Just a cause of concern I have noticed my 2 year old tortoise making a squeaky noise before he settle to bed. He seems normal and running around he enclosure and the bedroom and he is eating fine just the noise has worried me and not sure what I could be. He is living in a tortoise open table with a heat lamp and uv bulb on aspin fine wood chipping. Please help.
Breathing/noise
- Thread starter Epiceasty
- Start date
What kind of tortoise do you have? How's the humidity in the enclosure? I don't mean to alarm but when my tortoise started to squeaky it turned out to be a respiratory infection, after a trip to the vet and some medication he made a full recovery the trick is early detection. 
Give us more info on the enclosure, temps, humidity, the substrate should be upgraded to something better like dirt, cypress mulch or coconut coir. What is the day temps, basking temps and night temps? How often do you soak him? In the mean time you could bump the temps up. Day time no lower then 80 and night temps I would keep at 75. See if that helps with the noise. Sometimes it could be nothing. Be sure there is a day time basking spot of 95+
I would bump up the basking spot to 95-100 F. Do you see any runny nose or other symptoms?
Your night temperatures are higher than needed. My Russians seem to be more active and eat better when their night temperature drop down to about 65 degrees.
The key for day time temperatures is having a range that allow the tort to self regulate. I like 95 to 100 for the basking spot and about 70 to 75 for the cool end.
Good luck.
The key for day time temperatures is having a range that allow the tort to self regulate. I like 95 to 100 for the basking spot and about 70 to 75 for the cool end.
Good luck.
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- Nov 4, 2013
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- 25
I don't know if this will help, but our russian tortoise always makes that noise just before going to sleep too. He's active (as they all are) and always going in and out of his bedding area, but we always know when he's decided to stay there for good for the night when we hear that noise, which is the same one that's made when they put their head inside the shell really quickly and it forces the air out of the lungs at high speed. Whilst the last thing I'd be wanting to do before going to bed is something so exerting, we've always assumed it's some sort of "spring clean" type thing perhaps to make sure its lungs are empty of any gunk or anything else before going to sleep for the night, in other words as a sort of daily maintenance to keep them clean. Whether that's right or not I don't know, but he's always done that anyway with us for years. However, it's not every night, and when it happens it's just once and not prolonged, whereas if you're talking about squeaking going on for a longer amount of time, it might be a different thing to what we experience with our tortoise.
As suggested, I would change the substrate to a more earthen substrate and I would make it 6 inches or so deep, especially for this species.
I would avoid a stressful event such as a trip to the vet, especially with the description you have offered here, the stress of the trip can be more harmful than helpful if you are simply dealing with the whistle/squeak noise...
I bet he is just a little dry due to the substrate/general dryness of the enclosure.....if the tort is active, eating, basking and no mucus discharge from the tort then I would not think RI...
I would avoid a stressful event such as a trip to the vet, especially with the description you have offered here, the stress of the trip can be more harmful than helpful if you are simply dealing with the whistle/squeak noise...
I bet he is just a little dry due to the substrate/general dryness of the enclosure.....if the tort is active, eating, basking and no mucus discharge from the tort then I would not think RI...
