A penny for your thoughts?

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Fiddlerchick

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Still a bit at a loss about Farishta….

Hi everyone,

Although Farishta has been eating somewhat normally recently, I am still not convinced that all is well….

Here are a couple pix of her current digs:

It's like this now minus the bark which I took out:

version40complete.jpg


The lighting:

40withlighting.jpg




The substrate is now one bag of play sand mixed with two bricks of bed-a-beast + one bag of aspen shavings (about equal in volume to one brick of BaB after being soaked in water). This gives her at least 4 – 5” of depth to dig into.

Temp in the cooler part of the enclosure is around 70F with the area under the ceramic heating unit and under the red heated night light around 110F in both places.

While I had some time off from my day job during the New Year’s holiday I started a routine of bathing her and then taking her out for a walk around midday for five days. The rest of the time she just sleeps and doesn’t even go in her pool anymore (or throw her food in it). Is there such a thing as “semi-hibernation mode”?

Since the establishment of this routine she has relieved herself each time I bathe her, and if the weather is nice she walks or “runs” around the yard quite vigorously for at least half an hour or longer, and does some grazing on the portulacas but won’t touch the grass, dandelions or hibiscus leaves and flowers, other weeds, etc., that are also there. She sometimes eats dirt and especially seeks out the white fertilizer or aeration bits in it, which worries me.

When I return her to her indoor enclosure she hangs out for a moment under the heat light, and then goes straight back to bed in the corner and doesn’t stir until I wake her up the next day to repeat the routine. Does this sound ok???

It occurred to me that the Repti-Sun 10 UVB bulb I have over her enclosure does not make it bright like daylight, and in fact the lighting in her enclosure for most of the day looks like a twilight zone to me. Could this be the reason for her extreme sleepiness? Should I add another light to make it brighter?

Thanks as always for pearls of wisdom!

-Brenda K

P.S. I’m really glad I changed her substrate because today when she had her bath and did her business, she pooped out a pea-sized bit of gravel from her erstwhile substrate! I sure hope that was the only piece she swallowed!!
 

cvalda

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I'd lower that temp a little bit in the hot corner - 110 is a bit high, 90 - 100 is ideal (mine prefer 95). Also how cool does it get at night. She likely doesn't need the red light at night as long as it doesn't go under 60!

And yes many times they do just have less energy in the winter months!
 

egyptiandan

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Hi Brenda,
What she's looking for when eating white bits is calcium. If you can find a feed store and get a pound or 2 of crushed oyster shells for chickens that would be perfect.
Also with the light you are right. All tortoises in the Testudo genus like high light conditions. If you can add at least one 2 foot florscent light that would be great. The higher the light levels the better they will do. :D

Danny
 

Redfootedboxturtles

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I would add a humid hide box. My russians like to stay under their log at night and come out in the afternoon. Like danny said they love the light and will do most of their feeding at the brightest and warmest time of the day. What state are you in? I am a huge advocate of housing tortoise outdoors whenever possible.
 

Fiddlerchick

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Thanks everyone!

I'll start by adjusting the lighting to see if that helps. Recommendations for “tried and true” lights are most welcome. I had a feeling the hot spots were a little too hot, and I’d be glad to try leaving one heat source off during the night because my jaw hit the floor when I got our first electric bill since we’ve had Farishta. :shy:

About the calcium, I should have been able to figure that out, and to think that I put a whole “turtle bone” in her enclosure...I had also bought ReptiCal to sprinkle on her food if I could only get her to eat any!

Along those lines, does anyone have any ideas as to how I can “train” Farishta to eat normal stuff that is good for her, and eat it while inside her enclosure??! At the moment I’m just grateful to see her consume anything with nutritive value. I tried putting cut bits of portulaca in her food dish with the other things I offer her, but she wouldn’t touch it. Today when I did my layman’s fecal analysis after she pooped in the bath water it occurred to me that the stuff she is eliminating in the greatest quantity is the sphagnum moss I have in her enclosure for her to hide in (along with another bit of gravel from her former substrate), so she only eats moss and rocks from her enclosure, and dirt, burlap and fertilizer pieces with some portulaca from outside (!). I don’t know when she is eating the moss because I recently haven’t seen her up during the hours that I am awake, unless she gets up and munches at the crack of dawn and then goes back to sleep before I get up to go to work…:(

Redfoot, I live in a small apartment in the middle of metro Los Angeles that comes with a tiny bit of outdoor space, and an outdoor enclosure would have been my first choice if only I’d had the money and time to put one together when Farishta adopted us a month ago. It will have to be very secure because there are a lot of stray dogs and cats roaming our neighborhood, as well as large crows and ravens flying overhead (they’re part of the South Central L.A. Sanitation Department). Hopefully I’ll be able to build a safe outdoor playpen for her by spring – fingers crossed!! And I welcome suggestions for design and economizing.

Many thanks again,

-Brenda
 

Redfootedboxturtles

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Brenda in LA you should be able to grow hibiscus. Trust me you want have to try very hard to get any tort to eat hibiscus flowers and leaves. Plus its very nutritious and high in calcium .
 

egyptiandan

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You can get a 2 foot florscent light, by lights of america, with the bulb for $7 at walmart. That where I get all my florscent lights.

Danny
 

JustAnja

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egyptiandan said:
You can get a 2 foot florscent light, by lights of america, with the bulb for $7 at walmart. That where I get all my florscent lights.

Danny

I think we must have stock in that company by now with all of those fixtures we buy! We use them in the snake cages that Dan builds as well, he mounts them to the back wall. :) (BUT I dont think there is a WalMart in Los Angeles!)
 

K9KidsLove

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Hope by now your tort is eating better. Mine have slowed down a little...sleeping more, but not eating less. They are all piggies anyway. I feed them every other day...mostly collard greens. Every about 10 days I add shredded carrot, shredded zuccini, chopped fresh green beans, and shredded sweet potato...depending on what is in season. You said your tort was nibbling on fertilizer. Please do NOT let him eat on fertilized anything. Eating a piece of fertilizer can kill him.
Patsy
 
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