New Russian Tortoise Lily (or Silly Lily)

[Maggie Cummings]

UVB lights need to be pointed straight down, not at an angle. So if those are UVB point them straight down if they are not, you need to get one. I don't think your basking spot is hot enough, it should be around 100 degrees, Russians like a temp drop at night, I drop mine to 70 degrees. i don't think her diet is good enough, it needs more of a variety and maybe some treats like softened squash. If that were my habitat the half logs would be up against the side wall so there was more of a feeling of security involved. Unless she could climb out. It is not right that she is sleeping so much. I personally would start soaking her daily in strained carrots. Baby food and warm water. Put her and the baby food in a small container for about 30 minutes everyday. She is not getting enough nutrition and that could make her lethargic. I already addressed the temp issue, I think she needs to have a cool side and a warm side so I would suggest you move your lights accordingly.

Here's a link to help you, I think you've done a great job so we will work with you to find out what's wrong...

http://www.russiantortoise.org/

Buy some Spring Mix and add the greens you mentioned to that, cut it up a bit and mix it all up and see if that makes a difference, she might not like what you are feeding her...

 

[jrholls]

I've got an idea on how to get the lights pointed straight down, and I think putting the logs against the sides is a great idea. I think that will raise the temps up a bit...maybe even to 100 directly under...I'll let you know how it works out. I have heard that feeding them squash and carrots can be bad for them due to high sugar content. Also, spring mixes tend to have some types of cabbage and spinach in them, which I've also heard can also be bad. We do dust her food every third or fourth feeding with a small amount of rep cal calcium and a vitamin powder once a week. She also has a cuttle bone that she shows no interest in. I've never heard of the baby food thing. So you're saying we should soak her more often and put baby food in the water so she'll get extra nutrition when drinking? I'll give anything that'll help a try but please be a little more clear on this. Thanks to everyone for helping me

 

[MichelleCarrigan78]

Small amounts of treats are okay as long as they are infrequent. If your spring mix has cabbage or spinach in them, just pull out those items before feeding. I think (though not 100% sure) that the baby food in the water helps when they drink, and also absorbs through the skin.

 

[Maggie Cummings]

My family has been involved in turtle and tortoise rescue for almost 40 years, and I would never tell you to do something that was harmful to your tortoise. I use Spring Mix as a base and add dark leafy greens to it to make it a better tort salad. There is a lot of good lettuces in it and you can pick out the few cabbage or spinach leafs, but I believe they are good also. There's good properties in spinach and in Spring Mix there's not enough spinach or cabbage to be harmful, the idea is to feed a wide variety of things and not lock on to just a few as you have. I don't think Lily likes what you are offering her and that is just one of her problems. Your diet is not good enough so I suggested something that would be better for Lily. Squash and carrots contain a lot of Vit A which is good for them, so using them as 'treats' is a good thing. I didn't ever mean for you to feed them as a staple. I feed my 80 pound Sulcata softened Acorn squash several times a week and use it as a treat to socialize him, I use it to spend time bonding with him, it hasn't hurt him yet. I have several young and small tortoises who also get softened squash a few times during the week and they love it. You should see them run when they see it's squash time. There again it is added to a complete and varied diet, not as a staple.
Lily is not eating enough to be healthy so to add strained carrots to her soaking water adds nutrition to help her while she is so lethargic. Soaking her in the baby food adds to the water as she will drink it and if she doesn't drink some nutrition will soak in thru her cloaca and the soft skin under her throat. If she were mine I would soak her in baby food for 20 or 30 minutes every day until she comes out of whatever is wrong with her.

 

[Yvonne G]

Just a small note of explanation. I've bought several different brands of Spring Mix and cabbage is not ever listed as an ingredient in any of the different brands. Spinach, yes, but cabbage, no. The red leaves you see are radicchio, not cabbage.

 

[RianSeeking]

All of Maggie's advance certainly helped my lethargic Russian.

Since raising temperatures and the baby food soaks she has increased her activity 110 percent. I am still doing occasional baby food soaks as my tortoise continues to fight 'gout'.

