Jess&Chadwick
New Member
Hi all,
My husband and I just got our first red foot tortoise in May, her name is Chadwick. She's been doing great and continually gaining weight until this last week or so. She hasn't been eating much, not even her favorite foods.
She's currently in a 40 gal tank with forest mix and Jungle mix as I have found these in combination help with the humidity. We keep humidity at 70-80%, I usually spray down her enclosure 3 times a day with filtered water. She also has a water dish in her enclosure which is filtered water. Her temps are 93 on the hot site with a regulated CHE and a UVB. CHE stays on 24/7 and UVB stays on around 12 hours a day.
I feed her spring mix, clovers from the backyard (we don't treat the yard), dandelions from the backyard, strawberries, watermelon, blueberries pumpkin, mango, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, hibiscus grown in my office, and aloe alternating and the occasional mushroom. I also have a red wriggler worm farm for composting and she gets a few worms a week covered in calcium powder. We don't go heavy on the fruits as to make sure she doesn't get mouth rot.
She gets to roam around in the backyard almost every day for a hour (supervised) and gets soaked every day or every other day for 30 minutes, as I have noticed this helps her stay regular. She hasn't been quite as active, but will make some distance once out back in the backyard. It's currently summer here in the Midwest and we are sure to take her out when temps are 80-95 and our yard is heavily shaded.
We made a vet appointment, but they won't have availability until Sept and she has lost 13grams in the last week. I was hoping someone would be able to point me in the direction of what is going wrong and how I can get her appetite back.
I attached a photo of her and 2 pics of her enclosure. Please let me know if I can provide any other info. Thank you all so much for your help and support!
My husband and I just got our first red foot tortoise in May, her name is Chadwick. She's been doing great and continually gaining weight until this last week or so. She hasn't been eating much, not even her favorite foods.
She's currently in a 40 gal tank with forest mix and Jungle mix as I have found these in combination help with the humidity. We keep humidity at 70-80%, I usually spray down her enclosure 3 times a day with filtered water. She also has a water dish in her enclosure which is filtered water. Her temps are 93 on the hot site with a regulated CHE and a UVB. CHE stays on 24/7 and UVB stays on around 12 hours a day.
I feed her spring mix, clovers from the backyard (we don't treat the yard), dandelions from the backyard, strawberries, watermelon, blueberries pumpkin, mango, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, hibiscus grown in my office, and aloe alternating and the occasional mushroom. I also have a red wriggler worm farm for composting and she gets a few worms a week covered in calcium powder. We don't go heavy on the fruits as to make sure she doesn't get mouth rot.
She gets to roam around in the backyard almost every day for a hour (supervised) and gets soaked every day or every other day for 30 minutes, as I have noticed this helps her stay regular. She hasn't been quite as active, but will make some distance once out back in the backyard. It's currently summer here in the Midwest and we are sure to take her out when temps are 80-95 and our yard is heavily shaded.
We made a vet appointment, but they won't have availability until Sept and she has lost 13grams in the last week. I was hoping someone would be able to point me in the direction of what is going wrong and how I can get her appetite back.
I attached a photo of her and 2 pics of her enclosure. Please let me know if I can provide any other info. Thank you all so much for your help and support!
