advice plaese

[jazzywoo]

hi taylor seems to spend alot of time in her plant pot she never comes out unless i move her her temps are 32 in warm and 22 in cool side not sure what to do
also she wont eat unless jazzy or i hand feed her yes i have tried just leaving her to it i did it for 2 days but she ate as soon as i held it for her she also will only eat her weeds if i trick her with lettuce first i have planted some weeds in her table to see if she will try them but no
is this normal or have we got a very fussy spoilt little girl here
is there anything we can do is this something other people have problems with

 

[jazzywoo]

anyone ???

 

[rwfoss]

I wish I could help. I've only had my Russian for a month and I should have named her Miss Piggy for obvious reasons. However, I wouldn't think that a tortoise would allow itself to starve if it knows there is food available.

Have you tried holding a piece of food over the bowl, getting her to eat the piece you're holding, and then letting go and see if she continues - leaving your hand by the bowl? (Maybe I'm grabbing at straws.) I'm a counselor by trade, but getting animals to change their behavior is sometimes harder!

Good Luck!

 

[dmmj]

Well my rusians will eat all day long if possible so I don't really know how to help, the only thing I can suggest is a little tough love, put her food there and leave it, if she is hungry she will eat, a healthy tortoise won't starve itself to death.

 

[ChiKat]

What kind of food dish do you have for her? Is it easy for her to eat from the dish?

 

[jazzywoo]

What kind of food dish do you have for her? Is it easy for her to eat from the dish?

she doesnt have a dish she has a piece of slate

 

[ChiKat]

Hmm I would bump up the temps and see if that helps

 

[jazzywoo]

Hmm I would bump up the temps and see if that helps

but i was told the temps were too high ive just made the heat lamp higher too cool it down :shy:

 

[GBtortoises]

The temperatures that you listed are fine for normal activity levels. If anything the cooler end temperature (22c) is a bit cool for daytime activity. But the warmer end temperature (32c) being what it is the tortoise would simply spend more time in that area if it felt it needed to. The temperature directly under the basking light, in the strongest part of the beam should be in the range of 35-40.5c.

How much light is provided in the enclosure? In other words, is it very well lit during the daytime? Light plays a very important role in normal activity patterns also. Was your tortoise eating normal or larger volumes of food before it recently stopped eating?

As long as your tortoise is active, alert and healthy there shouldn't be too much concern about an occasional bout of not eating. Most importantly is that it stays well hydrated when not eating.

One thing that I think I would stop doing is feeding it by hand all the time. Once in a great while is fine. But constant handfeeding, like any other constant with a tortoise, becomes part of their everyday routine. While they will still browse on foods elsewhere, by handfeeding they quickly associate their main source of food coming from your hand and will wait for that to appear each and every day. It's a bit like a child, the easy meal is in the breast or bottle, if it were up to them they'd be going for that easy meal for much of their young lives unless someone weans them from it!