Horsefield Baby - Lack of Weight Gain & Always Sleeping/Burrowing

[Mike2389]

Hi All

This forum has been very helpful in the past and I'm possibly over-worrying.

Context:
We have a 10 month old Horsfield Tortoise 'Dorothy' which we have had for about 10 weeks now and she has been 51g since we got her.

We have her in a 5ftx3ft vivarium with top soil and coco coir substrate depth of 4-6inches. We have brown paper over part of the glass windows to prevent her from seeing out. She has plenty of places to hide and burrow and a couple of spider plants in the enclosure.
We are using a 75W basking bulb and a UVB strip along the length of the enclosure both on 14 hour timers. The warm end is 31-32C and the cool end is around 24-27C. Humidity is between 50-60% during the day. The night time temps are about 20-24C but this has been hard to keep down with the recent heatwave.

Her diet is varied based on weeds etc. using the tortoise table app as a guide.

Now for the area of concern:

Every morning (10/11am) we need to dig her out and wake her up (lamps have usually been on for 5hrs or so by this point) for her bath.
We bathe her 30mins he poops in her bath almost everyday and add reptoboost 3 times a week to the water.
After her bath we let her roam on a towel to dry off and she usually eats leaves we put near the towel (with calcium dusted 3-4 times a week).
In the warm weather in recent weeks we took her explore bits of the garden with us closeby for 30mins or so, which she seemed to enjoy.

Whenever we put her back in her vivarium (whether she has been outside or not and no matter how long after her bath), she goes straight to her hide, or the corners of the viv, burrows down and sleeps until we wake her the next day.

We are a bit concerned by the inactivity and lack of weight gain. We took her to the vet recently who gave her a vit B injection and said to monitor weight in the coming weeks. We are also going to do a worm count incase this is the issue.

Does anyone have any suggestions, is this activity normal for a young horsefield?

We are new tortoise parents and want to do the best for Dorothy so any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Tom]

What is the basking temp directly under the 75 watt bulb?

What type of UV strip and what mounting height? Do you have a Solarmeter 6.5?

Can we see a pic of the enclosure?

 

[Mike2389]

What is the basking temp directly under the 75 watt bulb?

What type of UV strip and what mounting height? Do you have a Solarmeter 6.5?

Can we see a pic of the enclosure?

Basking temp: 33-35C under the light, but she never goes near it on her own and when we do put her underneath she goes straight to her hide or to sleep
UVB Light: Arcadia FD3P39T5 T5 D3+ Reptile Lamp (12%). Mounted at the top of viv (approx 60cm)
Solarmeter: No we don't
Picture: I can post one a bit later

We used to have a 100W bulb but it was too hot in the enclosure so we switched out for 75W

 

[Tom]

Basking temp: 33-35C under the light, but she never goes near it on her own and when we do put her underneath she goes straight to her hide or to sleep
UVB Light: Arcadia FD3P39T5 T5 D3+ Reptile Lamp (12%). Mounted at the top of viv (approx 60cm)
Solarmeter: No we don't
Picture: I can post one a bit later

We used to have a 100W bulb but it was too hot in the enclosure so we switched out for 75W

All of that sounds pretty good. What type of 75 watt bulb? Its curious that the tortoise avoids that entirely. Maybe try a different one since you saw a clear behavioral change when you changed bulbs. Is it a spot bulb? Maybe switch to a flood bulb instead and adjust the fixture height to get the right basking temp under it?

 

[Mike2389]

So could the behaviour and lack of weight gain be due to temperatures?

Previously the tank was too hot and Dorothy was very inactive but didn't burrow that much. I posted here for advice and switched bulbs to reduce the temps.

The basking lamp is a 75W version of the ProRep ES Basking Spotlamp

 

[Mike2389]

Here are a few pictures of the tank itself.

 

[Mike2389]

All of that sounds pretty good. What type of 75 watt bulb? Its curious that the tortoise avoids that entirely. Maybe try a different one since you saw a clear behavioral change when you changed bulbs. Is it a spot bulb? Maybe switch to a flood bulb instead and adjust the fixture height to get the right basking temp under it?

I'm assuming everything is ok?

 

[Golden Greek Tortoise 567]

Here are a few pictures of the tank itself.

Looks like there’s a lot of calcium powder on that, try putting much less, like a tiny pinch and she might eat more. Some torts don’t like the calcium powder.

 

[Tom]

I'm assuming everything is ok?

What length is the Arcadia tube?

Did you try a different basking bulb? Spot bulbs will cause pyramiding.

 

[Mike2389]

Looks like there’s a lot of calcium powder on that, try putting much less, like a tiny pinch and she might eat more. Some torts don’t like the calcium powder.

Thanks for reply, yes that is much more than we usually put on and Dorothy doesn't like calcium so we try to put only a little on there.

 

[Mike2389]

What length is the Arcadia tube?

Did you try a different basking bulb? Spot bulbs will cause pyramiding.

Thanks for reply Tom

The packaging for the spare we have (same size) says 42inches for the arcadia tube lamp

We haven't tried a different basking bulb yet as planning to go to garden centre which sells them at the weekend.
What sort of bulb should we get if not a spot bulb?

 

[Tom]

Thanks for reply Tom

The packaging for the spare we have (same size) says 42inches for the arcadia tube lamp

We haven't tried a different basking bulb yet as planning to go to garden centre which sells them at the weekend.
What sort of bulb should we get if not a spot bulb?

There are four elements to heating and lighting:

1. Basking bulb. I use 65 watt floods from the hardware store. I run them on a timer for about 12 hours and adjust the height to get the correct basking temp under them. I also like to use a flat rock of some sort directly under the bulb.
2. Ambient heat maintenance. I use ceramic heating elements or radiant heat panels set on thermostats to maintain ambient above 80 degrees day and night for tropical species. You'd only need day heat for a temperate species like Testudo or DT.
3. Light. I use LEDs for this purpose. Something in the 5000-6500K color range will look the best. Most bulbs at the store are in the 2500K range and they look yellowish.
4. UV. If you can get your tortoise outside for an hour 2 or 3 times a week, you won't need indoor UV. If you want it anyway, get one of the newer HO type fluorescent tubes. Which type will depend on mounting height. 5.0 bulbs make almost no UV. You need a meter to check this: https://www.solarmeter.com/model65.html

 

[Mike2389]

There are four elements to heating and lighting:

1. Basking bulb. I use 65 watt floods from the hardware store. I run them on a timer for about 12 hours and adjust the height to get the correct basking temp under them. I also like to use a flat rock of some sort directly under the bulb.
2. Ambient heat maintenance. I use ceramic heating elements or radiant heat panels set on thermostats to maintain ambient above 80 degrees day and night for tropical species. You'd only need day heat for a temperate species like Testudo or DT.
3. Light. I use LEDs for this purpose. Something in the 5000-6500K color range will look the best. Most bulbs at the store are in the 2500K range and they look yellowish.
4. UV. If you can get your tortoise outside for an hour 2 or 3 times a week, you won't need indoor UV. If you want it anyway, get one of the newer HO type fluorescent tubes. Which type will depend on mounting height. 5.0 bulbs make almost no UV. You need a meter to check this: https://www.solarmeter.com/model65.html

Thanks for this, I'll certainly look at changing things around.

We've just had the worm count results and turns out she has pinworm, so will begin treatment tomorrow morning at the Vets.

Hopefully this helps things.

Really appreciate your advice and will report back