The Best Way To Raise A Sulcata, Leopard, Or Star Tortoise

wutang said:

Hi Tom, thanks again for this. I’ve had my Leopard hatchling for about a month. After the initial settling in, he’s always been a good eater and active. However he stopped eating 3 days ago, and has become progressively less active to the point that he now pretty much just settles in wherever I place him after soaking - he’ll open his eyes occasionally, but not often, and just seems to have little desire to move around whereas he is typically climbing and wandering his enclosure. The sequence of events from normalcy to his current state are as follows: I moved him into a new 6 foot enclosure around 2 days before he stopped eating / became progressively less active (parameters and substrate/setup are all in line with your guide - I posted about it last week, linked below) The last meal before he stopped eating were cut up nopales pads dusted with vitamins and ground up oat grass. The next day, I noticed some constipation / couldn’t fully pass everything in one go (he would pass out what looked like a long strand but then there would be more partially digested strands still stuck behind ). Concerned that this is related to me letting him graze in his outdoor enclosure before realizing that this wasn’t good for hatchlings. I’ve since been doing multiple long soaks a day, and he has gone every time, including a couple that were almost the length of his body - they looked like pretty sizable pieces of not fully digested grass/roughage. This happened multiple times, he has pooped a lot over the past couple of days without eating, at least a little bit every time I’ve soaked him. Now on day, three of no eating he’s no longer pooping in his soaks, but it doesn’t look like there are any undigested strands stuck in his cloaca like it had been. That said I’m still concerned due to the complete lethargy and lack of eating. On the other hand, his behavior reminds me of how it was in the first couple of days when he was adapting to his new enclosure so also wondering if this may be at least partially just him having a delayed reaction to being in a new environment. I’m now soaking him in a carrot baby food water mixture and upping the ambient temp to closer to 90. Sorry for the long winded explanation just wondering if you might have any insight / experience into this kind of behavior / sequence of events.

Thread 'Planning For Adult Leopard Tortoise Indoor Keeping'
https://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/planning-for-adult-leopard-tortoise-indoor-keeping.231407/

Click to expand...

wutang said:

Thanks Tom. 54 grams, weighed 50 grams when I got him on April 1. Pardalis pardalis Limburg lineage...

Click to expand...