Baby Greek Tortoise Sleeps All Day!

[MzNENA]

UH OH. Please help =/

Still no bulb in the mail, but woke up to give little Squirtle his morning soak & he's making a sort of cracking noise when he opens his mouth & a few little boogers coming from his nose as he drinks water

URI I assume

What can I start to do now to help our poor little tort??

 

[Yvonne G]

Until your good bulb arrives, just put a 100watt incandescent bulb over him. You've got to get him warmed up, day and night. Babies can't wait for the mail.

 

[MzNENA]

Thank you very much! Changing out his bulb, now

 

[Jlant85]

Also, if your worried about UVB, the best things are always for free! Outside ^_^v even if it's only for 20-30 minutes a day is fine until you get your proper equipment.

 

[MzNENA]

I definitely will once spring hits here in Colorado.
Unfortunately our winter has been pretty cold this year. Lowers 30's as a high for today.

 

[MzNENA]

Found a 100W bulb laying around my house so upped Squirtle's temps.
Soaking twice a day still, but I keep his soaking bowl near his basking light for extra warmth. I will no longer soak his substrate nearing night time as I'm sure that attributed to his runny nose.

Haven't seen anymore boogies since this morning so hoping he'll get over whatever he or she has.

Any way, here is a little picture for today.
Can't get over how photogenic this little one is when awake.
My son wanted him to pose with his stuffed turtle

 

[MzNENA]

UPDATE!
I am one happy tortoise owner
My exo terra 3 in one bulb finally arrived today. After a 4 day delay due to the holidays :-/

125w Solar Glo Mercury Vapor lamp. Installed it immediately. Keeping it about 13 inches above my enclosure & within 20min my little tort was finally showing signs of life again lol.



Actually began to walk around his enclosure a bit, even stuck his head into his water dish for a drink! Which hadn't done yet. His ravenous appetite has returned. Nearly emptying his entire food dish. Was actually awake and alert for almost 2 hours which had never happened. Explored his space a bit but did fall into his usual habit of taking extended naps :-/ Napped on a nice basking rock with his foot dangling mid air lol

Temperatures under the new bulb fall between 97-100 degrees. With them falling to 80 degrees mid enclosure & fading down to 72 degrees on the cool side.
I am spraying his substrate 3 times a day now with a spray bottle.
Humidity goes up to 65% and then fades down to 40% by the next spraying time.
Is this a good humidity percentage for my small tort??

He is still choosing to linger around his basking spot although not as close. He lays close to the bulb no longer under it, but continues to nap under the plant on the far bottom left hand side of his enclosure picture under the lamp.
With the great temperature raise I thought he would visit the basking spot a little less and only linger for a few min at a time.

But it's only been a day. So far good process, I'm already excited and hoping he'll become more and more active as the days continue *fingers crossed*

 

[StarSapphire22]

Lookin good!

 

[MzNENA]

He's aliiiiiiiive lol
Thank you

 

[Jlant85]

WOOOOOOOOOOO!!! SUCCESS!!!! Im so happy for you! i love reading treads like this! Thanks for the update! now time for the next project! I just posted a new tread! read it if you wish! It helped me a lot and i hope it helps you too! Noticed a lot of greek hatching owners here so i did this for you guys!

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-84902.html

 

[MzNENA]

Re: RE: Baby Greek Tortoise Sleeps All Day!

WOOOOOOOOOOO!!! SUCCESS!!!! Im so happy for you! i love reading treads like this! Thanks for the update! now time for the next project! I just posted a new tread! read it if you wish! It helped me a lot and i hope it helps you too! Noticed a lot of greek hatching owners here so i did this for you guys!

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-84902.html

Thank you very much!! Got to love when that one change makes a world of difference. Seeing your sluggish sleeping tortoise grow into a completely new tortoise with just the right temperature is amazing!
Thank you so much for the thread link! I was just discussing humidity with a fellow tortoise forum member!
There are a lot of conflicting answers when it comes to humidity, varies from 50% up to 80% and all in between.
Think it would be nice to know a target humidity per Greek tortoise according to size and according to age
Thank you for the reply!

 

[JadaJadaJadsa]

to keep the temps where they need to be at night time you can always cut a big square in in your lid and then melt some holes in it so you can attach a screen in there and keep it secured by tieing those little plastic things I can't remember the name but if you poke them through the holes you melt into the enclosures lid and the also poke them through the screen and tie it together too have a secure lid that the heat lamps can go through easily just don't cut out too much of the lid because then it probably would not hold much humidly also you could probably use a small or thin rope too as long as its something to keep the screen where it needs to be you actually might be able to staple the screen and that way the heat can go through easy

I seen this in a video thats and it looked good and worked I plan on doing the same thing soon with my lid whenever I get the chance

 

[JadaJadaJadsa]

if you want to know more about when I mean with the lid go to youtube and look up DIY turtle and tortoise bin cage it shows how to do the lid