concerned about baby?

[iluvtortoise]

Hi, I got a baby hermann‘s tortoise a couple of months ago, and it was going so well I decided to get her a baby sister. I got the baby, around 9mo old, yesterday and put her in the enclosure with her. All seemed to be well at first, all parameters are correct in the enclosure and I’m almost 100% certain it isn’t an enclosure issue, but she hasn’t moved or opened her eyes all day. She isn’t limp - her legs and head are firmly in the position she’s in, so I don’t think she’s deceased, but I am worried as she is not waking up or responding to anything at all? This didn’t happen with my first tortoise and she’s still fine as can be, so I’m concerned, but am reading online that this could be a normal response to a new environment. Is it normal? Or should I be worried?

 

[zovick]

Hi, I got a baby hermann‘s tortoise a couple of months ago, and it was going so well I decided to get her a baby sister. I got the baby, around 9mo old, yesterday and put her in the enclosure with her. All seemed to be well at first, all parameters are correct in the enclosure and I’m almost 100% certain it isn’t an enclosure issue, but she hasn’t moved or opened her eyes all day. She isn’t limp - her legs and head are firmly in the position she’s in, so I don’t think she’s deceased, but I am worried as she is not waking up or responding to anything at all? This didn’t happen with my first tortoise and she’s still fine as can be, so I’m concerned, but am reading online that this could be a normal response to a new environment. Is it normal? Or should I be worried?

That tortoise does not look well. It looks very dehydrated.

That being said, if you look, you will see very numerous threads on here about NOT keeping tortoises in pairs. They don't want or like company. You should plan to get rid of that second one ASAP. Personally, the way it looks, I would try to return it for a full refund.

 

[iluvtortoise]

That tortoise does not look well. It looks very dehydrated.

That being said, if you look, you will see very numerous threads on here about NOT keeping tortoises in pairs. They don't want or like company. You should plan to get rid of that second one ASAP. Personally, the way it looks, I would try to return it for a full refund.

Thank you! I appreciate the insight.

 

[COmtnLady]

How often and for how long are you soaking the babies?

What is the humidity in the enclosures you are using? What are the temperatures?

There are some particularly nasty contagious diseases going around right now that kill a lot of tortoises. The best you can hope for is stunted growth and a huge veterinarian bill (but most vets don't know how to treat some of the diseases yet). Any/all tortoises should be quarantined for several weeks before bringing them anywhere near your established tortoise. That means not even bringing a new one into the same the room, washing your hands extremely well after handling the new one, and being careful about contaminating your clothing then passing it on to your established tortoise that way. Be sure to sterilize anything that the new one touches.

What Zovick said above is the best advice to follow.

If you choose not to do that, get the sick baby into a warm soak asap... within the hour. Get something it can NOT climb out of that holds water. Make the water only as deep as where the upper and lower shell come together. The water HAS to be warm. (It needs to be 95F. Run it over the inside of your wrist; if it feels cool, it needs to be warmer, but if it feels too hot it will be too hot for your tortoise, too.) Since the water is so shallow you will need to monitor it closely and probably change it/warm it every 5 minutes or less. Soak for at least a half a hour. As bad as this little guy looks, longer soaks are better.


Then you need to familiarize with this info~

Signs of bullying in young tortoises

What about a group of hatchlings of two species? Hermanns and Sulcatas. Both are one month old. Species should never be mixed. These two species have different housing and feeding requirements. If both are kept in the same enclosure, one of them will be in the wrong environment. There is also...

tortoiseforum.org

Why not to keep 2 tortoises together - a lesson learned the hard way

This is a copy/paste of an article I wrote on my blog last year. I've seen several new keepers ask the question of whether they should get a 'friend' for their tortoise, and so rather than keeping on linking to my blog (which feels kinda self-promoting, which is not my intent), I am creating a...

tortoiseforum.org

 

[iluvtortoise]

How often and for how long are you soaking the babies?

