Thank you Yvonne I'll take a look for tips...
Thanks Yvonne I'll sort it immediately...
Hello and welcome from another Brit.
Please read the care sheets that Yvonne posted. They give you the most accurate information on the care of your Leopard Tort. There's a lot of misinformation around and unfortunately even the breeders don't always get it right.
Please post some pictures of your tort and his enclosure. We love pictures anyway, but it will also help us to help you to get everything right for your new friend.
I always recommend getting into a routine with a new tortoise as they can be very slow to adapt to change.
Have your lights on a timer so they come on and go off at the same time each day.
Soak your tort for a good 20 minutes in warm water first thing before he's warmed up properly.
While he's soaking, clean up the enclosure and put food in.
Finally, pop your tort back and walk away.
Leave him to explore and be brave without being watched by a big scary human. He'll soon start to realise that you are the one who provides food and change his opinion and then you can watch
Thanks Joes Mum that's really helpful advice I'll make the necessary changes to his substrate and also food/drink utensils. His lamp is a 100w basking lamp that is 3in1 heat,light & UV. He also has a small heat mat in his hide (under glass) - please feel free to recommend anything further.Some changes are needed.
You need to get a good thermometer and measure the 4 important temperatures: Warm side, Cool Side, Directly under the basking lamp and the overnight minimum. If these temperatures are wrong then your tortoise will not be active and healthy. A temperature gun is best; they're inexpensive from Amazon.
Rabbit pellets are not good substrate. They are far too dry. If you see the threads Yvonne has posted (plus this Beginner Mistakes one http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/), you'll see that your tortoise needs warm humidity to grow a healthy shell and avoid pyramidding. Orchid bark or coco coir make substrate. You can tip water in and get it damp so the humidity is raised.
Ultra violet light does not pass through glass, so your tort needs a UVB lamp in its enclosure as well as a basking lamp. UVB is essential for your tort to make Vitamin D3 which helps it process the calcium for it to have a healthy bones and shell. Basking is essential for activity and also for digesting food.
There are two ways of giving the heat and UVB your tort needs indoors:
1. Buy a Mercury Vapour Bulb which combines both UVB and basking lamp in one bulb. It's more expensive, but it lasts approximately 12 months.
2. Buy a Basking bulb (like a household reflector lamp) and have a separate tube UVB lamp (cheaper, but only lasts 6 months) - an MVB usually works out cheaper in the long run
Option 3. cannot be considered. There are compact UVB bulbs on sale that look like low-energy lightbulbs. These harm tort's eyes and are not suitable and therefore must not be used.
In either case 1 or 2, the bulb must hand down vertically over the substrate to give an intense patch of basking heat.(See important temperatures above)
Food is best served on a flat stone, slate or tile. The abrasion when eating helps to stop the beak overgrowing.
Water is best put in a terracotta plant saucer sunk into the substrate. The pet shop bowls you have have a bad reputation for tipping small tortoises and leaving them stranded resulting in death. We don't recommend them.
Sorry if this all sounds negative, but your chum is going to be with you for the next 50+ years and you need to get things right straight away
