Three weeks ago we have bought a 6-months old Leopard tortoise, thought to be a female. She weighted 144 g. Her appetite is not the best, but she is growing around 5-8 g per week. Around week ago I noticed that sometimes she lets out the wet bubbles through her nose. It doesn't happen very often - I see it twice or thrice per day. Other than that she is moving a lot, has no signs of feeling bad but I'm afraid that she may have RNS or some other infection.
A little background:
- she lives in a wooden terrarium that is open in the top, 120 cm on 80 cm
- the substrate is a mix of soil/sand to which I added some bark - which I think now was a bad idea
- since we live in Sweden and it is winter here, she is kept indoors all the time now
- she does not like grass or hay and prefer dandelion and plantain and other weeds - by mixing some of it with grass it is possible to make her eat just a bit of grass; we feed her two times per day but often see that she acts as if she was hungry during the day
- the temperature during the day is from 31 (warmest place) to 21 degrees; during the night it does not drop below 21 degrees
- we had some problem with humidity and it was too low for a week or so; currently it is around 40-50% always
- we soak her every other day
- she poops very rarely - once every 3-4 days even though she eats quite a lot.
- she has some opuntia, grass and moss in her terrarium but does not try to eat any of it
- we have no other animals.
The main concern is that she has some very early stage of RNS. Does the healthy tortoise make those bubbles from time to time? What are other symptoms? Should we contact a vet or wait a bit? is she pooping too rarely?
Thank you in advance for any advice and if you need more information, just let me know.
A little background:
- she lives in a wooden terrarium that is open in the top, 120 cm on 80 cm
- the substrate is a mix of soil/sand to which I added some bark - which I think now was a bad idea
- since we live in Sweden and it is winter here, she is kept indoors all the time now
- she does not like grass or hay and prefer dandelion and plantain and other weeds - by mixing some of it with grass it is possible to make her eat just a bit of grass; we feed her two times per day but often see that she acts as if she was hungry during the day
- the temperature during the day is from 31 (warmest place) to 21 degrees; during the night it does not drop below 21 degrees
- we had some problem with humidity and it was too low for a week or so; currently it is around 40-50% always
- we soak her every other day
- she poops very rarely - once every 3-4 days even though she eats quite a lot.
- she has some opuntia, grass and moss in her terrarium but does not try to eat any of it
- we have no other animals.
The main concern is that she has some very early stage of RNS. Does the healthy tortoise make those bubbles from time to time? What are other symptoms? Should we contact a vet or wait a bit? is she pooping too rarely?
Thank you in advance for any advice and if you need more information, just let me know.