Does my Russian tortoise have hatchling failure syndrome?
- Thread starter EE torts
- Start date
Yay!! That's so good to hear!
Arzu78
Active Member
Awww, he’s safe, God bless [emoji1317][emoji1317][emoji1317], great job [emoji1319][emoji1319][emoji1319][emoji1319][emoji8][emoji8][emoji8]
Could be a slow process for the little guy to get better. You still keeping up with soaks, checking temps, etc? Also, is he just eating romaine?
yes daily or twice daily soaks, yes doing everything the same temps humidity etc. no he is not eating just romaine i slowly added in collard greens and some zoomed tortoise food, i know it dose not sound like the most varied diet but this is the only food he will eat i am trying to slowly introduce new foods,
Just keep doing what your doing and hopefully this little guy will perk up soon.
Good morning! so today he was up before me walking around going on top of his hides etc. he is finally acting like normal! i just wanted to say thanks to everyone who helped us over come HFS if it warrant for everyone here giving me advice and helping out he definitely would not have gotten this far, so thank you so much for all the help i appreciate it so much and i'm sure pebbles dose too.
Little one still doing good?
yes! he is active eating doing everything a tortoise should do!
Good to hear! Keep posting pictures and measurements! I'm really curious as to how your little dude grows.
okay i will.
this morning he woke up and started his day a couple hours later i saw him drinking out of his water dish for the first time and now he is just sitting in it soaking him self basically i am so happy he is defiantly well hydrated now since he is getting daily soaks pluse doing it on his own 
and yes the water dish is messy because he draged his substrate in i clean it daily.
and yes the water dish is messy because he draged his substrate in i clean it daily.
The substrate looks quite dry. Damp substrate stays innplace better and helps to raise humidity. Apologies if it's just the photo. If not, take all the decor out and tip water in from a jug, mixing it with your hands until all of it is evenly damp right to the bottom and into the corners.
You can also try surrounding the water dish with large flat pebbles so there's a hard surface for claw maintenance and the substrate isn't dragged in so easily.
Those reptile bowls aren't ideal for torts as the steep sides are tipping hazard. A terracotta plant saucer would be better.
With the coco coir I would use just that and it got to the point where o was tired of all the mess, so I keep the coir damp and a little swampy them added orchid bark over it and just misted the bark until the wicking began keeping the bark damp. It also is a much cleaner environment. The only issue I have is cleaning out her terra cotta dish where her playroom rubs and I get green what looks like moss build up. It's actually from her grasses and weeds. I have to clean it with a tooth brush every two days, but I'm good with that as long as her enclosure looks and stays cleaner.
ThatOneTortoiseLoverKid
Member
I think you could even lower the humdity, I have a friend who raises up his Russian Tortoise outside in a dry environment and it has no pyramiding. Make sure to feed no fruits, as this will be hard for the tortoise to digest, and will weaken the immune system as it tries to eat more.
thanks for the info! a couple times a week i mix water in the substrate like you said, i was going to do that today anyway, yes i have heard that the reptile bowels aren't ideal but i have a small terracotta dish but the sides our actually higher than the reptile bowels and he has a harder time going in and out in the terracota dish than the reptile bowel, thank you though.
really lower the humidity? everyone eles on the forum said rais it what should i do?
Follow the advice of experienced long term members of this forum like @Tom
If your tortoise is young then high humidity and steady warmth is the way to go
An older tortoise can cope in lower levels of humidity and temperatures can drop a little at night
A tortoise may survive what the friend of a more recent member of the forum does, but it isn't the way we have discovered to be in the best interests of the tortoise
