For those who don't know, fluoroquinolones are a class of antibiotics that can cause irreversible nerve damage. In 2013, the FDA added a boxed warning for nerve damage to all oral and injectable fluoroquinolones. The most common form of nerve damage caused by fluoroquinolones is peripheral...
She's on coarse coco coir, about 2 inches deep. I thought it might be the substrate irritating her eyes, so I experimented with different brands of coir, in addition to cypress mulch and even just paper towel. Again, the thing that has made the most significant difference is ventilation.
The...
I know it flies in the face of all the conventional wisdom on husbandry, but for whatever reason, my tortoise's eyes seem to swell whenever she's in a closed chamber. I reduced the ventilation over the last few days to encourage higher humidity and already her eyelids are starting to get that...
Can you give me an example of the type of incandescent flood light you recommend?
For the time being, I've raised the halogen and CHEs accordingly. I've also reduced the ventilation ever so slightly in her latest setup to raise the humidity. Hopefully these changes will improve future shell...
You may be right about the need to raise the heat sources a bit. It's a delicate balance between maintaining surface temps and ambient temps. I use a Herpstat to keep the temps as consistent as possible.
I haven't been in the habit of wetting her shell, but I'll start doing that and see if it...
I experimented with a lot of different lighting. On the recommendation of the breeder, I started with a 125 watt MVB and eventually switched it out for a 100 watt bulb before abandoning MVBs altogether. They were definitely on the lower side, about 10 inches from shell height. I kept it at a...
Yeah, I've been following very closely with some minor tweaks. I initially had her in a closed chamber, but I found that for whatever reason, her eyes would swell in this setup. I introduced some ventilation and the humidity dropped accordingly, but the swelling stopped. If I keep the humidity...
My leopard tortoise is almost 1.5 years old. She was rather sickly when I received her and it took a solid six months of attention to get her healthy. During that extended bout of sickness, her growth was very sporadic.
I've noticed her shell has some strange growth despite my best efforts to...