My redfiot hatchling is 21 days old today. Im a little worried.
His yolk sac area is still not closed up. The reason im worried about that is because there is an area thats not covered by that yellow membrane/skin like covering. It looks like his stomach or some part of his abdomen is exposed. Its pink and fleshy. Sometimes it looks smaller an sometimes a little bigger, like its sticking out more. He is in a rubbermaid container ( as a brooder box) inside his enclosure on a slighly damp paper towel. He is in a closed chamber. Ambient temp set at 87 but according to my infra red thermometer surface temp is 84 -85. I think thats about right. Humidity is pretty steady at around 80%. He isnt very active. He has eaten a few bites of food. And tasted a few bites of food but i dont think hes actually eaten anything for at least 3 days. I have been soaking him daily for about 15 min at a time. He has a reptisun 10.0 uv light but i only leave it on a few hrs at a time right now. I guess i dont want him to get too active untill his shell closes up entirely.
But something just doesnt seem right. Is this normal or is he struggling?
I have offered him finely chopped baby grass, clover, strawberry, leaf lettuce, romaine, cantelope, and even a couple moistened aquatic turtle sticks. I think he ate one turtle stick and maybe a couple bites of greens over this 3 week period but thats it. Is this ok? What am i doing wrong?
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His yolk sac area is still not closed up. The reason im worried about that is because there is an area thats not covered by that yellow membrane/skin like covering. It looks like his stomach or some part of his abdomen is exposed. Its pink and fleshy. Sometimes it looks smaller an sometimes a little bigger, like its sticking out more. He is in a rubbermaid container ( as a brooder box) inside his enclosure on a slighly damp paper towel. He is in a closed chamber. Ambient temp set at 87 but according to my infra red thermometer surface temp is 84 -85. I think thats about right. Humidity is pretty steady at around 80%. He isnt very active. He has eaten a few bites of food. And tasted a few bites of food but i dont think hes actually eaten anything for at least 3 days. I have been soaking him daily for about 15 min at a time. He has a reptisun 10.0 uv light but i only leave it on a few hrs at a time right now. I guess i dont want him to get too active untill his shell closes up entirely.
But something just doesnt seem right. Is this normal or is he struggling?
I have offered him finely chopped baby grass, clover, strawberry, leaf lettuce, romaine, cantelope, and even a couple moistened aquatic turtle sticks. I think he ate one turtle stick and maybe a couple bites of greens over this 3 week period but thats it. Is this ok? What am i doing wrong?
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like I said though, I am a novice so hopefully someone with more experience in tortoises will come along. He's a beautiful little guy!