What is the humidity in the enclosures you are using? What are the temperatures?

There are some particularly nasty contagious diseases going around right now that kill a lot of tortoises. The best you can hope for is stunted growth and a huge veterinarian bill (but most vets don't know how to treat some of the diseases yet). Any/all tortoises should be quarantined for several weeks before bringing them anywhere near your established tortoise. That means not even bringing a new one into the same the room, washing your hands extremely well after handling the new one, and being careful about contaminating your clothing then passing it on to your established tortoise that way. Be sure to sterilize anything that the new one touches.

What Zovick said above is the best advice to follow.

If you choose not to do that, get the sick baby into a warm soak asap... within the hour. Get something it can NOT climb out of that holds water. Make the water only as deep as where the upper and lower shell come together. The water HAS to be warm. (It needs to be 95F. Run it over the inside of your wrist; if it feels cool, it needs to be warmer, but if it feels too hot it will be too hot for your tortoise, too.) Since the water is so shallow you will need to monitor it closely and probably change it/warm it every 5 minutes or less. Soak for at least a half a hour. As bad as this little guy looks, longer soaks are better.


Then you need to familiarize with this info~

Signs of bullying in young tortoises

What about a group of hatchlings of two species? Hermanns and Sulcatas. Both are one month old. Species should never be mixed. These two species have different housing and feeding requirements. If both are kept in the same enclosure, one of them will be in the wrong environment. There is also...

tortoiseforum.org

Why not to keep 2 tortoises together - a lesson learned the hard way

This is a copy/paste of an article I wrote on my blog last year. I've seen several new keepers ask the question of whether they should get a 'friend' for their tortoise, and so rather than keeping on linking to my blog (which feels kinda self-promoting, which is not my intent), I am creating a...

tortoiseforum.org

Hi there - thank you for getting back to me with such helpful information. Unfortunately she did not make it through the night Some more background -

My tortoise enclosure is handmade from a 2x4 metal, pond liner-lined greenhouse planter stand with an enclosed greenhouse tent fixture. I do plan on upgrading size, this is just their starting set up. I run CHE overnight at just above 80F, with a basking lamp above a stone basking area during the day time that maxes out in the warmest points at just around 100F. Ambient temp is never below 76. LED ambient lighting and a 4 hour Arcadia UVB lamp cycle.

This baby unfortunately started showing these signs the day that I got her, so it had nothing to do with my care of her - I have a video of me putting her in the enclosure the moment I got her home, and what I thought was just stress lethargy from being at a reptile show was actually the first sign I missed that something was wrong. I am unfortunately a new tortoise owner and signs of dehydration were not something I was keen enough to identify until she was away from the other tortoises at the show.

Also, I realize now I was in fact misled about tortoise keeping in pairs. I actually purchased both tortoises 2 months apart from the same seller. When I purchased Fig, my first tortoise from this seller, she was amazingly healthy, happy, and energetic from the start. He seemed extremely knowledgeable, passionate, and trusted/revered by other sellers at the expo. He initially offered me a deal to get 2 tortoises, where the second would be half off. I could only afford to get one & get her set up, but told him I wanted to possibly come back for another. He did in fact lead me to believe I could keep a pair of similarly aged babies and encouraged me to do so, so unfortunately I did take him at his word on that, and when researching getting them set up, that specific point of keeping pairs of tortoises being potentially bad was not something I came across I went back this past Sunday (currently Tuesday) to get this second tortoise. I’d asked if they’d been soaked that day and they told me yes, so I did not soak her again Sunday. When I got home, she did move a bit, but it was almost drunk-looking. I assumed maybe she was stressed from the day. After a while I realized she wasn’t moving at all, so I started to worry and posted the photos above. She was unresponsive all day yesterday - I did my best to soak her, place her near food, near heat, make sure my humidity was right - but nothing seemed to stir her. From that point, I’m fairly certain there was not much I could do. Today she is limp and I’m fairly certain she is gone I am attempting to get my money back but I’m not certain that I will. He did offer to hold another tortoise for me for the next show next month, but that sounds like it isn’t the best idea. Hoping he’ll just refund my money, but honestly, I’m genuinely devastated

