CurtB
Member
Hey, so today I was tending for my tortoise, gave her a nice warm soak this morning for about 20 mins and let her do her thing in the morning. Overall she seemed fine, nothing out of the ordinary; she ate her food consisted of: prickly pear cactus, organic dandelion greens, kale, rose petals, finely chopped plantain, echinacea, and calendula; she also did her regular sunbathing routine.
Anyways, she went to her little terra cotta bowl that had fresh water, chilled there for a bit bit, peed and pooped, then as she stepped out, she did this weird stroking movement on the right side of her body. The best way I can describe this movement was as if she was doing rapid butterfly strokes (swimming reference) with both her front and back legs on the right side of her body. She kept doing this very quickly as she was moving towards her hide. I've never seen this before, and it freaked me out because I thought something was wrong. Unfortunately, I didn't get to record it to share because that was the first time that ever happened.
I picked her up, observed her, and looked for common symptoms of anything that would need immediate attention (based on what I've researched on this site and elsewhere). I didn't see any discharge coming out of her nose; her eyes are still pretty bright and shiny and not puffy whatsoever. I didn't see any bruises around the shell or on her skin.
After a couple of minutes, she walked out of her hide, sunbathed for a couple of minutes (under 95-100C), and proceeded to eat her cactus and dandelion greens as if nothing happened.
Is this something normal? Has anyone else experienced this? Should I be concerned? I took a video of her close up if anyone can point anything out.
PS. She was active and fine the past few days, nothing that would cause any concerns that should be brought up to my attention.
Video:
Anyways, she went to her little terra cotta bowl that had fresh water, chilled there for a bit bit, peed and pooped, then as she stepped out, she did this weird stroking movement on the right side of her body. The best way I can describe this movement was as if she was doing rapid butterfly strokes (swimming reference) with both her front and back legs on the right side of her body. She kept doing this very quickly as she was moving towards her hide. I've never seen this before, and it freaked me out because I thought something was wrong. Unfortunately, I didn't get to record it to share because that was the first time that ever happened.
I picked her up, observed her, and looked for common symptoms of anything that would need immediate attention (based on what I've researched on this site and elsewhere). I didn't see any discharge coming out of her nose; her eyes are still pretty bright and shiny and not puffy whatsoever. I didn't see any bruises around the shell or on her skin.
After a couple of minutes, she walked out of her hide, sunbathed for a couple of minutes (under 95-100C), and proceeded to eat her cactus and dandelion greens as if nothing happened.
Is this something normal? Has anyone else experienced this? Should I be concerned? I took a video of her close up if anyone can point anything out.
PS. She was active and fine the past few days, nothing that would cause any concerns that should be brought up to my attention.
Video: