rikadizo
New Member
Hi! I wish it was in better spirits writing this. I’ve been reading threads here pretty regularly for the past month trying to correct my mistakes. Guilt of not being prepared coming into owning a tort has been eating me up and I’m afraid my baby is suffering from first time keeper failure 😞 I’ve basically made every beginner mistake it seems. I could give a detailed history but in attempt to keep this short…
I have a leopard tortoise hatchling that I was told was about a month old when I bought her from a local reptile store. I’ve had her for 8 weeks now so that makes her about 3 months old. Only started weighing her a couple weeks ago when she was 30g and now 32g, nothing in the past week.
My panic of realizing my wrongdoing tricked me into paying a vet only to tell me to change substrate to carpet and to cut up her food to help her eat more. Her eating was never much. She goes at it when she does but stops after her tiny fill. Started with dandelion greens and mustard greens. At some point she only cared for cactus and now cucumber, which I was able to trick her with last night into some bites of mazuri. Today no go.
Reptile store sold me a 20 gallon screen top with a CFL and red spot bulb. Reptibark for substrate but not a clue to keep moist. It was ignorant bliss for first couple weeks until she started dragging hind legs. The only thing I might’ve done right was daily warm soaks.
Baby keeps her head high when I get the temp and humidity right. I switched out all the lights first of this month to a CHE, incandescent flood light and repti zoo T5 HO UV tube. All are on top of the screen however with the rest covered with foil. Temps stay at 29-34C and humidity 55-75%. Substrate now is eco earth coco fiber kept damp. She still drags but I’ll see her push up on a hind leg occasionally.
She’s been more fussy lately or what looks to me like crying. I absolutely hate that it could be she’s in awful pain. She stretches out a bit then quivers her bottom jaw. Is she suffering too much?
I get glimmers of hope all to come back to this excruciating waiting game especially when I don’t see her eat. Her fate may be what it is but how can I keep her as comfortable as possible?
I have a leopard tortoise hatchling that I was told was about a month old when I bought her from a local reptile store. I’ve had her for 8 weeks now so that makes her about 3 months old. Only started weighing her a couple weeks ago when she was 30g and now 32g, nothing in the past week.
My panic of realizing my wrongdoing tricked me into paying a vet only to tell me to change substrate to carpet and to cut up her food to help her eat more. Her eating was never much. She goes at it when she does but stops after her tiny fill. Started with dandelion greens and mustard greens. At some point she only cared for cactus and now cucumber, which I was able to trick her with last night into some bites of mazuri. Today no go.
Reptile store sold me a 20 gallon screen top with a CFL and red spot bulb. Reptibark for substrate but not a clue to keep moist. It was ignorant bliss for first couple weeks until she started dragging hind legs. The only thing I might’ve done right was daily warm soaks.
Baby keeps her head high when I get the temp and humidity right. I switched out all the lights first of this month to a CHE, incandescent flood light and repti zoo T5 HO UV tube. All are on top of the screen however with the rest covered with foil. Temps stay at 29-34C and humidity 55-75%. Substrate now is eco earth coco fiber kept damp. She still drags but I’ll see her push up on a hind leg occasionally.
She’s been more fussy lately or what looks to me like crying. I absolutely hate that it could be she’s in awful pain. She stretches out a bit then quivers her bottom jaw. Is she suffering too much?
I get glimmers of hope all to come back to this excruciating waiting game especially when I don’t see her eat. Her fate may be what it is but how can I keep her as comfortable as possible?