2yr old Redfoot not eating for more than 10 days Please help!

dzzxmm1919

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Hello tortoise lovers. Here is another thread about my redfoot tortoise: he has been not eating anything for more than 10 days, meanwhile, no poop at all.

Here are some photos of his enclosure down below:
We built this new enclosure on April 2 because his old enclosure might be contaminate by my sick leopard. I understand changing new enclosure possibly cause stress. However, we thought a clean environment should be the first priority, so-
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The enclosure is in a bedroom at the central of our entire house, with the highest ambient room temp no lower than 77℉.

Temps of RF's enclosure nearby CHE is 86℉, humidity is around 70%-90%. The CHE is on 7-24, so night temp won't be lower than 80℉. We use a mercury vapor bulb for UVB. If humidity is dropping, l will turn on a humidifier.

We normally provide him spring mix, turnip greens, dandelion, romain lettuce, apple, spuash, pumpkin, boiled egg white, and food pellet once a week. Supplement is cuttlefish bone.

We bought him at a reptile show last August, 2021. He was not picking food at all for the first couple of months, he could clean up the whole plate. Back to December 2021, he started to eat pellet food only(the Rep-cal small pellet food). Occasionally he nibbles some romaine lettuce or mazuri pellets. But he refused to eat anything since 3/23, which makes me very worried about him.

So far he is still active, roaming in his enclosure, eyes are opened, sometimes sit in his water saucer. I also noticed that he wouldn't sleep at night. When I checked on him recently around 11pm, he is always awake and walking around.

To keep him hydrated, I soak him every day by warm water with carrot juice and electrolyte. Seems like he is quite enjoyed it.
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Not sure if he is stressful about the new enclosure or he is at early stage of respiratory infection. He doesn't have running nose, or there's no bubble pop up on his mouth. However, he does make a sound like "talking a deep breath", meanwhile retracts his head and front limbs a bit back to shell.

Do I need to prescribe some antibiotic med for him or give him more time to adapt to the new enclosure? What can I do to bring his appetite back?
Any advices or inputs are appreciated! Thank you!
 

jsheffield

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I think I'd wait it out, so long as the tort doesn't seem sick.

Continue soaking them and offering a bit of food every day. I'd try watermelon and strawberry and hibiscus flowers, if you can find any of those... they're favorites of all of my torts.

My guess is that the tort is just grumpy about the change in their environment.

Fingers crossed!

Jamie
 

Maggie3fan

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I think I'd wait it out, so long as the tort doesn't seem sick.

Continue soaking them and offering a bit of food every day. I'd try watermelon and strawberry and hibiscus flowers, if you can find any of those... they're favorites of all of my torts.

My guess is that the tort is just grumpy about the change in their environment.

Fingers crossed!

Jamie
They them for tortoises Jamie? Come on...
 

dzzxmm1919

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I think I'd wait it out, so long as the tort doesn't seem sick.

Continue soaking them and offering a bit of food every day. I'd try watermelon and strawberry and hibiscus flowers, if you can find any of those... they're favorites of all of my torts.

My guess is that the tort is just grumpy about the change in their environment.

Fingers crossed!

Jamie
Thank you Jamie for your reply! I'll try strawberry this weekend. Today I gave him purple cabbage, mango and sweet yellow pepper. My husband told me the tort did not take a bite so far. What I am really concerned about is he stopped eating in his old enclosure already for a week.
I'll definitely soak him every day and pay close attention to him. ❤
 

jsheffield

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They them for tortoises Jamie? Come on...
I'm working at a college in Vermont these days and those are the waters I swim in day in and day out... you get used to it and it becomes second nature.

Plus, my second children's book, about Darwin, is to some degree about sexual identity....

Jamie
 
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Maggie3fan

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I'm working at a college in Vermont these days and those are the waters I swim in day in and day out... you get used to it and it becomes second nature.

Plus, my second children's book, about Darwin, is to some degree about sexual identity....

Jamie
I live in Oregon, there ain't a more liberal town then Corvallis Oregon...home of the Oregon State Beavers, where there are more students at OSU than the whole population of Corvallis.purple hair, more holes than clothes, face piercings, and they them...my exgranddaughter is they them...their hair is orange...my tortoise are non binary, male or female. I respect the right of humans to decide their sexuality and what they want to be called...
I totally understand what you are saying...but to me, and you know I luv ya... but for me...that is carrying the whole thing a bit too far. I'm old fashioned...
 

TammyJ

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You had said that the reason for a new enclosure was that you thought the old one may have become contaminated. If it did indeed become contaminated, it would have been from the gastroenteritis/respiratory infection somehow? I would just keep a very close eye on your redfoot while continuing to keep him in the correct conditions and offering appropriate food and clean water every day. Plus, is the light off at night? he needs a circadian cycle of night and day - dark and light. And it is also possible he may have swallowed some of the substrate and is impacted and is unable to poop. Just watch carefully and let us know. Good luck! He looks wonderful.
 
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