I think my male tortoise is sick, please help.

Potato_king

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Hello everyone

So few months ago i bought my male tortois , i noticed he was in poor health
And it's probably my fault for not checking him out before i bought him. He was obviously sick because he couldn't left his shell when he walks and he was very dehydrated. His shell lost it's color and his nails were very long. Anyway, i started to look after him and his health got better.
Sorry for the babbling, i just wanted to give you a background about him
So, for a month now, he is not the same.
I posted few threads before because i thought he was dying.
What makes me believe that he is sick is the following.
1. He is not pooping in the water when i soak him anymore, but he poops (not much) in the enclosur.
2. He sleeps for a long time.
3. He suddenly became scared of me.
4. His appetite is not very good.
6C7CF11A-9A2D-4DA3-ABBC-ADDB5B26FDA5.jpeg
This is a picture for their outside pen
technically it's not a pen,i cleaned a piece of the garden where we are planting Arabian jasmine and mint. They have access to sunlight and shade. There is clean water too. they have hiding places and there is some hay for them to bury themselves. Should i remove more plants?

As for their diet, here lies the problem in my Opinion. I explained in my previous posts how here in Oman is very difficult to provide plants that are edible for tortoise.
I feed them lettuce, leaves ( grape, mango rose), im also giving them some common herbs that I find in the garden( the once that are edible for tortoises). Their diet is lacking flowers but i bought a hibiscus flower and im waiting for it to bloom. Also i give them some dandelions ocationally (both the flowers and the leaves). I put calcium powder every two days or so.
The temperature here is usually 35° c (95°F). It goes up sometimes.
I can't tell for sure what the humidity is, but i spray the garden almost every day.
A27384CA-EB4F-4D5B-B90D-FBD27E7F4914.jpeg

Here is the little guy, i know he looks dehydrated but i soak him two times a week and i spray their food with some water, also he eats, walks around but he spend more time sleeping.
 
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Potato_king

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Forgot to mention that he likes sleeping under the mint plants. Today i saw him sleeping there. Does the pen looks crowded with plants? If there is anything i could change to make it good for them please tell me.
Thank you in advance
 

Yvonne G

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You need to soak him every day for about 30 minutes. ONce he's not so dehydrated you can start soaking daily for 15 minutes. This is very important. Being scared of you, the big giant thing that's going to eat him, is a good thing. When he wasn't feeling good he didn't care if the giant thing ate him, but now he's feeling better, he doesn't want to be eaten.

Eventually, as he becomes used to you bringing the food, he'll change his mind about you and start thinking of you as the food god.
 

Potato_king

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You need to soak him every day for about 30 minutes. ONce he's not so dehydrated you can start soaking daily for 15 minutes. This is very important. Being scared of you, the big giant thing that's going to eat him, is a good thing. When he wasn't feeling good he didn't care if the giant thing ate him, but now he's feeling better, he doesn't want to be eaten.

Eventually, as he becomes used to you bringing the food, he'll change his mind about you and start thinking of you as the food god.
ohh thank you very much !! it makes sense now!
I will start soaking him tomorrow.
 

Potato_king

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C3A26084-4FF3-4ABA-8690-21FCFEDF8AFA.jpeg

This is a picture of their daily food. It's (leaves, lettuce and common grass) with some calcium powder. I grated some sweet pepper on the grass to make them eat the other stuff i put there. They are very picky and they won't eat it unless there is some sweet pepper.
 

KarenSoCal

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View attachment 325095

This is a picture of their daily food. It's (leaves, lettuce and common grass) with some calcium powder. I grated some sweet pepper on the grass to make them eat the other stuff i put there. They are very picky and they won't eat it unless there is some sweet pepper.
Hi! I know you said that it's difficult finding good plants for tortoises, but he really should not be eating peppers. They have a lot of sugar in them, and torts are not able to digest sugar. I also wondered about the jasmine. Here in the USA there are several kinds of jasmine, only one of which is edible in very small amounts.

