Hello fellow tortoise lovers!
My boyfriend and I bought a 6-month old leopard on Thursday. We're quite worried about the little guy, and since neither of us have owned tortoises before, we aren't sure if what our guy is doing is normal. We've done a lot of research, but have found very little information on young tortoises specifically.
Let me tell you a little about our tank set-up and such. We have a 10 gallon tank with a UVA/UVB light and one of those red heat lamps. We also have a space heater going in the room, keeping the temp between 78-90 degrees at all times within the tank. The humidity is 30-35%, and we have a dehumidifier in the room. Inside the tank there are "sunny" and "shady" areas. He has a couple of logs to hide under and some greenery. He has a shallow water dish and food dish, and we've been feeding him dandelion leaves, cucumber, orchard grass, and collared greens cut up.
Now on to what we're worried about... The little guy looks like he has the hiccups almost constantly. Not sure if this is what he has, but it's how it looks to us. He keeps moving his head up and down, even when he's asleep. He also has been eating very little that we've noticed, and sleeps nearly all day and night. We've seen him drink water, but we've barely seen him eat. Today we gave him a bath in a warm (not hot) dish. We're concerned about the hiccup-like action that he's doing as well as all of the sleep and very little food that we've seen him eat.
Does this sound abnormal? Does he sound sick? Or are we being the nervous parents here? HELP!
My boyfriend and I bought a 6-month old leopard on Thursday. We're quite worried about the little guy, and since neither of us have owned tortoises before, we aren't sure if what our guy is doing is normal. We've done a lot of research, but have found very little information on young tortoises specifically.
Let me tell you a little about our tank set-up and such. We have a 10 gallon tank with a UVA/UVB light and one of those red heat lamps. We also have a space heater going in the room, keeping the temp between 78-90 degrees at all times within the tank. The humidity is 30-35%, and we have a dehumidifier in the room. Inside the tank there are "sunny" and "shady" areas. He has a couple of logs to hide under and some greenery. He has a shallow water dish and food dish, and we've been feeding him dandelion leaves, cucumber, orchard grass, and collared greens cut up.
Now on to what we're worried about... The little guy looks like he has the hiccups almost constantly. Not sure if this is what he has, but it's how it looks to us. He keeps moving his head up and down, even when he's asleep. He also has been eating very little that we've noticed, and sleeps nearly all day and night. We've seen him drink water, but we've barely seen him eat. Today we gave him a bath in a warm (not hot) dish. We're concerned about the hiccup-like action that he's doing as well as all of the sleep and very little food that we've seen him eat.
Does this sound abnormal? Does he sound sick? Or are we being the nervous parents here? HELP!