Eating and sleeping problems

[forujade00]

Good afternoon everyone. My daughter's tortoise won't eat any of its food in its enclosure. We normally feed him spring mix, castus pads and dandelions. But when we take him outside, he will eat my ground covering and weeds. I have tried to put some of the ground covering and weeds in his enclosure and he still will not eat any of it. He seems to only want to bury himself and sleep when he is in his enclosure. I don't see a problem right now, but I am worried that when it starts getting cold in Maryland, we will not be able to take him outside for him to eat. I am thinking that it maybe the lighting in his enclosure. We are attending the Repticon convention in Baltimore, Maryland to maybe pick up better lighting. Right now she has the Fluker's Clamp Lamps with a heating/lighting bulb that is near his basking rock. The temperature is normally around 80 degrees in the enclosure. Any ideas?

 

[Irish]

What type of tort? My daughter as a one year old red foot that is shy like yours. Try moving the food dish to another location, as it may add an air of mystery, that may make exploring the cage more inviting. Try rubbing the food you want with you tort's favorito Food, or blending It together. Also, try moistening it. I actually hand feed mine on occasion.

 

[forujade00]

What type of tort? My daughter as a one year old red foot that is shy like yours. Try moving the food dish to another location, as it may add an air of mystery, that may make exploring the cage more inviting. Try rubbing the food you want with you tort's favorito Food, or blending It together. Also, try moistening it. I actually hand feed mine on occasion.

She has a Russian. He won't eat from our hands. I have tried blending the foods together, but still no go.

 

[hunterk997]

Maybe try moving the dish. That suggestion seems like a good one. My tortoise does a similar thing, but I wake my tort up, then she explores and eats. I'm not sure why yours won't eat at all in the enclosure though. Does the enclosure have a basking spot? You mentioned just one temperature. There should be a basking end (90-100*F), a cool end (70-75), a warm end (80), and a night time cool down as low as temp the room gets. What kind of UV are you providing (if any)?

 

[Levi the Leopard]

My thoughts:

Your basking temp at 80F is too low. Make it 95F and then I assume that your Russian would eat while in the enclosure.

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[forujade00]

I'm going today to buy a temperature probe so will know the temperature if the whole enclosure.

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[Sulcata_Sandy]

I've not had tortoises very long, but neither of mine eat when they are cold...and by cold I mean a fridge'd 80°. LOL
I agree with above comments...move dish and increase heat.

 

[forujade00]

She is providing the powersun uv 190w self-ballasted mercury vapor uvb lamp.

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[forujade00]

I meant 100w. Sorry. I tested the temp in the basking area and it read 87. How can I bring up the temp?

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[ascott]

If your bulb is an ordinary heat bulb and no uva/uvb then you can simply move the bulb closer until you get a temp closer to the 95 ish mark....

Or you can obtain a secondary light for heat increase...

 

[forujade00]

If your bulb is an ordinary heat bulb and no uva/uvb then you can simply move the bulb closer until you get a temp closer to the 95 ish mark....

Or you can obtain a secondary light for heat increase...

The bulb is both heat and uvb. I was thinking about buying a heat emitter. Don't know much about it. I am going to do more studying.

 

[mikeh]

You can lower you UVB within reasonable distance to achieve higher basking temp. Pics of your enclosure would help to point you in right direction.

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[WillTort2]

What is the distance from your bulb to your substrate?

 

[biochemnerd808]

Sounds like you are already getting good advice. With a 100W bulb, you shouldn't need a ceramic heat emitter to boost the temps - you can just move the bulb down a little.
Keep in mind that the MVB bulbs need to be suspended vertically, not at an angle, or the life of the bulb will be shortened significantly. Instead of getting a lamp stand, I just buy those L-shaped shelf brackets at Home Depot (the cheap black $1.98 version that is 12" for each part of the "L"). I install that onto the wall above the enclosure, and use wire to securely suspend the light fixture/lamp above the tortoise enclosure. This allows me to move the lamp up or down a few inches to adjust the basking temps as needed.

What do you use to measure the temperature directly under the bulb? If you don't have one of those infrared/laser temp guns (love those!), you can put a meat thermometer directly under the bulb to measure the temp. It should be 95-100 degrees there.

Sometimes, the MVB is so bright for the first few weeks, that RTs tend to hide form it. I wonder if you move the food dish to a spot where the tortoise can sit a little bit away from the light to eat?