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Anonymous
My wife and I just got a russian tortoise from petsmart. We know turtles are slow, but ours seems to rarely move, except to eat. We have a heat rock in his enclosure, and its filled with calcium sand. He has a UV lamp on him through the day, but he just sits there all day. His poo is runny and we wanted to make sure there was nothing wrong with him
>> Anonymous
oh dear christ this picture hurts my eyes.

please learn to use your camera properly. Also lern2/resize/
>> Anonymous
Throw the heat rock away.

Read a fucking caresheet before you buy an animal.
/thread
>> Anonymous
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Mister tortoise sounds stressed. He might benefit from a "turtle house" - a box or a large log or something to hide in. You also should cover part of his habitat with a bark substrate so he can get out of the sand when he wants.

Tortoises aren't extremely active, you might just be missing when he is moving around the most (in the morning and evening). Once he learns when feeding time is (such as when you turn on the lamp in the morning) he should tumbling over somewhat eagerly. If he's coming to eat, he's probably fine.

Be sure to vary his diet a little bit - lots of greens (no pale greens like iceburg lettuce), chopped up carrots, peas, etc, and turtle pellets if he'll eat them. Using a little calcium dust on his food will work better than calcium sand too (reptiles don't "absorb" calcium).

Hope your tortoise gets to feeling better.
>> Anonymous
OP: Thanks, he got him a big log to hide in, we just haven't put it in his enclosure. Is the heat rock a bad thing? the care sheet said they like temp between 75 and 95.
>> Anonymous
re: heat rock, they cant feel the temperature on their bellies and can actually burn them. they need an overhead light for heat. get a clamp lamp from petco and put a regular household bulb in there, probably 40-60 watt and check the temp with a digital probe, not a stick on thermometer.
>> Anonymous
>>222133
Heat rocks are an obsolete safety hazard when it comes to ALL reptiles. Besides burn risks they can also crack and shock or electrocute your animals. You're better off placing a smooth stone under a heat lamp or over an undertank pad. Also, UV incandescent lamps are practically useless except for heat. Make sure you use a compact-fluorescent UV bulb or a fluorescent fixture with a UV bulb if you're not going to be giving it natural sunlight.
>> Anonymous
what do you expect him to do in a little tank