New Baby Hermann's Questions

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heather4change

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Hello, This is my first time on the forum as a member but have been using it for the last few weeks to collect information for our new little Hermann's which arrived on Tuesday this week. The forum has been great for a ton of my questions and concerns but I still have a few more. Cody ,our little guy , is eight months old and seems to be doing well. One of my concerns with him is that he is not eating very much. Since Tuesday he has eaten only three quarter size pieces of romain lettuce. I have offered spinach, cabbage, broccoli, store bought turtle food, and snow peas. I've chopped them really finely, I tried feeding him at different times of the day, nothing has seemed to work so I gave in and gave him some romain( I know it's very poor in nutritional value). My other concern is with the amount of light he is getting, I have purchased the poper bulbs that have UVA/UVB. He is only out in the lighted area for maybe an hour total during the day. He is in his little hideout the rest of the time. So, am I being neutrotic or are these serious cocerns. Being this is his first week, I want to start off on the right foot! Any advice or questions for me would be greatly appreciated.
 

egyptiandan

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Hi Heather,
Romaine lettuce is actually pretty nutritious, it's the head lettuces like iceburg that aren't. The other things you've tried should only be given once in a while and not on a regular basis.
In the winter you should be able to find Romaine, red and green leaf lettuce, escarole, curly endive and dandelion greens in your grocery store. In the spring, summer and fall you should be able to switch to a mostly weed diet.
Are you giving any kind of supplements?
What are the temperatures in your enclosure, under basking light, warm end, cool end and night time?

Danny
 

heather4change

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Hello, Thanks for the reply. I just re-read my posting and from this moment on will always remember to use my spell check, wow, that was so bad. I'm glad to hear that the romain is good for him. Is the quantity o.k. ? As for temps. basking area...90-95 degrees, Warm end...80's, cool end...70, and at night 60-65 unless he goes nearer the heat lamp. We live in Michigan and at night our house is kept around 60-63 degrees so I have been leaving the heat lamp on so if he needs more heat he can go near it. The enclosure he is in is 4ft long and 2ft wide, I have the lamps at one end close to each other. I also have tried to put a supplement on his food, it is Reptocal. He has never accepted any food with the supplement on it.
 

egyptiandan

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The quantity of lettuce is fine. :D Your day time temperatures are just fine. Your night time temperatures are a bit to low for a hatchling. Night time temperatures should be around 70F.
Also leaving the heat lamp on has messed up his concept of day and night. If you need to add heat at night, the best thing to use is a ceramic heat emitter. It emits heat but no light.
Keep up with the supplement your using, just lightly dust the greens.

Danny
 

Jentortmom

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To add to Danny's posts, your little one is also probabley getting use to his surroundings, sometimes it can take a few weeks, but s/he will start coming out..keep putting in his favorite foods and then add other healthy options to it and keep up with calcium, s/he will get use to it and will eat it. Also make sure you soak him in warm water a couple times a week to make sure he does not get dehydrated. Oh and post pics cause I wanna see your cutie.
 

heather4change

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:) Posting to let everyone know that we are doing better! Cody has been eating more and is actually coming out now and then to bask. I have been giving him a warm bath each morning and then placing him under the heat lamp and he seems to really like it. He even ate a piece of romain this morning with the vitamin supplement on it!! Thanks so much for all the help. It's very nice to know that I can find help here, what a wonderful resource! I will try to take some pictures to post, but I'm not all that computer savvy.
 

Crazy1

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Hi Heather, we are not just helpful with tort stuff. We can help with posting of pics (Anja wrote a great info sheet on it) and other stuff as well. Just ask we'll try to help you work it out. Especially because we L o v e Pics.
 
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