Russian Tortoise Not Eating

Question
I volunteered to take the classroom tortoise home for the holidays.  It hasn't eaten in 5 days.   I am offering it kale, broccoli, dandelion greens, orange jubilee flowers and green pepper.  It is in a 2 foot by 5 foot habitat with the ground coconut substrate and bermuda grass.  It has a 100 watt zoo med uva/uvb heat lamp at one end with a temp of 85 degrees and the other end at 75 degrees.  There is a water bowl/bath at the cooler end.  I took it in to the vet for a check up last year and deworming was done.  I just don't think it has ever gone this long without eating.  Also, the vet said it was a girl, but the teacher said it's a boy.  How do you tell for sure?

Answer
Hi Jacki,

The ZooMed bulb is a good one (unless it's more than a year old, in which case it needs replacing), but the temps are a little low.  You can have the bulb as close as 12" from the substrate, so see if you can boost that basking temperature up to 90 degrees, and make sure the bulb is on for a minimum of 12 hours.  Also be sure the substrate is a little damp to provide humidity so the tortoise doesn't get dehydrated.  Don't offer any veggies or fruit, so no broccoli or pepper.  Turnip greens, dandelion, kale, collards, mustard greens, etc. are all good.

Five days is not an excessively long time for a tortoise to go without eating, so don't worry too much.  Just get the temperature up a little, and increase the light hours to as much as 14-15 hours if you don't see an improvement.    

If the tortoise is mature, sexing is pretty easy.  Both sexes have flat plastrons (lower shell), so that's not an indication of sex.  Males are much smaller than fully mature females, and have a longer tail that's usually a little hooked at the end.  Females have a short, stumpy tail.  BUT prior to maturity, they all look female.  So if the tortoise is under about 4" or so, it may look female but turn out to be male in another year or two.  Here's a link to some pictures that may help:  http://www.russiantortoise.net/male_female.htm

Hope this helped.  Please post back if you have any more questions.