My baby Hermanns tortoise is sleeping not getting up

mjk22

Member
Joined
May 19, 2021
Messages
32
Location (City and/or State)
Texas
I have a 9 month old hermanns tortoise and he is sleeping a lot more than usual! He is asleep when I wake up and I try to let him be, but I come home and his food and water bowl are still full and he is in the same spot as when I left. This has been happening for the past few days. He will also just come to the edge of his log to get some lay under the light, but he doesn’t come all the way out. What should I do? His temps in his enclosure are normal
 

Jan A

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Jan 9, 2021
Messages
1,808
Location (City and/or State)
Boulder, CO
I have a 9 month old hermanns tortoise and he is sleeping a lot more than usual! He is asleep when I wake up and I try to let him be, but I come home and his food and water bowl are still full and he is in the same spot as when I left. This has been happening for the past few days. He will also just come to the edge of his log to get some lay under the light, but he doesn’t come all the way out. What should I do?
Welcome to the forum. I'm sorry you're coming here distressed, but we have lots of experienced tort owners whose ideas about tortoise care are put to the test every day.

So a little more info is needed to help you, and it's especially important to include photos of your tort & it's enclosure so they can see what's going on.

How long have you had your tort & do you know how he was treated after he was hatched? Where did you get him? Do you have a closed or open enclosure & how big is it? What are the basking, hot & cold temps, as well as humidity levels. Do you soak him daily? What are you feeding him? What substrate is he on? What are you using for lamps, lighting & heat sources?

Answers & photos will help move this along faster.
 

mjk22

Member
Joined
May 19, 2021
Messages
32
Location (City and/or State)
Texas
Welcome to the forum. I'm sorry you're coming here distressed, but we have lots of experienced tort owners whose ideas about tortoise care are put to the test every day.

So a little more info is needed to help you, and it's especially important to include photos of your tort & it's enclosure so they can see what's going on.

How long have you had your tort & do you know how he was treated after he was hatched? Where did you get him? Do you have a closed or open enclosure & how big is it? What are the basking, hot & cold temps, as well as humidity levels. Do you soak him daily? What are you feeding him? What substrate is he on? What are you using for lamps, lighting & heat sources?

Answers & photos will help move this along faster.
I have had him for 8 months. I don’t know how he was treated when he was hatched. I got him from Arizona Tortoise Compound. I have an open enclosure. Basking is around 90-95 F and cold temps are around 75F. I feed him spring mix, I haven’t really tried anything else because I don’t know what would be good. I soak him everyday. He uses cypress mulch. I threw my boxes away for lighting, but it was recommended by one of the petsmart experts.image.jpgimage.jpg
 

KarenSoCal

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Tortoise Club
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Jul 8, 2017
Messages
5,749
Location (City and/or State)
Low desert 50 mi SE of Palm Springs CA
First, here's the care sheet for your tortoise.


Read the sheet carefully, and it will tell you about temps and humidity.

The bulbs in your double dome are not good for your baby. I know that by your statement "recommended by one of the Petsmart experts". Sadly, the employees at Petsmart and Petco, along with most workers at any pet shop, don't have a clue how to care for a tortoise. They recommend products they sell, but those products are not good for a tort, and sometimes are downright dangerous. It's a very sad situation, because you, as a buyer, go to someone who should have good advice. But instead, you are sold stuff you don't need and your tort suffers the consequences.

One of the bulbs in the dome is a spot basking bulb. It would be perfect for a different species of reptile, but for a tort it is wrong. It focuses the heat from the bulb into a small spot, and when the tort lays under it, that one little spot dessicates the shell, and can actually burn the shell.
What you need instead is an incandescent flood bulb, the kind you would put in an outdoor flood light. You do not want an LED bulb! They don't produce heat. It has to say 'incandescent' on the box.

The other bulb in the dome is probably either a curly cfl type, or a 'compact' type of screw in UVB bulb. These bulbs are not good UVB producers, but most importantly, they can burn the eyes of torts, and should not be used on them.
It's possible your tort is hiding from the light. For now, turn off the UVB bulb and leave it off. Your baby will be fine without it for a period of time.
Depending on where you are in TX, the days are warm enough to take him outside for an hour twice a week or more. That would be plenty of UVB for at least the summer months.

So with the UV light off, see if he starts to come out more.

The care sheet will tell you again what light to get for basking. It also says the kind of light you need for UVB in the winter. You will have to order the fixture and bulb online. After the first purchase, you only have to order the bulb.
 

Lyn W

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5 Year Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2014
Messages
23,497
Location (City and/or State)
UK
Hi and welcome,
Read and follow the caresheet but ask as many more questions as you need.
Hopefully once you have corrected the bad advice you've been given you should see an improvement.
There are plenty of weeds your tort will love, the caresheet will help you with that - but www.thetortoisetable.org.uk is also a good guide - although it's a UK website there will be many plants common to the US too.
 

mjk22

Member
Joined
May 19, 2021
Messages
32
Location (City and/or State)
Texas
First, here's the care sheet for your tortoise.


