How to get a baby Hermann to open his mouth?

[Smiggle & Button]

Hello there, and please bear with me if this has been discussed before. My partner and I have a baby Hermann, a year old but we got him in March of last year. He is a lively fella, likes to tortoise around taking big steps, sniffing everything he can. He eats a lot, sometimes two helpings a day after a snooze. Loves baths and drinks enough. His toilet is the correct colour and texture, and he has heat lighting, uvb, different areas and textures to walk over and explore. However, this last week he is like a sulky teen; won't get up, walk anywhere, eat or even poop. We were told that if we kept the temp and lighting right, he wouldn't hibernate but by the looks of it he is trying to wind down. His table has a basking temp of 30c, cool area in a plant pot, average temp under the UVB of 25c. At night his bed area is 20c, no lower. The lighting and heating is kept on for 12 hours a day.

I have a Hermann book, and read whatever I can online about him but I am very nervous of letting him sleep. His is my link to the real world as he helps with my mental health and PTSD, and I would be devastated if anything happened to him. Any advice would be gratefully received and acted on.

Best wishes from Shane.

 

[Maro2Bear]

Greetings. Just wanted to pop in ? and say I’m SURE others will be along with thoughts. Id say you could always bump up the temps a bit & extend the hours of “daylight”. Torts are pretty intuitive & keyed into the real world (changes in humidity, atmospheric pressure, etc) - sooo, with us all in mid-Winter your guy just might need a few changes.

Good luck - happy torting.

 

[Smiggle & Button]

Our table set-up. Not shown is the UVB light hanging to the left of the basking lamp.

 

[Smiggle & Button]

Greetings. Just wanted to pop in ? and say I’m SURE others will be along with thoughts. Id say you could always bump up the temps a bit & extend the hours of “daylight”. Torts are pretty intuitive & keyed into the real world (changes in humidity, atmospheric pressure, etc) - sooo, with us all in mid-Winter your guy just might need a few changes.

Good luck - happy torting.

Hello there, and thank you for the reply. We have added a heater to the end of the table and also another light to try and trick him into staying awake. Sometimes he has a moment when he is back to normal, but most of the time he is fairly languid.

 

[psobie]

My Hermann’s is a year old too and he’s doing the same thing. I’m so worried about him.

 

[Smiggle & Button]

My Hermann’s is a year old too and he’s doing the same thing. I’m so worried about him.

We are bathing him regularly and increased the heating and lighting. He was more awake within 10 minutes but still not eating. We have a vet booked for Tuesday if nothing changes between now and then. Any advice we get we'll pass onto you. Best wishes for your little one.

 

[Smiggle & Button]

My Hermann’s is a year old too and he’s doing the same thing. I’m so worried about him.

Hello there. Sitrep; He is moving and eating now. We increased the temperature by 10 degrees and added a second light to imitate daylight. It took 24 hours for him to adjust, as we know tortoise don't like change, but we added another layer of substrate to make him inquisitive, moved a few things around to encourage him to explore and now he seems back to normal. I hope this helps, I'll add a pic of his table to show you.

 

[Smiggle & Button]

My Hermann’s is a year old too and he’s doing the same thing. I’m so worried about him.

 

[psobie]

Hello there, and thank you for the reply. We have added a heater to the end of the table and also another light to try and trick him into staying awake. Sometimes he has a moment when he is back to normal, but most of the time he is fairly languid.

Thanks

 

[Tom]

Hello there. Sitrep; He is moving and eating now. We increased the temperature by 10 degrees and added a second light to imitate daylight. It took 24 hours for him to adjust, as we know tortoise don't like change, but we added another layer of substrate to make him inquisitive, moved a few things around to encourage him to explore and now he seems back to normal. I hope this helps, I'll add a pic of his table to show you.

I was going to tell you to bump the temps up a bit all around and the basking area directly under the bulb should be about 36-37C. Adding more ambient light, and increasing the time the lights are on to 13-14 hours usually helps too. Looks like you already did these things and its working.

I see little white bits in your dry substrate. Did the pet shop sell you that awful Pets At Home substrate? Whoever "invented" that stuff should be taken out and flogged. Who thought it was a good idea to encourage a tortoise to eat sandy substrate by putting little white bits of calcium in it? That is a good way to get them impacted. That substrate is unsafe and should not be sold. I'd get rid of it ASAP and replace it with something damp that he can dig into. Overly dry conditions in n open table with hot lamps is going to make your baby pyramid. Every day that he is housed like that irreversible damage is done. What scares me the most is that I don't see a lot of the little white bits which makes me thing he already ate most of it. This is bad news. Long daily soaks will help it pass, along with weedy high fiber foods.

