Leopard Toroise Completely Burries Itself

[Billiam]

Hello again everyone,

My leopard tort, a few months old, has been doing pretty well in his environment that I made up for him. (Humid, lows of 70 highs of 110, lot's of food, small shallow water dish). But all of a sudden, he seems to be entirley burrying himself in the dry portions of his substrate which consists mostly of sphagnum moss. Is this normal. He hasn't done this before. I dont even know how he's breathing under all that substrate. In addition, there are a bunch of fruit flies, or gnats that are all over his terrarium. Anyone know some good tips for killing them off in a way that would be safe for my tort?

 

[Killerrookie]

I had gnats in my enclosure I just put some fly tape and they fly on it and get stuck to it.

 

[Tom]

I think your lows are a little too low, and your high is just a little too high. I like 80 for an overnight low and 95-100 for a daytime high under the basking lamp.

Show us a pic of the enclosure so the we have more insight into his choices. We can offer better tips this way.

What type of UV lighting are you using?


Its not unusual for baby leopards to bury themselves in this way.


To get rid of the substrate flies, you will need to bake, boil or replace your substrate every two weeks or so.

 

[Levi the Leopard]

I agree with Tom on all accounts

 

[Loohan]

I made some of these mosquito traps a few weeks ago

and found they don't do much outdoors (the CO2 dissipates too much i guess) but have one in my little grow room where i grow hydroponic greens and garden starts. I did have some kind of gnats or something in there, presumably hatched out from some garden soil in pots i also had in there. But the trap caught them all.
If you can find a safe spot, maybe inside cinder blocks laid on edge, to hold one in the box...