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

Hi there - thank you for getting back to me with such helpful information. Unfortunately she did not make it through the night Some more background -

My tortoise enclosure is handmade from a 2x4 metal, pond liner-lined greenhouse planter stand with an enclosed greenhouse tent fixture. I do plan on upgrading size, this is just their starting set up. I run CHE overnight at just above 80F, with a basking lamp above a stone basking area during the day time that maxes out in the warmest points at just around 100F. Ambient temp is never below 76. LED ambient lighting and a 4 hour Arcadia UVB lamp cycle.

This baby unfortunately started showing these signs the day that I got her, so it had nothing to do with my care of her - I have a video of me putting her in the enclosure the moment I got her home, and what I thought was just stress lethargy from being at a reptile show was actually the first sign I missed that something was wrong. I am unfortunately a new tortoise owner and signs of dehydration were not something I was keen enough to identify until she was away from the other tortoises at the show.

Also, I realize now I was in fact misled about tortoise keeping in pairs. I actually purchased both tortoises 2 months apart from the same seller. When I purchased Fig, my first tortoise from this seller, she was amazingly healthy, happy, and energetic from the start. He seemed extremely knowledgeable, passionate, and trusted/revered by other sellers at the expo. He initially offered me a deal to get 2 tortoises, where the second would be half off. I could only afford to get one & get her set up, but told him I wanted to possibly come back for another. He did in fact lead me to believe I could keep a pair of similarly aged babies and encouraged me to do so, so unfortunately I did take him at his word on that, and when researching getting them set up, that specific point of keeping pairs of tortoises being potentially bad was not something I came across I went back this past Sunday (currently Tuesday) to get this second tortoise. I’d asked if they’d been soaked that day and they told me yes, so I did not soak her again Sunday. When I got home, she did move a bit, but it was almost drunk-looking. I assumed maybe she was stressed from the day. After a while I realized she wasn’t moving at all, so I started to worry and posted the photos above. She was unresponsive all day yesterday - I did my best to soak her, place her near food, near heat, make sure my humidity was right - but nothing seemed to stir her. From that point, I’m fairly certain there was not much I could do. Today she is limp and I’m fairly certain she is gone I am attempting to get my money back but I’m not certain that I will. He did offer to hold another tortoise for me for the next show next month, but that sounds like it isn’t the best idea. Hoping he’ll just refund my money, but honestly, I’m genuinely devastated

I am sorry for your loss .

It sounds like you got the tortoises from the wrong source. Whatever was the cause of death was not your fault since you had it for such a short time.

I wouldn't get anymore tortoises from the same source. In my opinion the best course of action is taking care of the one you currently have as well as you can.

If you would like to, you can write a review based on your own experience in our tortoise vendor reviews section:

Tortoise Vendor Reviews

Share feedback on tortoise-related vendors like breeders, feed and reptile supply companies

tortoiseforum.org

 

[iluvtortoise]

I am sorry for your loss .

It sounds like you got the tortoises from the wrong source. Whatever was the cause of death was not your fault since you had it for such a short time.

I wouldn't get anymore tortoises from the same source. In my opinion the best course of action is taking care of the one you currently have as well as you can.

If you would like to, you can write a review based on your own experience in our tortoise vendor reviews section:

Tortoise Vendor Reviews

Share feedback on tortoise-related vendors like breeders, feed and reptile supply companies

tortoiseforum.org

I was definitely shocked because of how well revered he was at the convention that it went so poorly Thank you, I may end up reviewing. He did mention briefly on the phone when I got to talk to him about the baby that he and his wife were briefly out of town and it’s possible those who were caring for them while he was gone did not properly soak them. I’m not sure - but I definitely will not be purchasing from him again