My tortoise isn’t drinking water
- Thread starter PoptartTheTort
- Start date
Littleredfootbigredheart
Well-Known Member
Hello there! Poptart is SO cute!! How old is she?🥰
It might be you’re just missing the moments she’s getting a quick drink? Either way, as long as you’re doing daily soaks and your humidity is where it should be, coupled with the natural liquids in their diet, they should be adequately hydrated🙂and always have fresh water available👍
I don’t suppose you’d mind sharing some info on how you’re keeping them? It’s so good to know with new members, a photo of your full set up would be great!😊
What are your temperatures like?
Your humidity levels?
What kind of lighting/heating are you using?
Indoor uv? If so what kind?
Is that coco coir substrate?
How’s their diet been with you? I have a great list of stuff we personally feed ours if you’d like some ideas for variety! I’m always on the look out for additions, so feel free to share yours😁
It might be you’re just missing the moments she’s getting a quick drink? Either way, as long as you’re doing daily soaks and your humidity is where it should be, coupled with the natural liquids in their diet, they should be adequately hydrated🙂and always have fresh water available👍
I don’t suppose you’d mind sharing some info on how you’re keeping them? It’s so good to know with new members, a photo of your full set up would be great!😊
What are your temperatures like?
Your humidity levels?
What kind of lighting/heating are you using?
Indoor uv? If so what kind?
Is that coco coir substrate?
How’s their diet been with you? I have a great list of stuff we personally feed ours if you’d like some ideas for variety! I’m always on the look out for additions, so feel free to share yours😁
What kind of dish are you using? Post a pic of it. It should be a shallow clay saucer.
PoptartTheTort
New Member
That could be true. For your questions, my daytime temperatures in the enclosure are normally around 80 degrees Fahrenheit, nighttime is around 72-ish I’d say, as I do have a cherry head (basically a smaller red foot)
For humidity levels, they are around 80 all the time, and I use a humidifier, as all my mist sprayers I buy for some reason just break. If I wanted to spray the enclosure, I just use my spray bottle and fill it with water.
For heating and lighting, I use Fluker’s 100 watt basking bulb, along with the light on my ceiling.
I honestly forget what brand of UV light I use, I got it at PetSmart I’m pretty sure.
It’s coconut fiber substrate, I do use coco coir substrate a lot though, in the picture, it’s probably coco coir substrate. I feed her tomato, watermelon, lettuce, and sometimes some cabbage. However, just recently about a week ago, she started being much more picky, not even touching her cabbage or carrots. She doesn’t even eat much of her watermelon anymore, and she usually eats almost if not all of it. I do always make sure to sprinkle calcium on her food though.
By the way, I recently moved her into my big closet (It’s nothing to worry about, it’s basically a small version of my bedroom.) Thought I’d mention it here. Oh, and in the picture below, the spot where some objects are placed on top of is where her hide is. 🐢
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Not drinking for two reasons:
1. The daily soaks and food have the tortoise already well hydrated.
2. Wrong type of water dish. The sides are too tall. You need a large, shallow terra cotta saucer sunk into the substrate.
Other tips intended to be helpful. Please don't feel attacked or insulted. If no one tells you what is wrong, you can't fix it.
1. The enclosure is much too dry. The substrate need to be damp.
2. Humidifiers should not be blowing directly into a tortoise enclosure. Its not good for them to be breathing in those micro droplets. This is not the same thing as humidity. Maintain high humidity by using a large closed chamber.
Open tops can't work. Its just physics. That is like trying to heat your house in winter with no roof on it. You need to contain the warm humid air inside the enclosure.
3. 72 at night is much too cool for this species. It should be 82-86 24/7.
4. That diet is slowly killing this tortoise. You need to improve it immediately.
5. Coco fiber substrate is dangerous and should not be used for a tortoise. Coco coir, aka: coco peat, is safe, but its hard to use that with a RF and not get shell rot. Orchid bark works better.
6. Wrong bulbs.
Sorry to give you so much bad news. It is obvious that you have tried to make a great environment, but unfortunately, you found the wrong care advice.
Here is a RF care sheet that works:
tortoiseforum.org
More general info here:
tortoiseforum.org
Questions are welcome.
1. The daily soaks and food have the tortoise already well hydrated.
2. Wrong type of water dish. The sides are too tall. You need a large, shallow terra cotta saucer sunk into the substrate.
Other tips intended to be helpful. Please don't feel attacked or insulted. If no one tells you what is wrong, you can't fix it.
1. The enclosure is much too dry. The substrate need to be damp.
2. Humidifiers should not be blowing directly into a tortoise enclosure. Its not good for them to be breathing in those micro droplets. This is not the same thing as humidity. Maintain high humidity by using a large closed chamber.
Open tops can't work. Its just physics. That is like trying to heat your house in winter with no roof on it. You need to contain the warm humid air inside the enclosure.
3. 72 at night is much too cool for this species. It should be 82-86 24/7.
4. That diet is slowly killing this tortoise. You need to improve it immediately.
5. Coco fiber substrate is dangerous and should not be used for a tortoise. Coco coir, aka: coco peat, is safe, but its hard to use that with a RF and not get shell rot. Orchid bark works better.
6. Wrong bulbs.
Sorry to give you so much bad news. It is obvious that you have tried to make a great environment, but unfortunately, you found the wrong care advice.
Here is a RF care sheet that works:
Redfoot Tortoise Care Sheet
NOTE: I do not keep redfoots, and I only have one tortoise in total. With this in mind, remember that I am in no way an expert, and this should not be used as cold hard proof of how to raise a redfoot. I used information from great keepers on this forum to put everything together. This care...
tortoiseforum.org
More general info here:
Info For New People. Please Read This First.
Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...
tortoiseforum.org
Questions are welcome.