 

[Maggie Cummings]

All of Maggie's advance certainly helped my lethargic Russian.

Since raising temperatures and the baby food soaks she has increased her activity 110 percent. I am still doing occasional baby food soaks as my tortoise continues to fight 'gout'.

Awww, thanks! I am glad she is doing better...did the vet say what causes gout? I thought it was from eating stuff like cabbage and not getting enough exercise...

 

[jrholls]

I have found out a few things so far with my enclosure. First of all, I believe that by leaving her two red heat lamps on at night there isn't a noticable temp drop. Especially because she would lay right under them (around 90 degrees). I think her normal day/night schedule is screwed up and I'm trying to fix this. Last night we fed her some spring mix. She ate for a solid half an hour which was SO EXCITING! (Thanks you guys so much, we plan to use this as a base and add the darker greens periodically now) After eating she tried to burrow a little near one of the red heat lamps. She stayed there all night. I checked the temp around 6 pm 91 degrees. At about 7pm I shut her day lamps off and checked the temp where she was and it was still 88 degrees. I shut the heat lamp off around 7:30 and the temp where she was sleeping gradually went down to about 70 degrees and stayed there all night. Thats where I want it to be so I'm going to shut the heat lamps off every night. I'm so glad I got the infrared thermometer so I can moniter temps more closely. I know if I hadn't shut off her lamp she would have slept there anyways at 88 degrees. I think by getting the temps right for day and night time and feeding her food that she actually likes will help a lot.
I think I've been keeping her way too warm at night for a couple of weeks. I'll discuss the baby food soak with my wife and we'll probably try it tonight.

She ate more last night than in the last 3 or 4 days combined. I can't thank you enough guys. Anything else I should be doing? I can't wait to see how she's doing when I get home from work today and I'll let you know how its going.

 

[jrholls]

Lily is still not very energetic. We've given her a 30 min soak in baby food and water for six days straight now. We've adjusted her lights so temps are good. We've changed her food to spring mix/darker greens. She liked the spring mix the first day but has eaten very little after that. Maybe two or three small pieces of food a day. She will not eat unless we put her right in front of her food. And only sometimes at that. She does not move around her house much at all. Something else that bothers me is that after I pick her up and set her down, like after a soak, she'll just lay there and not move for a few minutes, even if it looks like one of her legs is tucked under or uncomfortable. I'm still checking everyday for signs of illness and dont see any. She isn't pooping much but then she isn't eating much. I don't know what else to do. Maybe she's depressed? Does anybody have any other tips for me to try? Should I take her to the vet again? Last time she was healthy except for parasites, which are gone now.

 

[Yvonne G]

No, I don't think she needs the vet.

Your temp is ok. The food is ok. She's been de-wormed, so that's ok. The lights are ok. The habitat is ok.

Really the only thing left is the time of year. You can't do anything about that. You have to fool her into thinking its still summer. She just might be trying to slow down because of winter time. You said you got her at an expo, but its hard to say if she was wild caught or captive bred. If wild caught, she's just hard wired into sleeping through the winter. Sometimes is pretty hard to break that habit. Keep your lights on for 14 hours or more a day and don't let the night time temp drop more than 10 degrees from the day time. But if that doesn't work, you just may have to allow her to sleep for a couple weeks and fool her into thinking she has hibernated. Then slowly heat her back up and pretend it spring time...voila!

Good luck with your little Russian. Keep us posted.

 

[dolfanjack]

No matter what I do I can't keep my russians awake during the winter. Tortuga sleeps 3-4 days then wakes up and wants to eat. He'll be active for a while then go back to sleep for 3-4 days. I have just had to learn to except it. Warm temps, lots of light, extra hours of light, warm baths, nothing keeps him awake. I have had Tortuga since 05 so this isn't new to me. This is my first winter with Irie and she is up alot more then Tortuga but still wants to sleep some. Tortuga will con't. with this pattern until late march/early april when he is up for another long season. I just want you to be reassured that this might just be Lilies way of getting through winter.