- Joined
- Oct 4, 2007
- Messages
- 7
Hello everyone.
I was recommended to this forum for some good advice. I have a sick 4 year old Sulcata who I "rescued" from my parent's a little over a month ago.
He is four years old and his shell from head to tail is about 5 inches. You can see that the back part is sunken down. My parents had just been feeding him romaine lettuce (it was the only thing he would eat) but without any supplements.
He just finished a month of calcium injections but his shell is still really soft. Right now he is being force fed Gerber's baby food stage 2 orange and green veggies (whatever has the highest percent calcium). Before I had tried a bunch of different stuff to get him to eat: red leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, spinach, cucumber, carrot, apple, orange, banana, tomato, wheat grass, bull grass (the stuff they sell at pet stores), I bought some ZooMed grass pellets for grass eating torts that you mush up in water, and I even bought these tortoise bites that were supposed to stimulate eating. At times he would be interested in the grass or the cucumber but wouldn't do anything except stick his head out towards it with his mouth open. The last time he ate on his own, he ate some baby food and some of the tortoise bites, but that was weeks ago. The vet thinks that his bones may be too soft for him to crunch down anything.
I've been soaking him in a bowl of water for a half hour every day or every other day. That has helped a ton! (His uric acid was at 40, normal high is 11, and after 4 weeks of soaking every day for a half hour it has dropped to 8.8.)
Enclosure: I have him on rabbit pellets. On the cold side his enclosure is at about 80 degrees F. and under the heat lamp it gets to be 105-120 depending on how high I have the air conditioner. His hide is half under the heat lamp and half under a UV/UVB bulb. The front part of the hide stays between 90 and 95 while the back stays between 85 and 90.
I have been told to get him a humid hide box, some Mazuri tortoise chow to be used as a supplement, and to take him outside everyday for an hour.
Does anyone have any other suggestions or ideas on how I can improve my little man's health?
(Sorry this is so long)
I was recommended to this forum for some good advice. I have a sick 4 year old Sulcata who I "rescued" from my parent's a little over a month ago.
He is four years old and his shell from head to tail is about 5 inches. You can see that the back part is sunken down. My parents had just been feeding him romaine lettuce (it was the only thing he would eat) but without any supplements.
He just finished a month of calcium injections but his shell is still really soft. Right now he is being force fed Gerber's baby food stage 2 orange and green veggies (whatever has the highest percent calcium). Before I had tried a bunch of different stuff to get him to eat: red leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, spinach, cucumber, carrot, apple, orange, banana, tomato, wheat grass, bull grass (the stuff they sell at pet stores), I bought some ZooMed grass pellets for grass eating torts that you mush up in water, and I even bought these tortoise bites that were supposed to stimulate eating. At times he would be interested in the grass or the cucumber but wouldn't do anything except stick his head out towards it with his mouth open. The last time he ate on his own, he ate some baby food and some of the tortoise bites, but that was weeks ago. The vet thinks that his bones may be too soft for him to crunch down anything.
I've been soaking him in a bowl of water for a half hour every day or every other day. That has helped a ton! (His uric acid was at 40, normal high is 11, and after 4 weeks of soaking every day for a half hour it has dropped to 8.8.)
Enclosure: I have him on rabbit pellets. On the cold side his enclosure is at about 80 degrees F. and under the heat lamp it gets to be 105-120 depending on how high I have the air conditioner. His hide is half under the heat lamp and half under a UV/UVB bulb. The front part of the hide stays between 90 and 95 while the back stays between 85 and 90.
I have been told to get him a humid hide box, some Mazuri tortoise chow to be used as a supplement, and to take him outside everyday for an hour.
Does anyone have any other suggestions or ideas on how I can improve my little man's health?
(Sorry this is so long)
Last edited by a moderator: