Is My Baby Tortoise OK

[silkiethesulcata]

Hello! I have a baby sulcata tortoise named silkie, and she was purchased sometime around February twelfth. She had some pretty rough health problems early on, but I thought we put that behind us. But she has been acting strangely. She poops white stuff about twice a day and she didn't eat her food today. She has a diet of tortoise food romaine lettuce or spring mix, and now that it is springtime, I have begun to add in grasses and weeds. She lives in a four foot by two-foot cement mixing tub for now and has a humidity of about 80%, tho I am not able to keep it constantly at that because I am not home all day. Her enclosure is partially covered, and that does the trick while we work on a larger one for her. Her temps are 80f on the warm side and about 75f on the cold side. Her basking temperature is about 95f. She also has access to a UVB bulb. I know the white poop is normal in moderation, but why is it happening so much. If you have any ideas please share.

 

[SweetGreekTorts]

Do you soak the tortoise at all? Babies should be soaked daily in warm water for 30 minutes. The excessive amount of urates (the white stuff) is because of poor hydration. Soaking really helps with that.

 

[Grandpa Turtle 144]

Hi

 

[silkiethesulcata]

Do you soak the tortoise at all? Babies should be soaked daily in warm water for 30 minutes. The excessive amount of urates (the white stuff) is because of poor hydration. Soaking really helps with that.

Yes, I soak her every day for 30 min. She also has constant access to water.

 

[silkiethesulcata]

Ahe also hasn't been patrolling her cage as often and has been squinting her eyes. I've checked for swelling in the limbs but there is none. She has had problems with hatching failure syndrome before when I first received her. Has it just come back to bite her in the butt?

 

[Pure Tortoise Power]

Hello! I have a baby sulcata tortoise named silkie, and she was purchased sometime around February twelfth. She had some pretty rough health problems early on, but I thought we put that behind us. But she has been acting strangely. She poops white stuff about twice a day and she didn't eat her food today. She has a diet of tortoise food romaine lettuce or spring mix, and now that it is springtime, I have begun to add in grasses and weeds. She lives in a four foot by two-foot cement mixing tub for now and has a humidity of about 80%, tho I am not able to keep it constantly at that because I am not home all day. Her enclosure is partially covered, and that does the trick while we work on a larger one for her. Her temps are 80f on the warm side and about 75f on the cold side. Her basking temperature is about 95f. She also has access to a UVB bulb. I know the white poop is normal in moderation, but why is it happening so much. If you have any ideas please share.

Do you feed it a lot of protein-rich foods? Too much prompts the excretion of urates (the white stuff). By the way, the temps in the enclosure are not recommended to be below 80. All 3 temps mentioned seem to be lower than recommended. Try to raise to temps up to cool side 80, warm side 90, basking 100. How do you maintain the humidity? Can you post some images of the enclosure? What are the light bulbs that you use? The enclosure size too can affect usage production on some way. For food, don't feed romaine lettuce too often, you can try dandelion, opuntia cactus, hibiscus. And grass and weed should be sulcata's main diet. One last thing, do you feed it calcium? Like reptile calcium powder or something else? How often do you feed it the calcium?

 

[Pure Tortoise Power]

Ahe also hasn't been patrolling her cage as often and has been squinting her eyes. I've checked for swelling in the limbs but there is none. She has had problems with hatching failure syndrome before when I first received her. Has it just come back to bite her in the butt?

Decreased movement can mean temps to low, scratching and squinting eyes can mean humidity not enough. For the last one, I'm not quite sure, so I won't try to get smart and possibly give wrong info

 

[silkiethesulcata]

Do you feed it a lot of protein-rich foods? Too much prompts the excretion of urates (the white stuff). By the way, the temps in the enclosure are not recommended to be below 80. All 3 temps mentioned seem to be lower than recommended. Try to raise to temps up to cool side 80, warm side 90, basking 100. How do you maintain the humidity? Can you post some images of the enclosure? What are the light bulbs that you use? The enclosure size too can affect usage production on some way. For food, don't feed romaine lettuce too often, you can try dandelion, opuntia cactus, hibiscus. And grass and weed should be sulcata's main diet. One last thing, do you feed it calcium? Like reptile calcium powder or something else? How often do you feed it the calcium?

I sprinkle calcium onto her food about 2-3 times a week. I know her diet shouldn't mainly be romaine lettuce, but since it was winter it was all I've had. Like I said I am working on switching her over, but she won't eat anything from outside. I can raise the temps, but before I have been told the temps I had were normal. I will post a picture of her and her tank setup shortly.