Read the sheet carefully, and it will tell you about temps and humidity.

The bulbs in your double dome are not good for your baby. I know that by your statement "recommended by one of the Petsmart experts". Sadly, the employees at Petsmart and Petco, along with most workers at any pet shop, don't have a clue how to care for a tortoise. They recommend products they sell, but those products are not good for a tort, and sometimes are downright dangerous. It's a very sad situation, because you, as a buyer, go to someone who should have good advice. But instead, you are sold stuff you don't need and your tort suffers the consequences.

One of the bulbs in the dome is a spot basking bulb. It would be perfect for a different species of reptile, but for a tort it is wrong. It focuses the heat from the bulb into a small spot, and when the tort lays under it, that one little spot dessicates the shell, and can actually burn the shell.
What you need instead is an incandescent flood bulb, the kind you would put in an outdoor flood light. You do not want an LED bulb! They don't produce heat. It has to say 'incandescent' on the box.

The other bulb in the dome is probably either a curly cfl type, or a 'compact' type of screw in UVB bulb. These bulbs are not good UVB producers, but most importantly, they can burn the eyes of torts, and should not be used on them.
It's possible your tort is hiding from the light. For now, turn off the UVB bulb and leave it off. Your baby will be fine without it for a period of time.
Depending on where you are in TX, the days are warm enough to take him outside for an hour twice a week or more. That would be plenty of UVB for at least the summer months.

So with the UV light off, see if he starts to come out more.

The care sheet will tell you again what light to get for basking. It also says the kind of light you need for UVB in the winter. You will have to order the fixture and bulb online. After the first purchase, you only have to order the bulb.
Thank you so much!!
 

mjk22

Member
Joined
May 19, 2021
Messages
32
Location (City and/or State)
Texas
First, here's the care sheet for your tortoise.


Read the sheet carefully, and it will tell you about temps and humidity.

The bulbs in your double dome are not good for your baby. I know that by your statement "recommended by one of the Petsmart experts". Sadly, the employees at Petsmart and Petco, along with most workers at any pet shop, don't have a clue how to care for a tortoise. They recommend products they sell, but those products are not good for a tort, and sometimes are downright dangerous. It's a very sad situation, because you, as a buyer, go to someone who should have good advice. But instead, you are sold stuff you don't need and your tort suffers the consequences.

One of the bulbs in the dome is a spot basking bulb. It would be perfect for a different species of reptile, but for a tort it is wrong. It focuses the heat from the bulb into a small spot, and when the tort lays under it, that one little spot dessicates the shell, and can actually burn the shell.
What you need instead is an incandescent flood bulb, the kind you would put in an outdoor flood light. You do not want an LED bulb! They don't produce heat. It has to say 'incandescent' on the box.

The other bulb in the dome is probably either a curly cfl type, or a 'compact' type of screw in UVB bulb. These bulbs are not good UVB producers, but most importantly, they can burn the eyes of torts, and should not be used on them.
It's possible your tort is hiding from the light. For now, turn off the UVB bulb and leave it off. Your baby will be fine without it for a period of time.
Depending on where you are in TX, the days are warm enough to take him outside for an hour twice a week or more. That would be plenty of UVB for at least the summer months.

So with the UV light off, see if he starts to come out more.

The care sheet will tell you again what light to get for basking. It also says the kind of light you need for UVB in the winter. You will have to order the fixture and bulb online. After the first purchase, you only have to order the bulb.
Thank you so much! This helps out significantly! Could you possibly show me what the uv tube light looks like, I already ordered the food light and the fixture.
 

KarenSoCal

Well-Known Member
Tortoise Club
5 Year Member
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jul 8, 2017
Messages
5,749
Location (City and/or State)
Low desert 50 mi SE of Palm Springs CA
Thank you so much! This helps out significantly! Could you possibly show me what the uv tube light looks like, I already ordered the food light and the fixture.

Here's the combo you want. After this first order, you'll only need to buy the bulb.


It has to be mounted or hung from the ceiling of your enclosure. You'll want to hang/mount it 20" above the height of his shell. The only way to know precisely is to measure the amount of UVB he's getting with a solarmeter 6.5r.

But don't forget...if you take him outside into a secure enclosure, and give him access to unfiltered sunshine twice a week for an hour each, you don't need indoor UVB, at least for the summer months.
 

mjk22

Member
Joined
May 19, 2021
Messages
32
Location (City and/or State)
Texas
Here's the combo you want. After this first order, you'll only need to buy the bulb.


It has to be mounted or hung from the ceiling of your enclosure. You'll want to hang/mount it 20" above the height of his shell. The only way to know precisely is to measure the amount of UVB he's getting with a solarmeter 6.5r.

But don't forget...if you take him outside into a secure enclosure, and give him access to unfiltered sunshine twice a week for an hour each, you don't need indoor UVB, at least for the summer months.
Thank you!!
 

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