# My Tortoise & his new Tortoise Palace



## Pamela (Apr 21, 2010)

I bought a Russian Tortoise just over a month ago. I wanted to give him a Russian name, but my 2 year old daughter overruled me and named him 'Buddy'. My daughter LOVES Buddy ...the first thing that she does in the morning when she wakes up is go over and say hi to him. She even said that she loves Buddy more than anyone else!

When I got Buddy he was living in a rubbermaid bin. I knew right away that I would be upgrading him to a better living space. I was going to get an enclosure custom built for Buddy but I found one online that was the exact same size that I wanted and only cost $228 (with free shipping). It's called the Tortoise Palace. It took me 3 hours to put together (and 2 drinks ). Then I had to silicone all of the inside edges. I found a coffee table at Ikea for $39 to use as a stand (the matching stand would have cost over $400). I'm really happy with how it turned out & Buddy seems to enjoy having 3 times the space that he previously had.

Buddy is a great little guy. He approaches people to have his neck rubbed or when he wants to be let out of his enclosure for some exercise. I'm not sure how Buddy feels about cats though as I saw him bite my cat a few days ago when the cat jumped into his enclosure ...it looked pretty funny to me!

I would really like to find Buddy a lady friend, so if any of you ever come across a female Russian Tortoise that's for sale please let me know .


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

Very cool turtle and nice condo he has Pam!


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

Love it. Great looking tortoise & what a beautiful new home you've made for him.

Great job Pamela.

Anthony


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## Immus21 (Jun 14, 2010)

Freaking awesome! Feed him some Strawberries, apparently they like them...


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

Boy, I wish I was a turtle. Better than some of the units in Yaletown and much more affordable.
Nice looking little guy.


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

I couldn't find a straight up consistent answer, but apparently Buddy pronounced in Russian is "drook".

Very cool tortoise and digs, I'm jealous!


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## Immus21 (Jun 14, 2010)

jobber said:


> Boy, I wish I was a turtle. Better than some of the units in Yaletown and much more affordable.
> Nice looking little guy.





Diztrbd1 said:


> Very cool turtle and nice condo he has Pam!


Come on guys he's a Tortoise not a Turtle....


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## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)

Immus21 said:


> Come on guys he's a Tortoise not a Turtle....


Very cool Turtoise you have! 

Amazing home you've made him, that condo on the table looks great, and looks like it was made to be together... i had to take a double look when i read that it was purchased separate. What is in the right side of the condo? food? supplies? or is it just a quiet dark place where buddy can go when he wants?


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## Pamela (Apr 21, 2010)

Diztrbd1 said:


> Very cool turtle and nice condo he has Pam!





SeaHorse_Fanatic said:


> Love it. Great looking tortoise & what a beautiful new home you've made for him.
> 
> Great job Pamela.
> 
> Anthony


Thanks guys! My house is starting to look more & more like a zoo 



Immus21 said:


> Freaking awesome! Feed him some Strawberries, apparently they like them...


That is a really cute picture! Although I'm sure Buddy would love to eat a strawberry his species doesn't digest fruit well. My daughter was eating an apple one day when Buddy was out & he was going crazy trying to get to the apple because he could smell it but he wasn't allowed to have any. Russian tortoises eat mostly leafy vegetables like endive, escarole, radicchio, romaine, spring mix lettuces, dandelions, etc.



jobber said:


> Boy, I wish I was a turtle. Better than some of the units in Yaletown and much more affordable.
> Nice looking little guy.


Thanks Ming!



effox said:


> I couldn't find a straight up consistent answer, but apparently Buddy pronounced in Russian is "drook".
> 
> Very cool tortoise and digs, I'm jealous!


Lol, thanks Chris! His Russian name was supposed to be 'Droog' which is slang for buddy/pal but it just didn't catch on with my family.



monkE said:


> Very cool Turtoise you have!
> 
> Amazing home you've made him, that condo on the table looks great, and looks like it was made to be together... i had to take a double look when i read that it was purchased separate. What is in the right side of the condo? food? supplies? or is it just a quiet dark place where buddy can go when he wants?


Thanks! The right hand side is his 'privacy' area. It's a few degrees cooler, moister, and the substrate (coconut coir) is deeper in case Buddy wants to burrow. He doesn't go in there very often though, I anticipate that he will use it more in the summer when it's hotter in the house.