 

[silkiethesulcata]

Decreased movement can mean temps to low, scratching and squinting eyes can mean humidity not enough. For the last one, I'm not quite sure, so I won't try to get smart and possibly give wrong info

And she has had these temps her whole life with me and has done great up till now, but i will raise temps.

 

[Pure Tortoise Power]

I sprinkle calcium onto her food about 2-3 times a week. I know her diet shouldn't mainly be romaine lettuce, but since it was winter it was all I've had. Like I said I am working on switching her over, but she won't eat anything from outside. I can raise the temps, but before I have been told the temps I had were normal. I will post a picture of her and her tank setup shortly.

I understand your issue with limited choices of food, but since you've already started growing grasses, I believe this problem can be solved very soon. I've been rolling with the temps I mentioned above (I am keeping sulcus hatchling as well), and my baby has always been active except night sleep and afternoon naps. The frequency of getting out to eat calcium is decent. What about your way of maintaining humidity? And what light bulbs do you use?

 

[silkiethesulcata]

Here are the pics.

 

[silkiethesulcata]

I understand your issue with limited choices of food, but since you've already started growing grasses, I believe this problem can be solved very soon. I've been rolling with the temps I mentioned above (I am keeping sulcus hatchling as well), and my baby has always been active except night sleep and afternoon naps. The frequency of getting out to eat calcium is decent. What about your way of maintaining humidity? And what light bulbs do you use?

To maintain humidity, half of the enclosure is plastic wrapped. I know it is strange but I had to make do with what I had. We are in the process of working on her "teenage" cage. I don't know what bulbs I have. I did once, but just recently I threw away the boxes. All I know is that 1 is UVB and another is a basking bulb.

 

[Pure Tortoise Power]

Here are the pics.

To fully be able to maintain high humidity, a fully closed chamber with a little ventilation is the best way. The warm side has a higher temperature, the water vapour will be more prone to move to the warm side and rise, and this is how you lose all the humidity. Your hydrometer is only measuring the humidity on the cool side, you ought to have another one on the warm side.

 

[silkiethesulcata]

To fully be able to maintain high humidity, a fully closed chamber with a little ventilation is the best way. The warm side has a higher temperature, the water vapour will be more prone to move to the warm side and rise, and this is how you lose all the humidity. Your hydrometer is only measuring the humidity on the cool side, you ought to have another one on the warm side.

I understand this, which is why we are in the works of a better-designed cage. But as I have also said, she has been acting like a normal baby tortoise up to this point, so i suspect an underlying problem. But thank you for your help, and I am raising the temps.

 

[silkiethesulcata]

If this helps she also has crusty skin. I don't know what this is from, probably dehydration, but i don't see how that is possible when she is soaked so often.

 

[Pure Tortoise Power]

I understand this, which is why we are in the works of a better-designed cage. But as I have also said, she has been acting like a normal baby tortoise up to this point, so i suspect an underlying problem. But thank you for your help, and I am raising the temps.

Do you keep all the lights on the entire day? At night, it should be dark, or else it can be stressed out. Try to buy a nighttime "light" which is basically just a heat provider. Your enclosure size is decent for now. What is the depth of your substrate, what's the substrate that you're using? (I can't quite see, apologies). If you need time to fix the humidity problem, you can sometimes spray some water into its hide, and use a spoon to water its shell every 6 to 8 hours. I've done that when I had a small enclosure which wasn't able to keep up with the humidity. But the best way is of course use an closed chamber.

 

[silkiethesulcata]

Ok, that sounds like a good plan! At nighttime, the lights are turned out, but under the log hide in the far corner is a heater so that she won't get cold at nighttime. The substrate is cypress mulch.

 

[Pure Tortoise Power]

Ok, that sounds like a good plan! At nighttime, the lights are turned out, but under the log hide in the far corner is a heater so that she won't get cold at nighttime. The substrate is cypress mulch.

Sounds great. Hopefully others on this forum will be able to give you more advice. Anyway good luck with you and your tort.

 

[silkiethesulcata]

Sounds great. Hopefully others on this forum will be able to give you more advice. Anyway good luck with you and your tort.

Thanks

 

[Ray--Opo]

Welcome if your UVB light is a CFL( coil type bulb). Those are bad on their eyes. You need a flouresnt straight tube type UVB. Also your temp/ hydro meter is not accurate.
Find a digital thermometer/humidastat with external wire probes.
Tried to upload a pic of mine but I am still having troubles with that.