My red foot isn’t acting right

[Laura Lee🐢]

4 month old red foot . She hasn’t been eating, her eyes are closed, she’s lethargic at one point, and then running around her cage deliriously.
I started doing carrot soaks yesterday . After five days of not eating she ate a little romaine and banana.
When I checked on her this morning she had white poop on her. Looked like the banana.
Her hot area is at 95 and cool area is at 85.
Tried to see if she would eat a little something today. But she wouldn’t eat. I have called the vet and she said it sounds like she needs vitamin a. Which they don’t have . That’s it’s on back order. She said I need to go somewhere else that’s two hours away.
I need some advice on what to do please!
I have been so stressed about what to do for her.

 

[Yvonne G]

Vitamin A is what they get in the carrot soaks.

In my opinion the enclosure is too hot. What type and brand lights do you use.

 

[wellington]

@ZEROPILOT

 

[Ink]

You should remove the moss ASAP. It can cause an impaction if they eat it. Follow the instructions from the experts.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Is IS too hot and probably also too bright.
What are those lights? Can you photograph them?
What is your heat source? What is your UVB? How are you supplying night time warmth?
Where in Florida are you? I have an excellent vet in Deerfield Beach.
Who's your vet? Do not allow any vitamin injections. That's almost a sure sign that your vet is a QUACK. And knows little about tortoises.
Can you get this little guy outside for some supervised sunshine? Get his ambient temperature into the lower 80s. No hot side or cool side. Just 80-83 24/7 and high humidity.
Once he's in the correct situation, he'll be able to eat and digest food.
We need to know a lot more about everything.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

You should remove the moss ASAP. It can cause an impaction if they eat it. Follow the instructions from the experts.

Yes.
No moss allowed.
In fact, probably NOTHING from the pet shop allowed. Including those lights.
Pet shops sell a lot of useless or otherwise harmful garbage.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

This is a uvb source for a tortoise
A T5 HO strip uvb florescent tube assembly
Preferably a 10.0 or a 12%.
It'll likely be the only light you need. Redfoot hate bright lights.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

This is called a CHE.
A Ceramic Heat Emitter
It can provide warmth day and night because it gives off no light.
Redfoot need to be warm enough to properly digest food. But not so hot that they get stressed.

 

[Ray--Opo]

Where did you get your tortoise?white poop is probably urates. If it is pasty and not hard and gritty. Then it is fine, if it is gritty then your tort needs to be hydrated more.

 

[Laura Lee🐢]

Is IS too hot and probably also too bright.
What are those lights? Can you photograph them?
What is your heat source? What is your UVB? How are you supplying night time warmth?
Where in Florida are you? I have an excellent vet in Deerfield Beach.
Who's your vet? Do not allow any vitamin injections. That's almost a sure sign that your vet is a QUACK. And knows little about tortoises.
Can you get this little guy outside for some supervised sunshine? Get his ambient temperature into the lower 80s. No hot side or cool side. Just 80-83 24/7 and high humidity.
Once he's in the correct situation, he'll be able to eat and digest food.
We need to know a lot more about everything.

Is IS too hot and probably also too bright.
What are those lights? Can you photograph them?
What is your heat source? What is your UVB? How are you supplying night time warmth?
Where in Florida are you? I have an excellent vet in Deerfield Beach.
Who's your vet? Do not allow any vitamin injections. That's almost a sure sign that your vet is a QUACK. And knows little about tortoises.
Can you get this little guy outside for some supervised sunshine? Get his ambient temperature into the lower 80s. No hot side or cool side. Just 80-83 24/7 and high humidity.
Once he's in the correct situation, he'll be able to eat and digest food.
We need to know a lot more about everything.

I live in orange city. The Doctors name is Dr. Forest.
I have an outside pin for her . When I put her outside today she just ran around like crazy. So I brought her back in the house.

 

[Laura Lee🐢]

Where did you get your tortoise?white poop is probably urates. If it is pasty and not hard and gritty. Then it is fine, if it is gritty then your tort needs to be hydrated more.

I got her at the Daytona reptile expo. I think it was just pasty not hard. Looked like banana.

 

[TammyJ]

Please do everything that Zeropilot had advised, along with giving your tortoise daily hour long soaks in warmish water. Please, don't allow any vitamin injections! That's what all the clueless vets always end up pushing, and they may hurt your tortoise and make her worse.

 

[Ray--Opo]

I got her at the Daytona reptile expo. I think it was just pasty not hard. Looked like banana.

You have found the best forum for raising your tort correctly. I purchased my tort at the Melbourne repticon show. The seller gave me wrong info and all the wrong equipment. After 3 months I came across this forum. What a blessing to find this forum. After surfing the internet and getting contradictions on YouTube also. Read the caresheets and ask questions. ZEROPILOT has raised redfoots for quite some time.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

That outdoors pen looks great.
The tort was probably running around out of pure joy of taking in his new territory.
Real sunlight is the very best medicine. (With shade)
Now. The bad news. Your lighting is horrible and needs to be discontinued.
You need a linear strip florescent tube UVB. A T5 HO 10.0 REPTISUN. Like the photo. Or a 12% ARCADIA.
The fixture in the photo is the entire thing. Correct tube included. Ready to use.
For heat, you need a CHE or a Ceramic Heat Emitter. It provides warmth day and night. Because it provides no light.
Second photo.
It needs to be in a similar fixture to what you already have. But with a Ceramic, high heat base.
Redfoot get stressed if it's too hot or too bright or too dry or too cold and probably a few other things I'm forgetting because I'm tired.
Once he is comfortable. Relaxed and able to relax and digest his food, he should eat like a tiny horse.
And once you get the feel for what to do, your life will suddenly be much easier too.
Your target ambient temperature is between 80 and 86. 82-84 is perfect. You also want high humidity. Over 70%. 24/7.
Basically. The correct equipment is needed indoors. And outdoors, give him as much supervised time as you can.
Make sure you supervise. Because at his size, he can get into all kinds of trouble.

Also, I'm assuming that you didn't mean to include the photo of the chicken coop door opener.

 

[Laura Lee🐢]

That outdoors pen looks great.
The tort was probably running around out of pure joy of taking in his new territory.
Real sunlight is the very best medicine. (With shade)
Now. The bad news. Your lighting is horrible and needs to be discontinued.
You need a linear strip florescent tube UVB. A T5 HO 10.0 REPTISUN. Like the photo. Or a 12% ARCADIA.
The fixture in the photo is the entire thing. Correct tube included. Ready to use.
For heat, you need a CHE or a Ceramic Heat Emitter. It provides warmth day and night. Because it provides no light.
Second photo.
It needs to be in a similar fixture to what you already have. But with a Ceramic, high heat base.
Redfoot get stressed if it's too hot or too bright or too dry or too cold and probably a few other things I'm forgetting because I'm tired.
Once he is comfortable. Relaxed and able to relax and digest his food, he should eat like a tiny horse.
And once you get the feel for what to do, your life will suddenly be much easier too.
Your target ambient temperature is between 80 and 86. 82-84 is perfect. You also want high humidity. Over 70%. 24/7.
Basically. The correct equipment is needed indoors. And outdoors, give him as much supervised time as you can.
Make sure you supervise. Because at his size, he can get into all kinds of trouble.

Also, I'm assuming that you didn't mean to include the photo of the chicken coop door opener.

Thank you for helping me. I really appreciate it. Will this work for the CHE? Or can the one I have work? (Picture below)
And you asked how I keep it warm at night . The pic I sent isn’t a chicken coop door opener. It’s a heating pad that I would turn on at night.
So having it to hot in there is the reason why her eyes are closed ?
Thank you again

 

[Laura Lee🐢]

Thank you for helping me. I really appreciate it. Will this work for the CHE? Or can the one I have work? (Picture below)
And you asked how I keep it warm at night . The pic I sent isn’t a chicken coop door opener. It’s a heating pad that I would turn on at night.
So having it to hot in there is the reason why her eyes are closed ?
Thank you again

And should she be getting vitamins?

 

[Maggie3fan]

I believe the enclosure is too small, she can't get away from the bright light or extreme heat. Redfoot comes from the forest floor where it's shady, they don't need or want that bright light. She should get uvb from her food. I am not an expert by any means, this is simply my personal opinion...and experience with my own RF.
This is how my RF is kept in the house, however, he also has an outdoor enclosure. This one in the house is 5.5'x
2.5'. It is completely covered by a greenhouse...
You can see the humidity on the plastic...This is Logan...he's 2 years old and 6 inches scl..a real easy keeper once I had the light humidity and heat nailed. you can see is food dish is empty and he wants more...
Logan is 2 years old and 6 inches long. I use a 65 incandescent light and a che for heat. Logan also gets very active when I put him outside...but he settles down in a shady corner and naps...

 

[ZEROPILOT]

And should she be getting vitamins?

No

 

[ZEROPILOT]

That is the correct type of fixture to hold a CHE. But I don't know if it's large enough. And it's heat will probably melt that plastic and that tape

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Discontinue using that heating pad also.
These are very dangerous for several reasons.
The CHE will provide warmth night and day. A CHE lasts many. Many years. They're inexpensive and they're cheap to use on your utilities bill