If you know the Latin name for yours, you can check it here...

https://thetortoisetable.org.uk/

The lettuce has almost no nutritional value, but does help hydrate the tort.

The hibiscus bush is a great idea! The problem is that commercially grown plants are loaded with chemicals...fertilizers, weed killers, bug killers...you name it, it's in there. You can't just feed it to your tortoise.

What needs to be done is repot the plant. When you take the plant out of the original pot, rinse all the soil off of the roots. Then repot it into new soil that has no bug killer or other chemicals in it. Plain fertilizer is OK, but no additives in that either.

After it's repotted, you need to wait for about a year before you can feed it to your tortoise. It takes that long to grow out all of the chemicals inside the stems and leaves of the plant. If you have any family or friends with safe plants who don't use chemicals, get cuttings from their plants. You can grow these for a while, and safely feed them any time.

Do you have Amazon? Or somewhere in your country to order seeds? That sounds like a good solution for you...grow your own.

If you can order online, you can also get Mazuri tort food pellets, or ZooMed Grassland Pellets. For both of these, you soak them until they're mushy. Torts love them, and they are good food.
 

Potato_king

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Hi! I know you said that it's difficult finding good plants for tortoises, but he really should not be eating peppers. They have a lot of sugar in them, and torts are not able to digest sugar. I also wondered about the jasmine. Here in the USA there are several kinds of jasmine, only one of which is edible in very small amounts.

If you know the Latin name for yours, you can check it here...

https://thetortoisetable.org.uk/

The lettuce has almost no nutritional value, but does help hydrate the tort.

The hibiscus bush is a great idea! The problem is that commercially grown plants are loaded with chemicals...fertilizers, weed killers, bug killers...you name it, it's in there. You can't just feed it to your tortoise.

What needs to be done is repot the plant. When you take the plant out of the original pot, rinse all the soil off of the roots. Then repot it into new soil that has no bug killer or other chemicals in it. Plain fertilizer is OK, but no additives in that either.

After it's repotted, you need to wait for about a year before you can feed it to your tortoise. It takes that long to grow out all of the chemicals inside the stems and leaves of the plant. If you have any family or friends with safe plants who don't use chemicals, get cuttings from their plants. You can grow these for a while, and safely feed them any time.

Do you have Amazon? Or somewhere in your country to order seeds? That sounds like a good solution for you...grow your own.

If you can order online, you can also get Mazuri tort food pellets, or ZooMed Grassland Pellets. For both of these, you soak them until they're mushy. Torts love them, and they are good food.

Hello! Thank you so much for the feedback!
I'm not feeding them pepper every day, I just put some whenever I add a new plant in their food.
The Jamin is called Jasminum sambac, they don't eat it. they just use the shade of the tree.
As for the hibiscus flower, I really wish I could wait for one year. Also, yes I have amazon and it's a very great idea to grow my own plants! thank you, I will be working on that ASAP.
 

KarenSoCal

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so until I get the seeds, what should I feed them? I
Do your grocery stores have greens? Endive/escarole are very good, radicchio, bok choy, mustard greens, dandelion, arugula, spring mix (pick out some, but not all, the spinach). If you could get those items, along with whatever you can find, we just need to find you some amendments to add fiber and other nutrients.

You can PM Will at @Kapidolo Farms . He is a supplier of dried foods that are excellent additions to the greens. I don't know if he will ship internationally, but if he doesn't, maybe he'll know of someone you could order from.

You can also order Mazuri Tortoise Diet on Amazon. There are 2 versions of it. On is labelled "LS"...many torts don't seem to like it. The other is 5M21 in small print on the bag. Torts usually love this...we call it tortoise crack. Both of these you soak the pellets til they're mushy. Both varieties are good food, it's just the palatability of 5M21 over the LS.

