psmith
Member
Haven't posted here in awhile, as I've been putting my thoughts together. To start with, our little Sheldon has passed. We had him almost three months to the day. Never having had a tortoise before, we had no benchmark to go by. So....he was active, ate what we thought was a lot etc. At least we thought so. Then he stopped eating. Got sluggish. We cranked up the heat in his enclosure a few degrees and started daily carrot baths. No improvement. After a week, against my better judgement we took him to a local vet who is recommended by other "exotic" pet owners around here. It took about five minutes to realize this person didn't know tortoises. The vet kept him for the day, gave him critical care food, fortaz and a calcium shot. We picked him up that afternoon. He was at least somewhat active prior to the vet, afterwards he wouldn't respond at all. We were like, what have these people done to him?? The next morning he was gone.
I contacted a breeder in Florida who is on this forum and well recommended here. After speaking for awhile the conclusion was hatchling failure syndrome. We discussed our care of Sheldon, this breeder said we were doing it right and shouldn't have had a problem with a healthy tort. I guess one of the big give aways was that his plastron never hardened up. It was flexible when we got him, figured for a young tort this was normal. It didn't get better, if anything got worse as he grew. He did grow, but it wasn't the kind of growth he should've had.
There was another thread here posted maybe a couple months ago by someone who bought a leopard tort from the same breeder as Sheldon. I commented on that thread at the time. The same exact thing happened to us as them. Even the same time frame.
Obviously we were devastated, our 5 year old granddaughter who lives with us especially.
We've since purchased a new leopard from the breeder in Florida (Southern reptiles). There is a very large difference between the two tortoises. This new one is bigger for his age. We thought Sheldon ate well, this one eats like a shark. And he's just all around perkier if that makes sense. Sheldon ate, it was more slow and deliberate. This new guy moves fast. Its almost like he strikes like a snake at the food. Plastron is hard. No flexibility at all.
We've only had him for three weeks, he's gained roughly 35 grams in that period. Some of that may be food weight, but he was 99g the day we received him, a couple of days ago he weighed in at 35g.
It does help to know that there's nothing we could've done for Sheldon, but still, we're pi$$#d at the breeder as well as the vet. Speaking to Sheldon's breeder, we thought all was good. He had the right answers. Right temps, high humidity etc. Well, we found out some things that don't line up with what he advertised.
And the vet! We were told to stop the daily soaks, as that was contributing to his soft plastron. And carrot baths are wrong, they don't do anything, it's impossible for a tort to absorb anything through the cloaca, not enough nutrients through swallowing small amounts of water to matter etc.
Sorry for the long post but it's good to get it out in a community that understands.
We're moving forward with our new tort, who is named Frogmore, and just dealing with the loss of Sheldon. We foresee a larger enclosure needed in the near future!
Thanks for listening y'all. Will post pics of Frogmore soon.
I contacted a breeder in Florida who is on this forum and well recommended here. After speaking for awhile the conclusion was hatchling failure syndrome. We discussed our care of Sheldon, this breeder said we were doing it right and shouldn't have had a problem with a healthy tort. I guess one of the big give aways was that his plastron never hardened up. It was flexible when we got him, figured for a young tort this was normal. It didn't get better, if anything got worse as he grew. He did grow, but it wasn't the kind of growth he should've had.
There was another thread here posted maybe a couple months ago by someone who bought a leopard tort from the same breeder as Sheldon. I commented on that thread at the time. The same exact thing happened to us as them. Even the same time frame.
Obviously we were devastated, our 5 year old granddaughter who lives with us especially.
We've since purchased a new leopard from the breeder in Florida (Southern reptiles). There is a very large difference between the two tortoises. This new one is bigger for his age. We thought Sheldon ate well, this one eats like a shark. And he's just all around perkier if that makes sense. Sheldon ate, it was more slow and deliberate. This new guy moves fast. Its almost like he strikes like a snake at the food. Plastron is hard. No flexibility at all.
We've only had him for three weeks, he's gained roughly 35 grams in that period. Some of that may be food weight, but he was 99g the day we received him, a couple of days ago he weighed in at 35g.
It does help to know that there's nothing we could've done for Sheldon, but still, we're pi$$#d at the breeder as well as the vet. Speaking to Sheldon's breeder, we thought all was good. He had the right answers. Right temps, high humidity etc. Well, we found out some things that don't line up with what he advertised.
And the vet! We were told to stop the daily soaks, as that was contributing to his soft plastron. And carrot baths are wrong, they don't do anything, it's impossible for a tort to absorb anything through the cloaca, not enough nutrients through swallowing small amounts of water to matter etc.
Sorry for the long post but it's good to get it out in a community that understands.
We're moving forward with our new tort, who is named Frogmore, and just dealing with the loss of Sheldon. We foresee a larger enclosure needed in the near future!
Thanks for listening y'all. Will post pics of Frogmore soon.
