Limited eating and barely active Russian

[Chanty92]

Hiya

We have a 2~ year old Russian that we were given by someone else as they travelled too much to care for her.

We have had her since the start of March and she’s been in her new table for at least a couple of months now.

She used to eat a lot (possibly too much as a vet recently said she’s a little overweight). But lately shows little interest in food—only eating when we put something right under her nose. She seems to like kale, which we give as a treat but ignores just about everything else, including various mixed salad mixes, the weeds growing in her table, geraniums and forget me nots. Etc.

All she wants to do at the moment is sleep. If we have her out, bath her, it isn’t long at all before she’s gone back to bed.


The temp in her table is:

Hot spot: Gets up to 32c~
Edges: 23c~
Near food: 20c~
Bed: 17-18c~

I’m not sure if she’s trying to summer hibernate? Her table isn’t too hot to make her think that she needs to though?

Vet said she was bright eyed and healthy, other than being a little chubby.

Is she eating less to lose weight?

The vet said she is supposed to weigh about 160g but she was about 170g~ just over a week ago, but when I weight her yesterday, she was down to 164g.

Her weight has been decreasing for a while now.
15/4/18 = 180g
24/4/18 = 177g
9/5/18= 176g
Vet trip = 170g
16/6/18= 164g

I’d expect some fluctuation based on if she needed the loo or had eaten etc. But that’s quite a bit of weight loss?

Basically just wanted to see what people here thought. She doesn’t look sick, just isn’t active and only eats when you put it in front of her—and even then, only select “treat” foods seem to be eaten.

Thanks in advance

 

[Chanty92]

Photos.

 

[Pearly]

What a pretty chubby little tortoise! Thank you for working so hard to give her a good life. I keep the Redfooted who are always active, let’s wait on our awesome Russian keepers to chime in and help you. I just wanted to stop by to say hello and welcome you from Texas

 

[Chanty92]

What a pretty chubby little tortoise! Thank you for working so hard to give her a good life. I keep the Redfooted who are always active, let’s wait on our awesome Russian keepers to chime in and help you. I just wanted to stop by to say hello and welcome you from Texas

Thanks Pearly She is a cutie pie even if she is a chubster
Redfoots are so damned cute!
And hello back, from the UK

 

[TechnoCheese]

Sounds like your basking spot is too cool. It needs to be 37-40 degrees.

 

[Chanty92]

Sounds like your basking spot is too cool. It needs to be 37-40 degrees.

Yeah? I’d seen 32-35c as about right for them. But can lower the lamp a tiny bit and keep an eye on the basking spot. She’s just buried in her bedroom 99% of the time really.

 

[TechnoCheese]

Yeah, tortoises(especially hibernating ones) tend to act like that when temperatures are too low or high. That might be your problem

 

[Chanty92]

Yeah, tortoises(especially hibernating ones) tend to act like that when temperatures are too low or high. That might be your problem

Alrighty! Will lower the lamp and keep checking the temp with the temp gun and see if she changes behaviour this week.

Ta

 

[katieandiggy]

Can you show us the bulbs that you are using?

Hi from the U.K. [emoji112]

 

[Chanty92]

Can you show us the bulbs that you are using?

Hi from the U.K. [emoji112]

Heya!

It’s the Arcadia d3 uv basking lamp. 100w.

 

[katieandiggy]

Heya!

It’s the Arcadia d3 uv basking lamp. 100w.

I think that’s the combined Heat, light and UVB?
Just checking as some of the lamps that are for sale, the coil type bulbs are actually not very good for tortoises. You say it’s been losing weight over time.. do you think it’s since it’s been in its new table?

 

[Chanty92]

Yeah, it is

And maybe, she’s basicslly just been losing weight for a while now. We got the new table in mid April. So she’s pretty accustomed to it now. I think? You think because they like habits/familiar stuff that she might be stressed from that some still?

 

[katieandiggy]

Sometimes moving can stress them out.
Hopefully someone else will be along with some other suggestions.
I agree with Technocheese that 32f is a little cool for basking. I aim for around 97f but sometimes it’s gets up to 100f and my tort still loves basking.

Does your tortoise have any outside time?

Also what is the substrate your using?

 

[Chanty92]

Alrighty. Have lowered the lamp. Just monitoring it to make sure it gets to the right temp under it atm.

We don’t have a proper outside pen yet (that’s the next thing we will build/sort out) but I have let her wander around (supervised) in the garden. She mostly just looks for places to hide or tries to escape if she’s in a pen (because she can see through the bars on the temporary one we occasionally use). Will be building a wooden one that she can’t see out of hopefully soon. But we haven’t had loads of hot/sunny days lately. England! But yes, when it is nice, we take her outside.

Substrate is coco coir and and the tortoise life Mediterranean substrate.

 

[katieandiggy]

Have you always used the tortoise life substrate? Are you seeing poops?

I ask because that substrate contains tiny white pieces of limestone which encourages them to eat it and sometimes they end up eating the substrate and it can cause them to become impacted. just exploring everything here to see if we can hit something that may be causing this.

 

[katieandiggy]

Also forgot to add- I saw a massive change in my Russian once he was getting outside time.
Where in England are you, I’m in Suffolk, and mine had gone out a lot lately. I have a IR temp gun and although the air temp may only be 70, it’s substantially hotter when your testing surfaces in the sun.

 

[Chanty92]

We haven’t no, was just coco coir before. I haven’t seen her eat it, but it’s possible she has.

She used to poop/pee and pass urates almost every time I bathed her. But the last time she passed in the bath was a week ago, and that was a very crumbly poop that disintegrated in the water. Usually they’re solid, like guineapig poops almost. So she could be backed up, but she could also not be pooping much because she’s eating so much less?

And I’ll deffo check the ground temps with our IR temp gun too. Just usually has to be on a weekend as I work during the day and we don’t have a safe enclosure yet to leave her out in.

 

[Chanty92]

Forgot to say. We are down in “sunny” Bournemouth.

 

[katieandiggy]

Personally, and you can wait for a second opinion, but I would get rid of the tortoise life substrate. It’s not recommended on here for the reason I mentioned above. The substrate that is recommended on here is coco coir or fine grade orchid bark or a mixture of both.
I use orchid bark from Pets at home it’s about £8 but some people use it straight from places like B&Q.

 

[TechnoCheese]

I agree, the tortoise Life substrate definitely should be removed.