Concerned about my Gopherus' health

CharSparda

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I recently adopted a Gopherus Berlandieri (legal and in Mexico) and he's been a very active guy all along. However, about 3-4 weeks ago he started to change his schedule to sleeping all day (even when I activate the UVB) and waking up one time in the afternoon to eat and then sleep again, and he wakes up in the middle of the night to have a walk inside his enclosure. He also eats during that time.

Is this something to worry about? I initially thought he wasn't active because of the somewhat cold temperatures here (70 degrees) but he's woken up several nights to have his nocturnal walks.

Here's a pic of Raphael (took it a minutes ago after he had his first dinner):

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To me he looks just fine, his eyes look black and bright and his nose is dry . But I was looking at him a few minutes ago and he was VERY focused on peeing and ejecting a bit of urates, plus he showed some struggle faces for about 3-4 minutes while he was doing it.

Is this normal? Is it ok for them to take about 5 minutes to pee/poo and showing some struggle faces while retracting their heads?
 

TheLastGreen

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I think he may be constipated, if you have a bath, I would recommend filling it with warm water, like when soaking normally, so that the tort can easily support his head and neck above the water, so that he can walk around, soak the tort for about a half an hour @wellington @Yvonne G @Tom @ZenHerper will know what to do.
I'm not sure if the soaking will affect his cycle (I don't think these torts hibernate, so I think it'll be fine). Hopefuly they'll chime in soon (you have a beautiful tort by the way)
 

wellington

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I don't know anything about your species. However he looks dry to me. Do you give him soaks on a normal basis?
They do a lot withdraw their head when they poop but they should not struggle to pee.
I would give 30 to 60 minute soaks every other day until things come out easier. Then at least once or twice a week. Be sure he has a big enclosure, if he is inside and uvb daily.
 

Yvonne G

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It's really not normal for them to be up and around at night. The Last Green may have hit the nail on the head with the constipation thing. The long bath tub soak usually works, but you can also feed him wet foods for a while - aloe vera, cucumber, cactus, etc.
 

CharSparda

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Thank you all, today I’m planning on giving him a bath but he’s still sleeping (15:10 here), so I guess once he’s awake…

It's really not normal for them to be up and around at night. The Last Green may have hit the nail on the head with the constipation thing. The long bath tub soak usually works, but you can also feed him wet foods for a while - aloe vera, cucumber, cactus, etc.
I give him wet food most of the time actually, since he’s a desert tortoise. Cactus and escarole on a daily basis, with some other foods like Kale to vary.
I’m giving him the bath tonight, but how can I fix the schedule? Like it’s not normal but is it something to worry about?
 

Yvonne G

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I close the doors to the night houses in the evening to keep them safe from predators.

Describe for me your tortoise's living arrangement.
 

CharSparda

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I close the doors to the night houses in the evening to keep them safe from predators.

Describe for me your tortoise's living arrangement.

mine lives indoors, in my bedroom where he has a 2x1 meters enclosure, with coconut fiber and some pine (enough for him to dig in). He has his small UVB light which is on all day and his heat lamp which is on all day and night. He also has a small box in which he likes to hide at times.

every day (now every night) I take him out (in my bedroom) for a walk and he walks for some minutes, sometimes even over an hour and then he falls asleep behind my bed.

he has no predators. I have two cats, one of them is very kind to him, the other one tries to chase him so I never leave him alone with my gopherus.
 
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