Hello,
I have about a one year old sulcata. He has a flexible undershell, seems a bit lethargic, and spends a lot of time in his burrow. I've had him since he was maybe 3 months old. This has been going on for about 2-3 months that we know of. I've read a lot of other threads. I've read about MBD and HFS. I'm scared.
I read and read and tweak and tweak, but I can't figure out what the lapse is.
Lets talk origin: Sydney came from a breeder in St Petes florida. Someone bought him, then realized what they are and where they live (indiana) they couldn't do it. I'm in NC, I've always loved tortoises, and I read what I was getting into and decided I would take him. So kinda a rescue/not really a rescue situation.
The reason I mention this is the breeder had them in beefjerky land (glass terrarium, sand, no water) and gave the person who bought it something they said looked like dog food to feed him... I'm not sure it it actually was, but this person seemed convinced. Maybe it was just pellet food, but either way I don't think this was a good start based on what I heard.
He has coconut coir bedding in one of those long underbed tupperwares. I keep it wet.
He has a plastic large hide that he's dug a trench to sit in under. This hide gets moisture from the bedding, and seems to stay 80ish percent. The outside seems to be about 60%.
His bulb right now is the Powersun 160watt. Before that he had the exoterra 150watt, but he seemed to like the powersun more when I installed it. I felt like the exoterra put off more heat to the surface, but the powersun is much less red in wavelength.
Temps used to be 95-75 with the old bulb. now they're more like 85-80 with the new bulb. I'm not sure why the back got hotter, but maybe the light is putting off more heat into the air and less to the surface? Not sure. I've tried moving the light higher and lower, wondering if it was too close or too far, but his burrow camping doesn't change much. He does sunbathe in the mornings, but by midday he's burrowed again.
He has a vornado humidifier in his room that runs constantly on infinity. Pretty sure that's only good for keeping the room at 60%., can't seem to make it do anymore without using hot water, but that's a short term blast.
He has a small space heater in the room for nighttime to keep the room 70-75, and a small heat mat underneath his hide, that keeps the ground temp about the same.
He constantly has orchard hay in his enclosure, before that we had timothy hay in there. I never see him do anything with it but sit on it. He used to nibble the timothy when he was much younger, though.
He has a bowl of water, but I've not seen him use it more than once or twice (I haven't seen it, but my wife says she found poops in there once or twice a while ago).
I feed him mainly dandelion leaves and clover leaves from the yard coated in calcium/D3 powder. We don't treat out property with anything. He doesn't seem to want to eat any kind of grass I give him. He doesn't want to eat the herbal salad mix we bought, wet or dry. Sometimes he gets a little fig leaf or rose leaf. We've given him cactus in the past also.
I soak him almost every day for 20 min, sometimes much longer with water changes. He almost always drinks.
I took him to the NCSU exotic vet and they gave me liquid calcium about two months ago, and told me it sounds like I'm doing stuff right. I'm currently waiting to take him to a follow up, but I just don't see what I can change or try that I haven't.
I wasn't able to get the liquid directly into his mouth with even two people, he can yank his head out of your fingers even when you think you've got him. So, I put it on all his food instead, much like I'm doing now with the calcium/D3 powder.
His appetite was low for a good while, he'd only eat every other day, but the last two weeks he's been smashing it.
He hides in his hole most of the day and night except when I yank him out to bathe and eat.
Can you guys give me any idea of what to do to change what I'm doing? I'm sure there a bunch more information I can give if you have questions, or things I've tried that I can't think of right now, of if I can clarify something about his current setup. I'm feeling quite sick about it, and I'm struggling to remember everything right now.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I went in to take pictures and the b*st*rd is sunbathing after he ate to prove me wrong. Haha.
I have about a one year old sulcata. He has a flexible undershell, seems a bit lethargic, and spends a lot of time in his burrow. I've had him since he was maybe 3 months old. This has been going on for about 2-3 months that we know of. I've read a lot of other threads. I've read about MBD and HFS. I'm scared.
I read and read and tweak and tweak, but I can't figure out what the lapse is.
Lets talk origin: Sydney came from a breeder in St Petes florida. Someone bought him, then realized what they are and where they live (indiana) they couldn't do it. I'm in NC, I've always loved tortoises, and I read what I was getting into and decided I would take him. So kinda a rescue/not really a rescue situation.
The reason I mention this is the breeder had them in beefjerky land (glass terrarium, sand, no water) and gave the person who bought it something they said looked like dog food to feed him... I'm not sure it it actually was, but this person seemed convinced. Maybe it was just pellet food, but either way I don't think this was a good start based on what I heard.
He has coconut coir bedding in one of those long underbed tupperwares. I keep it wet.
He has a plastic large hide that he's dug a trench to sit in under. This hide gets moisture from the bedding, and seems to stay 80ish percent. The outside seems to be about 60%.
His bulb right now is the Powersun 160watt. Before that he had the exoterra 150watt, but he seemed to like the powersun more when I installed it. I felt like the exoterra put off more heat to the surface, but the powersun is much less red in wavelength.
Temps used to be 95-75 with the old bulb. now they're more like 85-80 with the new bulb. I'm not sure why the back got hotter, but maybe the light is putting off more heat into the air and less to the surface? Not sure. I've tried moving the light higher and lower, wondering if it was too close or too far, but his burrow camping doesn't change much. He does sunbathe in the mornings, but by midday he's burrowed again.
He has a vornado humidifier in his room that runs constantly on infinity. Pretty sure that's only good for keeping the room at 60%., can't seem to make it do anymore without using hot water, but that's a short term blast.
He has a small space heater in the room for nighttime to keep the room 70-75, and a small heat mat underneath his hide, that keeps the ground temp about the same.
He constantly has orchard hay in his enclosure, before that we had timothy hay in there. I never see him do anything with it but sit on it. He used to nibble the timothy when he was much younger, though.
He has a bowl of water, but I've not seen him use it more than once or twice (I haven't seen it, but my wife says she found poops in there once or twice a while ago).
I feed him mainly dandelion leaves and clover leaves from the yard coated in calcium/D3 powder. We don't treat out property with anything. He doesn't seem to want to eat any kind of grass I give him. He doesn't want to eat the herbal salad mix we bought, wet or dry. Sometimes he gets a little fig leaf or rose leaf. We've given him cactus in the past also.
I soak him almost every day for 20 min, sometimes much longer with water changes. He almost always drinks.
I took him to the NCSU exotic vet and they gave me liquid calcium about two months ago, and told me it sounds like I'm doing stuff right. I'm currently waiting to take him to a follow up, but I just don't see what I can change or try that I haven't.
I wasn't able to get the liquid directly into his mouth with even two people, he can yank his head out of your fingers even when you think you've got him. So, I put it on all his food instead, much like I'm doing now with the calcium/D3 powder.
His appetite was low for a good while, he'd only eat every other day, but the last two weeks he's been smashing it.
He hides in his hole most of the day and night except when I yank him out to bathe and eat.
Can you guys give me any idea of what to do to change what I'm doing? I'm sure there a bunch more information I can give if you have questions, or things I've tried that I can't think of right now, of if I can clarify something about his current setup. I'm feeling quite sick about it, and I'm struggling to remember everything right now.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I went in to take pictures and the b*st*rd is sunbathing after he ate to prove me wrong. Haha.
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