2015 at 20:27

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I had one as well, I bought him when I was 7 then when we moved back to Cali, he escaped through a hole in our backyard fence. I have no idea what happened to him. I miss him though

Amoore100 > El Rivinado 06/19/2015 at 20:54

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Unless it’s the same one! (unlikely, but you never know...)

JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! > Amoore100 06/20/2015 at 01:58

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How are they maintenence wise?

I’ve always wanted one and my nickname was the turtle growing up

Amoore100 > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 06/20/2015 at 04:03

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They are relatively low key pets, especially when compared to mammals...we probably give him less attention than he deserves but he doesn’t seem to mind...just throw a few veggie scraps in there every few days (make sure you check for edibility... ) and keep his water dish topped up and you can ignore him indefinitely...first set up takes a bit, however, as you need both infrared and UVB lamps as well as a cuttlebone for extra calcium...in terms of maintenance it is good to give him baths every now and then as that is how they keep hydrated and flush out digestive systems...if there is the option, they also enjoy a good roam around the yard though you have to keep an eye on them as they will try to eat anything and everything if you let them...Leafy’s favorite is dandelion which is actually allowable so we let him graze from time to time...other than that, we’ve left him at home on week-long vacations with no ill-effects, so they are pretty sturdy pets! Just don’t get them for high levels of user excitement. Think of them as the Volvos of the pet world: they don’t ask for too much, are relatively stable, known for being slow (think of the 240 series...), not generally known for ‘driver’ involvement but charismatic all the same!

kanadanmajava1 > Amoore100 06/20/2015 at 14:09

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I have one too. His name is Kille and he has been in our family since early 90’s. We had another one too but sadly she passed away in the last March due some illness that lasted for several years.

Amoore100 > kanadanmajava1 06/20/2015 at 18:21

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That’s too bad to hear...we love our Russian and it would really suck to lose him... :(

Glad to hear Kille’s still around though! Any idea of his age?

kanadanmajava1 > Amoore100 06/20/2015 at 20:31

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Kille is probably something between 30 and 40 years old. He hasn’t grown much since he came to our family. The other grew a lot as she was only half the weight of Kille but eventually weighed over double as much.

The sad point of Russian tortoises is that you cannot have to adult ones together. The males will fight, one female and one male will led to mating (which isn’t very gentle event) and even two females might start fighting. One guy managed to have quite friendly family of Russian tortoises by having three females and one male.