MyTortoiseNugget
New Member
My 12-year-old has had a baby Sulcata Tortoise since June 25th. We always refer “him” even though we don’t really know. He was a hatchling when we got him. We live in western Kansas and I should have considered our limited vet care more closely. We thought his neck started shedding a couple of weeks ago. He also lost some of the toenails on his back legs. He’s been lethargic and eating less for several days but we thought that may have been focusing energy on shedding. Early yesterday evening, he stopped moving. His limbs and head aren’t floppy but they are very retracted. He looks like he’s sleeping but no longer responds to touch or getting spritzed with water. He didn’t respond when I briefly laid him on his back to take pictures. He has a 30 gallon (I think) tank with a UV light and basking light. We’ve been feeding him a mix of plant leaves and organic greens and cacti from the store. We just planted aloe vera and the oat grass (both organic) in his enclosure. We sprinkled calcium on his food approximately once a week but may have missed some weeks. His substrate is cypress mulch and ZooMed reptile soil. We wet the soil each day and spritz him twice a day. Humidity is usually in the low 40s during the day (because I didn’t want his soil to be too wet) and has been in the low to mid 50s after his lights go off at night. The lights are on a timer that comes on at 8:00 AM and goes off at 8:00 PM. We didn’t soak him in warm water; I only recently noticed that when reading this forum. We got him at a reptile store in Kansas City. We want to learn from this experience so we can do better if we decide to try again with an older tortoise and, of course, larger enclosure. I got so fascinated watching Nugget eat. My boy is heartbroken and I want to do what I can to help him through this.
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