I bought one month ago a greek tortoise baby (soon one year old) and in the besinning I did'nt realize how small he was... But lately I've been reading a lot about tortoises and mine is very small! His weight is only 18 gram right now, unfortunately I did'nt check his weight before now. I did also check his lenght (only the shall) and this is about 4 cm.
I'm worried about his size... But what can I do? He has a big home built of wood. He has places to hide in and to dig in. High humidity is there overall (even if it can be a bit dry near the heatlamp). I put water in his home atleast two times every day. One place he has with a combinated sun/uvb and heatlamp that is on for 14 hours every day, there is 35 degrees. In other parts is a normal lamp on 14 hours and there is it about 20 degrees, same degrees in the nights. He has always fresch water in two small bowls (but he is not often going to drink or take a bath on his own).
Howewer my tortoise seems often very tired. In the mornings he don't come out from his hiding place before I take him out and wake him up. On daytime he is mostly around the sunareas the whole days and I have to wake him up and put the food to him under the lamp. Before I'm feeding him I used to give him a bath under the sunlamp about 10-25 minutes so he is getting more active. He always have food in his home but he does'nt seems to go to eat on his own. I try to feed him atleast 2 times every day, then he is eating good in my opinion, but easily lose the intrest of the food so I have to put him back to eat more. He is eating mostly fresch food like diffrent salads, diffrent grasses from outside, some vegetables (cucumber is a favourite) and sometimes fruit. He seems to hate dried food and it's also harder for him to eat that. Sometimes I try to make a mixed salad with fresch and dried grasses or pellets (But he usually take only the fresch food from it then). I put all days some tortoise vitamins and calsium on the food he is eating. He seems to be very smart about what food he wanna eat and I give him what he want because he is so small and don't eating a lot.
Should I take him to a vet beacuse of his small size?! How much should he grow in one month?! He is pooping almost every day since the food was changed from mostly dried to mostly fresch and the poop seems normal (no worms that I can see)...
I'm worried about his size... But what can I do? He has a big home built of wood. He has places to hide in and to dig in. High humidity is there overall (even if it can be a bit dry near the heatlamp). I put water in his home atleast two times every day. One place he has with a combinated sun/uvb and heatlamp that is on for 14 hours every day, there is 35 degrees. In other parts is a normal lamp on 14 hours and there is it about 20 degrees, same degrees in the nights. He has always fresch water in two small bowls (but he is not often going to drink or take a bath on his own).
Howewer my tortoise seems often very tired. In the mornings he don't come out from his hiding place before I take him out and wake him up. On daytime he is mostly around the sunareas the whole days and I have to wake him up and put the food to him under the lamp. Before I'm feeding him I used to give him a bath under the sunlamp about 10-25 minutes so he is getting more active. He always have food in his home but he does'nt seems to go to eat on his own. I try to feed him atleast 2 times every day, then he is eating good in my opinion, but easily lose the intrest of the food so I have to put him back to eat more. He is eating mostly fresch food like diffrent salads, diffrent grasses from outside, some vegetables (cucumber is a favourite) and sometimes fruit. He seems to hate dried food and it's also harder for him to eat that. Sometimes I try to make a mixed salad with fresch and dried grasses or pellets (But he usually take only the fresch food from it then). I put all days some tortoise vitamins and calsium on the food he is eating. He seems to be very smart about what food he wanna eat and I give him what he want because he is so small and don't eating a lot.
Should I take him to a vet beacuse of his small size?! How much should he grow in one month?! He is pooping almost every day since the food was changed from mostly dried to mostly fresch and the poop seems normal (no worms that I can see)...