Central Asian tortoise

I was twice.

Uh, you know, I, I had a Russian-

Twice, that's right

... a horsefield's tortoise, which coincidentally is the same type of tortoise that Doris is.

You know.

Like I was saying with Greeks and Russians, you know, it ...

You can brumate them, but you can also not.

These guys, there's no, "I'm not gonna brumate you."

My guest today is Katie Bradley.

Katie has been breeding Russians for 13 years now and is on her second generation of captive-bred offspring.

We're going to go over everything you need to know from egg laying to hatchling care.

Welcome, Katie, and thanks for joining me today.

So to start with, and I think I know the answer to this, but does this species need to be kept and bred more in human care?

I'm going to say absolutely if you're committed to doing a good job.

We need more captive bred Russian tortoises because they're no longer being imported.

And there's currently a huge need for them.