It’s highly recommended that you soak a pet tortoise. Soaking, or bathing as it is often referred to as, helps keep your tortoise hydrated, as well as aids skin and shell health and aids pooping. Depending on the age or health of the tortoise, how often you soak your Russian tortoise may vary.
Soak a Baby Russian Tortoise
Soaking a baby Russian tortoise is very important. Even with fresh water inside the enclosure, you want to soak a baby Russian tortoise daily. Hydration is very important for young tortoises.
Soak an Adult Russian Tortoise
When caring for an adult Russian tortoise, you’ve already moved past the tender hatchling and yearling stages. However, hydration and shell health is still very important. Soak and adult Russian tortoise as often as once a day or as minimum as a few times a week.
How to Soak a Russian Tortoise
Fill a container with warm water enough to cover the lower 1/3rd to 1/2 of the shell.
Let the tortoise soak for about 15-30 minutes. During this time, you may need to refresh the water. Your tortoise may poop in the water, loose dirt will muddy the water. So refresh the water as needed.
While the tortoise is soaking, it’s important to practice healthy shell care. Gently cleaning the tortoise will help remove dirt and debris that may be on the tortoise. It will prevent any debris from building up on the tortoise’s skin and shell.
- Use a soft bristle toothbrush to gently rub your Russian tortoise’s shell, in-between the scutes, legs, feet, tail and neck.
- Use a Q-tip to rub the soft skin around the inner shell – front and back sides.
Russian Tortoises Need Water
Hydration is very important for a healthy Russian tortoise. So in order to ensure your baby Russian tortoise has a long and healthy life, you want to ensure that water is available at all times and that you are regularly soaking your tortoise.
Have fresh water in a shallow water dish in the enclosure at all times.
By leery of using a Zoo Med ramp bowl. Although this ramp-style water bowl is commonly sold at most pet stores, they are not ideal for most tortoises. The Zoo Med Water Bowl is 100% not safe for baby Russian tortoises, and only mildly safe for adult Russian tortoises. Although the baby tortoise can likely walk UP the ramp, climbing out is often troublesome. Not only is exiting the water bowl a concern, the actual ramp on the water bowl is steep and can cause tortoises to flip.
