Leopard tortoise not eating

[sanyzo]

Hi guys,

I come from the Czech Republic and have a baby leopard tortoise for the last 3 months. I bought him in a pet shop, and he is about 10 months. His photo and the photo of the terrarium is enclosed.

The first month was ok, he was active, eating, but very shy and when he saw us he went to hide himself. Then he started hiding all the time and since then been sleeping constantly buried in the hay. I took him out every few days, he ate, I gave him a bath, but then he went back straight to hide and sleep and wouldn't come out alone. The temperature should be fine, the basking spot is 30-35 degrees celsius and the rest of the terrarium is about 25 degrees celsius. At night its 25c, it doesn't go any lower. I have lights on all the day, 12 hours. He weighs 52 grams.

I figured out he doesn't have enough humidity, so I changed the earth (now its peat for turtles) and I sprinkle it with water a couple of times a day. Now he is active, walks around, but stopped eating… Its two days, so maybe he is just getting used to it, as it might be quite a change for him.

Any ideas what I might be doing wrong? I would love to make my tortoise happy… thank you all!!

Sandra

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Sandra, and welcome to the Forum!

That's a very nice enclosure, very eye-pleasing and probably pretty comfy for the tortoise too.

I think what's wrong with your baby is that he's not warm enough. The only heat you have in the habitat is way down at the far end, directly under the light. Try covering the habitat and see if you can spread the heat around a bit. Buy a thermometer or temp gun and check the temperature all over the floor of the habitat. He needs to be at LEAST 80F degrees or he won't eat. Warmer than 80F is even better. For a temporary fix, what I have used in the past is foil, the kind you buy for cooking. I cover the whole thing, light and all, with foil.

 

[julietteq]

Really nice enclosure, I am sure once you get the temperature up, he will be very happy there. You may want to add a ceramic heat lamp in the enclosure as well or a heating pad.

 

[Jlant85]

Check out tom's famous closed chamber post! ^_^v this helped me a lot! from keeping the temperatures up to maintaining the humidity.

 

[Tom]

That baby looks like he was started very dry too. I would be doing daily soaks.

Those water bowls are also not suitable for tortoises. The sides are much too tall. Terra cotta plant saucers sunk into the substrate work much better and are much safer.

Unless that whole room is kept at 27-28 degrees all the time, it seems very unlikely that the temperature over on the side away from the bulb is warm enough.

Also it is pretty normal for any species of tortoise to be shy and hide a lot as babies.

Here is a care sheet to follow: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-79895.html

 

[sanyzo]

Hi guys! Thank you all so much for your replies, thanks to you my little tortoise is very happy now! I have closed the enclosure and so both temperature and humidity are ideal. Little Bob is now active and eating well. He still sleeps a lot but hopefully thats fine.

I have another question- i had stones under the basking lamp, but a lot of tiny insects started to be there. So we changed to sand. However, Bob is eating the sand quite a lot! Is this ok or not?

Thank you all again!!!

 

[TortieLuver]

I would ditch the sand immediately and get some cypress mulch, coco coir, Eco earth/bed-a-beast, orchid bark, or even the reptibark at pet stores, which is fir bark. I really like adding the sphagnum moss to the hides too.

 

[Yvonne G]

Unless your tortoise is well-hydrated, sand will cause an impaction. I don't use any sand in my enclosures.