Pet shops are infamous for giving terrible care info and selling all the wrong products. Here is the current and correct care info:

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

tortoiseforum.org

 

[Smiggle & Button]

I was going to tell you to bump the temps up a bit all around and the basking area directly under the bulb should be about 36-37C. Adding more ambient light, and increasing the time the lights are on to 13-14 hours usually helps too. Looks like you already did these things and its working.

I see little white bits in your dry substrate. Did the pet shop sell you that awful Pets At Home substrate? Whoever "invented" that stuff should be taken out and flogged. Who thought it was a good idea to encourage a tortoise to eat sandy substrate by putting little white bits of calcium in it? That is a good way to get them impacted. That substrate is unsafe and should not be sold. I'd get rid of it ASAP and replace it with something damp that he can dig into. Overly dry conditions in n open table with hot lamps is going to make your baby pyramid. Every day that he is housed like that irreversible damage is done. What scares me the most is that I don't see a lot of the little white bits which makes me thing he already ate most of it. This is bad news. Long daily soaks will help it pass, along with weedy high fiber foods.

Pet shops are infamous for giving terrible care info and selling all the wrong products. Here is the current and correct care info:

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

tortoiseforum.org

Thank you for the reply Tom. We have replaced the substrate and we are taking him to the vet today as we suspect constipation/impaction. The warm baths didn't help and he is still sluggish and not performing toilet duties. Hopefully he will be back to tortoising around asap.

 

[Tom]

Thank you for the reply Tom. We have replaced the substrate and we are taking him to the vet today as we suspect constipation/impaction. The warm baths didn't help and he is still sluggish and not performing toilet duties. Hopefully he will be back to tortoising around asap.

I hope that is not the case, but if you do fid impaction, please let us know.

About your signature line: Don't forget Oogway from Kung Fu Panda.

 

[Smiggle & Button]

Well, the bad news from the vet is that our little Loki, aka Captain Scaleypants, has been born with a bone disorder. We are currently nursing the little chap using calcium drops and lots of love. Hr was bought from a supposedly reputable shop but it just goes to show, life can be cruel. The vet wasn't too encouraging but he has bags of character and strength and we are fighting all the way. Any help and recommendations greatly appreciated.

 

[Smiggle & Button]

I hope that is not the case, but if you do fid impaction, please let us know.

About your signature line: Don't forget Oogway from Kung Fu Panda.

oops, how did I forget him?!

 

[Smiggle & Button]

As our little chap is a bit poorly, we have to get calcium into him somehow. However, as he is tiny but strong, I can't seem to encourage him to open up for me to syringe the calcium in! He refuses to yawn, and no amount of tickling, teasing, talking nicely or stern looks makes him open wide. Any advice gratefully received.

 

[method89]

why not pour some powdered calcium on his food... Im not sure shooting a syringe full in his mouth is your best bet. Why do you think he needs this shot of calcium? what signs of sickness is he displaying?

 

[Toddrickfl1]

Well, the bad news from the vet is that our little Loki, aka Captain Scaleypants, has been born with a bone disorder. We are currently nursing the little chap using calcium drops and lots of love. Hr was bought from a supposedly reputable shop but it just goes to show, life can be cruel. The vet wasn't too encouraging but he has bags of character and strength and we are fighting all the way. Any help and recommendations greatly appreciated.

This doesn't sound right at all. What diagnostic tests were performed to come to this diagnosis?

 

[Smiggle & Button]

why not pour some powdered calcium on his food... Im not sure shooting a syringe full in his mouth is your best bet. Why do you think he needs this shot of calcium? what signs of sickness is he displaying?

An X-ray revealed he has a bone disease. He has stopped eating and drinking, so we are trying to get it in with a small syringe. We have liquidised romain lettuce, a bit of cucumber and the calcium and hoping we can find a technique to make it easy to feed! So far, very messy!

 

[Smiggle & Button]

This doesn't sound right at all. What diagnostic tests were performed to come to this diagnosis?

He had an X-ray, and he is small and a little underweight for his age.

 

[Yvonne G]

I don't know if you're aware, but all the calcium in the world doesn't work unless the tortoise also gets UVB either from the sun or from a GOOD UVB light. I really doubt he was born with this problem. If you don't have a good UVB light, that's what has caused the problem.