My tortoise won’t eat

[mfeketelpn]

I have had my tortoise for a month now. The past week he has not eaten. He has eaten a couple of bites from my hand but he will not eat out of his bowl. When I first got him I was filling his bowl up twice a day and now it’s not touching his food! What could possible be going on with him? How can I get him to eat? He has eaten like 3 little bites all week long! Help

 

[Yvonne G]

It this an outside or inside tortoise? Our answer to your problem depends upon your answer.

 

[mfeketelpn]

He is an inside tortoise but does go outside during the day when I’m at home.

 

[TechnoCheese]

Could we see a picture of your food bowl?

 

[mfeketelpn]

he was eating out of it when I first got him. Whenever I would put the bowl down he went straight for it

 

[Yvonne G]

Ok, questions for an inside tortoise:

How big is your enclosure?
Tortoises need to do a lot of walking in order to keep their digestive tracts moving smoothly. A tortoise kept in a small enclosure doesn't walk enough to keep this happening. Your tortoise might be backed up internally.

What is the temperature all over the enclosure at floor level.
Tortoises that can't get their inner core body temperature up to AT LEAST 80F degrees can't digest their food, so they don't eat. Also, tortoises that are too hot don't eat. The enclosure ideally should be 100-105F directly under the light, 80-85F at one end and room temperature (70-80F) at the other end.

Do you soak the tortoise? Do you provide a waterer in the enclosure?

What purpose does the wire grate serve? Russian tortoises love to burrow down into the substrate. They should have some sort of burrowing medium as substrate.

 

[mfeketelpn]

We are in the process of building him a bigger enclosure. He is in a 40gallon aquarium right now. I would have to check the temperature in the tank when I get home from work. He has plenty of substrate to burrow in to and the wire grate is to keep the dogs out of the cage and yes I soak him and he has water available in his enclosure.

 

[mfeketelpn]

I appreciate all your great advice and info you are giving me. I am new to the tortoise world. My husband bought him as a gift for me and I am still learning how to do and correctly do everything every day. I have been doing my researching

 

[daniellenc]

His heat source should be on a thermostat to provide a constant temp so if you don't have one invest now.

An open top chamber also makes providing constant temps very hard so you need to find a way to make a closed chamber ASAP. If this is a young tortoise it is even more important.

Pictures of the inside of his tank and info on temps will be great. I have a feeling he is either too hot or too cold as Yvonne suggested.

 

[Yvonne G]

We are in the process of building him a bigger enclosure. He is in a 40gallon aquarium right now. I would have to check the temperature in the tank when I get home from work. He has plenty of substrate to burrow in to and the wire grate is to keep the dogs out of the cage and yes I soak him and he has water available in his enclosure.

If at all possible, have hubby build an outdoor habitat instead of a bigger indoor one. Russian tortoises do MUCH better when living outside. Then, in the winter he'll hibernate and you won't need an indoor habitat.

 

[mfeketelpn]

Only that worries me about outside is the predators

 

[mfeketelpn]

Only that worries me about outside is the predators

And it gets really cold in the winter

 

[Yvonne G]

Only that worries me about outside is the predators

The only predators you have to worry about with a russian tortoise would be your neighbor's dogs. Most wild predators hunt at night, and you can lock the tortoise into his night shelter at night.

And it gets really cold in the winter

Doesn't matter how cold the winter is. When they hibernate, he'll be boxed up someplace, like in a back bedroom or on a shelf in the garage.

 

[mfeketelpn]

The only predators you have to worry about with a russian tortoise would be your neighbor's dogs. Most wild predators hunt at night, and you can lock the tortoise into his night shelter at night.


Doesn't matter how cold the winter is. When they hibernate, he'll be boxed up someplace, like in a back bedroom or on a shelf in the garage.

So I think some of the problem may have been his cage was to cold. He was by the vent and the air condition is blowing so we moved him in front of the window away from the vent until we can get an enclosure built

 

[ethan508]

Hard to tell from the pics, but it looks like you've been feeding a spring mix salad. That is pretty good but I found early on that my tortoises will not touch the baby spinach. I read on the thetortoisetable that spinach can cause some mouth agitations. So maybe pull the spinach out prior to feed so they don't learn to associate the entire bowl of green with mouth agitation.