Juvenile not thriving

MarieWhite77

New Member
Joined
May 31, 2020
Messages
15
Location (City and/or State)
UK
Hi,
I have been reading through posts and your wonderful care sheets.

I have re-homed 2 Leopard juveniles. They should be around 18-19 months old now.
Harris is bigger, weighs some 430 g now. He had 400 when I got him 3 weeks ago.
He is eating and active, but I can see pyramiding.
Lilly is tiny! She is the same age, but only 200 g! And she more or less stayed the same weight the last 3 weeks (199 g and now 206 g).
She eat, but not as much, less active.

I saw pictures here of torts with lots of new growth visible between the scutes. Harris and Lilly have none so far!

They were kept in an open top enclosure etc.

I keep their enclosure covered. Day temperature 36C and night time 28C. Day humidity I struggle to get over 50-60%, even though I spray and mist many times a day. Night humidity with ceramic heater goes up to 85%.

I give them a bath every day or every other day. I used to bath only for 10 minutes or so, now I increased to half an hour. Temperature stays 33-35C.

They get fresh grass and weeds several times a day. Soaked mazuri every other day or so, 2-3 pellets each, with calci dust.
Now I got the Zoo-med grassland pellets too to alternate with the mazuri.

We are building a new indoor enclosure 3x6 feet with better UVB light (Arcadia proT5 12%) and we will tinker with UVA flood lights (Arcadia too) to get to the right temperature.

Anything else you can think of I should change or do?
They both seem happy enough. But I don’t want them to just survive! I want them to be happy and thriving!

We have an outdoor enclosure too, but the weather has not been great here in Scotland. Also I thought better to let them settle before moving them around again. They seem stressed when I take them out (poop a lot).

Thanks in advance for any ideas and advice.
Take care
Marie
 

MarieWhite77

New Member
Joined
May 31, 2020
Messages
15
Location (City and/or State)
UK
They are together, they have apparently always been together.
They seem to be friendly and get on well. No stealing food or anything.
 

jeannettep

Active Member
Joined
Oct 28, 2019
Messages
124
Location (City and/or State)
Texas
I didn't think I had bullying going on & I happened to catch it one day. To me looking down it didn't seem like much, but it was enough for the other tort to leave & not eat. All the other one did was bring her head near a back leg of the other tort.
 

MarieWhite77

New Member
Joined
May 31, 2020
Messages
15
Location (City and/or State)
UK
Hi,
Thank you so much for sharing your insight.
I am still not sure, they seem completely oblivious. They do usually sleep together, but don’t seem to pay any attention to each other... it is strange!
I feed them separately after daily soak. They love mazuri and grassland pellets and obviously greens like plantain. Not too keen on grass, but I cut it up and mix it up...

Also they don’t have any of the white areas between scutes as I can so often see on photographs of juveniles people post here!!!
So maybe they generally have not grown well because of conditions?
They are now in their new enclosure.
Humidity is 80. Humid hide 99.
Temperatures from 36C down to 27C.
I am using Arcadia T5 12% tube. Arcadia basking flood light and Arcadia ceramic heat emitters are on thermostat set to day and night temperatures.
Orchid bark and some coconut “straw” as substrate.
Let’s see, I am hoping they will do better now with more space and better humidity, plants etc.
I will give it a few weeks and if Lilly does not pick up I will split the enclosure length wise for a while and build another enclosure...
Thanks,
Take care!
Marie
 

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