Hello, tomorrow I pick up 2 male Russian torts from a women who needs to get rid of them, due to sickness in her family. I said I would take them, since no one else wants them. I am sad to say I know nothing about Russian torts and have been reading all I can today and tonight. So I will be posting here I would think a lot, asking questions if that?s ok. I live in the far most north of MN.
The torts comes with a 7 inch high turtle table cage, with a water dish and food bowl. One lamp she said for getting ub rays?
I have 2 ferrets and I use a litter called, Worlds best, its corn cob base. I want to know if I can use that as well for them..
I am a huge fan of fully knowing what you get before you get it but in this case, I have one day to get all the info I can on them.
Any help would be great


Also she feeds them lettuce, cabbage can green beans, carrots and tomatoes

I love the care sheet here.. Great help

The care sheet here is great. UVB is what you are looking for and they 100% need it. Welcome to the boards.

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

Thank you
I am a frog lover so this is new to me. I picked this forum before others cause I saw you had the care sheet here, that is important to me.
Its great to be a part of your family here.
kalli

If I'm remembering, that corn cob litter isn't too good for them. They don't really "go" in a certain area like ferrets do so it can get moldy pretty fast if you don't catch it fast. I would even suggest something simple like a floor tile or shelf liner. Something easy to wipe clean and disinfect.

For diet, ditch the lettuce, its worthless. Feed them greens like collard and mustard.

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

Welcome. Please do not use the corncob substrate. I highly recomend our caresheet, but I wrote it so I am sort of biased,,,lol. Russians are very cool sociable tortoises. Ours has been an important part of our family. Feel free to ask any questions you'd like.

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Ken
" The United States Marine Corps......sure we are a department of the Navy,,,,,,we're the MENS department "

That is correct. Corn cob litter is terrible!
And it isn't good for your ferrets either!
Any little bit of dampness and it grows mold like crazy! It was intended to use under birdcages and was never intended to be used as a bedding where the animal actually was in contact with it. Most serious bird keepers no longer use it due to the mold problems. They don't want their pets breathing in the mold spores!

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

Good point of the ferrets not using it. But, I worked for Marshalls and its not just a cob its pellets with corn cob in it.

Ok I live in the far north, and I would have to order in what I will be using for the bottom, I read the care sheet, but all I see is this.

Noted and debated by many reptile websites and enthusiasts, granular substrates run the risk of impaction. The Russian tortoise is not immune to this and is not an exception. Therefore, it is recommended that paper towel, cloth, repticarpet, or reptibark be used.

An all-natural setting may also be used if the tortoise will be kept in an outdoor pen or large vivarium. This will include clean soil with a lot of live plants that your tortoise can nibble on, making sure the plants are included in it's acceptable diet. We also place a hay pile on the cool end for burrowing (do not use alfalfa hay, the protein content is too high for tortoises).

And I dont see anything else on this.

What about soil, sand shredded bark, If I am going to care for them, I want to do the best I can for them.

You can use hay in the entire enclosure, just make sure it is not Alfalfa. I'm sure where you live there is a local farm or feed supply store. You can get it there. Most horse barns have quite a bit but they tend to use alfalfa.

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Ken
" The United States Marine Corps......sure we are a department of the Navy,,,,,,we're the MENS department "

what about shreded aspen? easy to spot clean?

Yes you can use aspen, you can also use newspaper.

__________________
Ken
" The United States Marine Corps......sure we are a department of the Navy,,,,,,we're the MENS department "