Here's what you want...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JN9EX16/?tag=exoticpetnetw-20
 

Potato_king

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Do your grocery stores have greens? Endive/escarole are very good, radicchio, bok choy, mustard greens, dandelion, arugula, spring mix (pick out some, but not all, the spinach). If you could get those items, along with whatever you can find, we just need to find you some amendments to add fiber and other nutrients.

You can PM Will at @Kapidolo Farms . He is a supplier of dried foods that are excellent additions to the greens. I don't know if he will ship internationally, but if he doesn't, maybe he'll know of someone you could order from.

You can also order Mazuri Tortoise Diet on Amazon. There are 2 versions of it. On is labelled "LS"...many torts don't seem to like it. The other is 5M21 in small print on the bag. Torts usually love this...we call it tortoise crack. Both of these you soak the pellets til they're mushy. Both varieties are good food, it's just the palatability of 5M21 over the LS.

Here's what you want...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JN9EX16/?tag=exoticpetnetw-20
This was very helpful! thank you very much.

the nearest grocery store in my village doesn't provide most of these stuff, but I'm sure I will find some. i will keep looking!
i will order Mazuri Tortoise Diet too.
 

Potato_king

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Hello, here are the plants that i have in my garden
8AD813DF-2486-4C9C-955B-61A0F1C50947.jpeg
Rose (edible)

6A507462-D2B7-465F-AAAD-2F9363E4B604.jpeg
nightshade (big no no)

8FC6E480-DE53-409B-AE21-31A1E09271D3.jpeg
euphoria herta ( not good)

302BF806-2D54-4E81-9921-50CB5B705273.jpeg
goosefoot ? (not good according to tortoises table)

6EBCA1DB-67BD-4BA9-BE45-0F7E20E2182D.jpeg
I think it’s called Common purslane in English? (Not good and very dangerous for torts)

E4F69C1C-452E-430B-9F13-318CEDF6EA24.jpeg
common grass (edible) but they hate it

1972648D-7ED3-4BD5-8D8F-96FE5D7AED6F.jpeg
Oleander, it's callrd الدفلى in arabic (i like to call it certain death flower).

E5200223-4CBC-473E-9C24-C52D1A6F7DEE.jpeg
Madagascar periwinkle (not good).




DD9521B3-A963-45B7-BB41-BA888FB27E99.jpeg
Not sure what this is, but it looks edible ?

574BDCB3-C6FD-4272-8D36-30D090296490.jpeg
Cape-gooseberry (not good)

4DDF166F-2BC7-4181-A4AA-91A45D4FE7A8.png
London rocket (edible) unfortunately, they all died once the summer started

3BF286CD-2A80-4760-B3CE-5E4D3298B4F1.jpeg
We also have a date palm and i just caught my female tort red handed. I know it's bad for them but she found her way to the dates somehow

CC7978BC-F887-4BBC-8CA4-1361C24CEBBB.jpeg

This is my Aries and Potato enjoying nettle plant. I was told by some members here (whom im very thankful to ) that it's edible.

3C365F51-6C59-4DB4-A009-3B5BAD4E6571.jpeg

Argentine Fleabane (is it edible ?)

A5821384-6975-42EC-87FE-725FF6F2743B.png

Milkweed (i think it's not good for them because of the poisonous white milky thing inside)
 
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Potato_king

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I got more pictures
C486FF4F-9A16-40E1-A5A4-8603211F9690.jpeg

Roostertree (Calotropis procera) it's dangerous for humans, and probably for tortoises too.

8B006C3B-7E03-47A6-8AA4-DC3B44DDFDFA.jpeg

Woolly bluestar .(i think its bad for tortoises)

The plants that we have here could send me and my tortoises into oblivion ?
 

Potato_king

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Frankly, I would start digging them out, I would work on them a liitle at a time. I would work on them, not a big daily chore, just a little one...little bit daily will get rid of them...
It's not like I'm being lazy. I'm not getting rid of them because they are in a completely different garden. I do take my torts to this garden but I never leave them alone, I watch them. they sneak away from me sometimes but they do this for the dates.
 
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