# stubborn



## Hippiesicle (Nov 18, 2008)

A little over 2 months ago I was walking out my house to go to work and I saw what I thought was a dead bird under my truck. I poked my head under and there was a tort!

Long story short: I got her checked out, found out she was a desert tortoise who was about 2yrs old, underweight, dehydrated, soft shelled, and with an eye infection.

She is SO DAMN STUBBORN about eating. I'm assuming she was a pet because she is very friendly and social, and the day I took her in she ate iceberg like there was no tomorrow. I think the person who had her last didn't know much and didn't take very good care of her. I make her a fresh salad every day with a variety of greens, shredded carrots, some native grass, and maybe some creosote. When(if) she eats, she mainly picks out a few greens and goes back to sleep. If I dust her salad with a Ca supplement she won't even do that. I'm new at this and have been trying to soak up as much info as possible. I need advice! 

I have her indoors, I mixed native soil with some peat moss for her substrate, I've got her under a mercury vapor lamp during the day and a porcelin heat bulb at night (it does get nippy in the room shes in). 

Oh, and her name is Zen.


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## longbeachskunk (Nov 18, 2008)

Hi there Hippiesicle, poor Zen! She's lucky to have found someone to nurse her back to health and take good care of her. Here is a link I found on a post yesterday 
Tortoise Group Pamphlet

Its a good one to start with. There are also other threads that have links to a diet sheet pn what they should and shouldn't be eating, I'll dig that up for you...


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## Yvonne G (Nov 18, 2008)

Hi Hippiesicle: You told us the name of your new tortoise, but what is YOUR name? Since you had good luck getting her to eat iceburg lettuce, I would pulverize the iceburg lettuce in a blender then pour it over a pile of the more healthful greens. She will think because of the iceburg smell that the whole pile is her fave. While you're at it, add a bit of calcium to the blender, but not too much. Some tortoises just absolutely WILL NOT eat the food if they smell the calcium. Be sure this tortoise gets some outside time. You said her shell is soft. She really needs the vit.d from the sun to make her calcium work. So if you can't have her be outside, then you MUST invest in an expensive UVB bulb. There is quite a dialog here on the forum about these bulbs and which is the best one. (I don't use them, so can't advise you) I'd love to see a picture of Zen. Desert tortoises are among one of my favorites (along with box turtles, Burmese, Aldabras, Sulcatas, Leopards, Stars, red/and yellowfoots ...well, you get the picture!!).

Yvonne


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## Hippiesicle (Nov 18, 2008)

My name is CJ. The mercury vapor bulb I have her under emmits UVB and a small amount of UVA. It was damn expensive. $70!!!


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## Yvonne G (Nov 18, 2008)

Hi CJ: She's (he's??) a real cutey pie. Thanks for sharing.

Yvonne


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## longbeachskunk (Nov 18, 2008)

awe she's adorable. She looks really good. Congrats on your new little friend!


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## Hippiesicle (Nov 18, 2008)

she won't even eat Opuntia cactus! Man shes making me worry!


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## Crazy1 (Nov 19, 2008)

CJ, This is hibernation time for DT even in Az. Check your temps and the time your MVB is on. S/he will need about 14-16 hours of light. Heat should be a basking spot of about 90 degrees F (32 C) or so night time temps should be about 60 or above if you don't want it to hibernate, and you don't want it to hibernate, as this is its first year with you. Here is a site that gives you some info on your tort. http://www.chelonia.org/Articles/Gagassiziicare.htm
I know you have had it now for about 2 months or so and I am not directing this just to you.

This is for evey one who does not know please be aware of your State laws regarding Picking up DT from the wild. Once they have been taken from the wild they can not be returned.


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## Hippiesicle (Nov 20, 2008)

Crazy1 said:


> CJ, This is hibernation time for DT even in Az. Check your temps and the time your MVB is on. S/he will need about 14-16 hours of light. Heat should be a basking spot of about 90 degrees F (32 C) or so night time temps should be about 60 or above if you don't want it to hibernate, and you don't want it to hibernate, as this is its first year with you. Here is a site that gives you some info on your tort. http://www.chelonia.org/Articles/Gagassiziicare.htm
> I know you have had it now for about 2 months or so and I am not directing this just to you.
> 
> This is for evey one who does not know please be aware of your State laws regarding Picking up DT from the wild. Once they have been taken from the wild they can not be returned.



Thanks for that. My neighbor actually was talking to me last night (shes kinda the gossiper of the block) but apparentley the people who lived in the house across the street lost their tort around the same time I found her. I'm reluctant to tell them about it because they're not the best people in world. Kinda trashy, druggies, cops are over there a few times a month. I'm pretty sure she escaped and thats when I found her under my truck. I really want to keep her!

I did have her outside in a pin I built for a bit. Even when it got chilly. But now that I have her inside her daytime temp floats around 90 degrees and at night it sits in the upper 70's. For the night I have a ceramic heat bulb. I'm hoping shes still adjusting to the sudden change. Should I raise the temp?

Also, she has been pooping when I soak her, I know thats a good thing. I heard somewhere that if her stool is grayish it's not good. Her stool could possibly be mistaken as gray, but it's really sort of a greenish brown.


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## Greg T (Nov 20, 2008)

I can relate. I found a big leopard one day in my garage. Knowing it was somebody's pet, we waited and watched for signs. none ever posted, so we kept it. The kids were really excited. Then, after the last hurricane here, I found another one in my bushes just like the first one. The kids were even more happy now.

Then we found out they belonged to the neighbor two doors down, who came down to ask about them. I hated giving them back because they obviously didn't care too much about them. Their kids weren't even excited to get them back, but mine were devastated. We did the right thing though, but I could provide a better home than she does.

We now have two much smaller leopards, so things are good again. But if those other two end up in my yard again, I'm keeping them.


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## Jentortmom (Nov 23, 2008)

Poor thing, another idea is get some dandelion greens from sprouts, or prickly pear fruit from food city and chopping it up to mix in with the good stuff.


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## Hippiesicle (Dec 9, 2008)

Well I finally got her to start eating. I came up with the idea while watching what she does when I take her outside. For some reason she always runs straight for my dog's poop. So what I do is I take her daily salad, put it in the food processor and sprinkle some Ca powder, then I take soaked Mazuri and put that in the processor. I mix them all together and roll the final product into little dog poop looking things. She devours them. I can't get her to stop eating them. After a week or so I'm going to be SLOWLY removing Mazuri from the salad. hopefully she won't put up much of a fuss.


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## Maggie Cummings (Dec 9, 2008)

Have you given her a nice long soak? Most people think that because they are desert tortoises they don't need to drink, but that is just not true. I soak mine every other day or so for about 15 minutes. We keep them under hot lights essentially on slow cook, so you need to be diligent about soaking...
I didn't have a very good day health wise, so I really needed the laugh you gave me when I read about your poopy tortoise food...thanks for that!!!


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## Crazy1 (Dec 10, 2008)

Hippiescile, during the winter months I fed my desert hatchlings a little dampend Mazuri every other day. As it has hay and they were not getting much hay and wouldn't eat grasses from the yard. Glad to here Zen is eating now, good work.


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