Hi guys,
My 1 year old female Russian tortoise doesn't behave as she was before. She used to be very active and had a large appitite: walking around before the lights were on, climbing on everything she could see, devouring her food, , constantly walking around her enclosure and immidiately reacts to food when she sees it coming. It was a healthy tortoise.
Lately she has been acting sluggish. She sleeps the most part of the day. She would open her eyes sometimes and look around, but she doesn't get up to roam or climb, only to fall asleep again after being awake for few minutes. She constantly sleeps on the same spot, and sometimes moves to another spot to sleep. When its bed time she used to have different places to sleep, but nowadays she sleeps in the same hide every night.
Neither has she been eating alot. My tortoise used to be a monster when it comes to food. I was worried that she would overeat. She has this behaviour to walk over her food and make a mess of it before she starts eating. Spring mix and endive are her favorite, but she has a weak heart for dandelion flowers. One time she saw me coming with dandelion flowers in my hand. Reacted immidiately ofcourse, but it was funny to see that my tortoise was reaching out her right arm to grab her food like "give it to me!". Sadly these behaviour don't occur these days anymore. When its lunch time she would walk to her food and nibble a bit, and falls asleep after not eating much. She still eats dandelion, but not with much passion as before. She doesn't eat her food when I sprinkle it with calcium.
As a beginning tortoise keeper I don't have much knowledge about tortoise's way of thinking and doing, so I hope someone can help me and provide me the anwser to my problem. I'm not sure but I think that lightning may have something to do. I used to have two lamps: Reptech 80W MVB and Reptech 20W basking lamp. I don't use the basking lamp anymore because its useless when the MVB is on and it doesn't make the enclosure much warmer. However her enclosure is a bit darker without the basking lamp on.
Temps: basking spot 95-100F, warm side 85F, cool side 75F, night 75F (room temperature).
Substrate: moist coco coir with a dry upper layer
Humidity: mostly + 50%
Enclosure: open enclosure (planning to make a closed enclosure asap for better humidity/temps)
My 1 year old female Russian tortoise doesn't behave as she was before. She used to be very active and had a large appitite: walking around before the lights were on, climbing on everything she could see, devouring her food, , constantly walking around her enclosure and immidiately reacts to food when she sees it coming. It was a healthy tortoise.
Lately she has been acting sluggish. She sleeps the most part of the day. She would open her eyes sometimes and look around, but she doesn't get up to roam or climb, only to fall asleep again after being awake for few minutes. She constantly sleeps on the same spot, and sometimes moves to another spot to sleep. When its bed time she used to have different places to sleep, but nowadays she sleeps in the same hide every night.
Neither has she been eating alot. My tortoise used to be a monster when it comes to food. I was worried that she would overeat. She has this behaviour to walk over her food and make a mess of it before she starts eating. Spring mix and endive are her favorite, but she has a weak heart for dandelion flowers. One time she saw me coming with dandelion flowers in my hand. Reacted immidiately ofcourse, but it was funny to see that my tortoise was reaching out her right arm to grab her food like "give it to me!". Sadly these behaviour don't occur these days anymore. When its lunch time she would walk to her food and nibble a bit, and falls asleep after not eating much. She still eats dandelion, but not with much passion as before. She doesn't eat her food when I sprinkle it with calcium.
As a beginning tortoise keeper I don't have much knowledge about tortoise's way of thinking and doing, so I hope someone can help me and provide me the anwser to my problem. I'm not sure but I think that lightning may have something to do. I used to have two lamps: Reptech 80W MVB and Reptech 20W basking lamp. I don't use the basking lamp anymore because its useless when the MVB is on and it doesn't make the enclosure much warmer. However her enclosure is a bit darker without the basking lamp on.
Temps: basking spot 95-100F, warm side 85F, cool side 75F, night 75F (room temperature).
Substrate: moist coco coir with a dry upper layer
Humidity: mostly + 50%
Enclosure: open enclosure (planning to make a closed enclosure asap for better humidity/temps)