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## MEDHBSI (Sep 4, 2011)

Wow thats so cool what a nice enclosure. I've always wanted a Tortoise


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## Claudia (Apr 21, 2010)

Really nice new house he got, he will sure b so much happy in the bigger space. Ours is so happy in the 72g tank  Dont feel bad Pam, my house has been a zoo for a long time lol


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## Pamela (Apr 21, 2010)

I rearranged the tortoise palace today & I like how it turned out so I thought that I'd post a photo.

I had to remove the live plants because my cat was in cahoots with Buddy the tortoise! The plants were tall enough that Buddy couldn't reach to eat them except for the occasional nibble on the particularly low hanging leaves. My cat Thunder (who doesn't touch any of the other plants in my house) took to reaching through the lid and pulling the plants out of the pots, leaving them laying on their sides on the bottom of the enclosure so that Buddy could eat them!


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## hp10BII (Apr 23, 2010)

A Zen Garden - that's too cool!

Very nice set-up!


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## JohnnyAppleSnail (May 30, 2010)

Great Set-up and Very lucky Tortoise! I imagine that it will live a very long time,I hear in "captivity" 50 years is not unusual for the Russian Tortoise,and with the special care You are giving Him I see a Happy/Long Life.


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## fishykisses (May 11, 2010)

Nice Job! Looks lovely!


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

hahahaha, that's awesome Pam. Sneaky kitteh and tortoise.

The set up looks great!


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## onefishtwofish (Apr 21, 2010)

Claudia said:


> Really nice new house he got, he will sure b so much happy in the bigger space. Ours is so happy in the 72g tank  Dont feel bad Pam, my house has been a zoo for a long time lol


and that was b4 the kids , the turtle the dogs ....the fish..........................hahahahhaha/jk.............


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## Claudia (Apr 21, 2010)

onefishtwofish said:


> and that was b4 the kids , the turtle the dogs ....the fish..........................hahahahhaha/jk.............


hahahaha PoCo's aquarium soon to b a zoo too


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## rich16 (Mar 25, 2011)

Really nice! Showed my 8 year old the pics, and last night he says "So, WHEN we get OUR tortise...." D'OH!!!!!!!!!!


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## Pamela (Apr 21, 2010)

hp10BII said:


> A Zen Garden - that's too cool!
> 
> Very nice set-up!


Thanks! I think that it looks a lot cleaner than before and best of all it's functional ...the polished river rocks get the substrate off of Buddy's feet so he can't track it into his water dish and the driftwood (extra pieces I already had) around the hay keeps the moist substrate separate from the dry hay so the hay won't get moldy.



JohnnyAppleSnail said:


> Great Set-up and Very lucky Tortoise! I imagine that it will live a very long time,I hear in "captivity" 50 years is not unusual for the Russian Tortoise,and with the special care You are giving Him I see a Happy/Long Life.


Thanks! We have no idea of how old Buddy is. The old owner told me that she didn't know either but guessed him to be 5-7 years old, it's really hard to tell age with adult tortoises so he could be much older. I've already joked with my family that I'm going to have to add Buddy into my will as he might outlive me.



fishykisses said:


> Nice Job! Looks lovely!


Thanks 



effox said:


> hahahaha, that's awesome Pam. Sneaky kitteh and tortoise.
> 
> The set up looks great!


Thunder cat and Buddy seem to be pretty good friends now that the cat has stopped trying to pounce on the tortoise every time he's out of his enclosure. The cat likes to nap on top of the enclosure under the heat/UVB light so they spend a lot of time near each other.



rich16 said:


> Really nice! Showed my 8 year old the pics, and last night he says "So, WHEN we get OUR tortise...." D'OH!!!!!!!!!!


Lol, well make sure you post pics when you get your tortoise :bigsmile:


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## Greenpuffer (Sep 7, 2012)

Nice to see you got your tortoise Pam. It looks great!


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## Pamela (Apr 21, 2010)

Greenpuffer said:


> Nice to see you got your tortoise Pam. It looks great!


Thanks! I'm really glad that I waited and got him as opposed to buying one of those different species of baby tortoises that the lfs had a few months ago. I know that you are very experienced with tortoises so if you have any good tips please let me know


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