Newbie Tort Owner - need some advice!

[TurtleTina]

Hi everyone! Excited to finally have joined the site.
My name’s Christina and I bought a 1 year old Hermanns Tort and called him Turtle (it’s a long story lol). I’ve had him for 3 months now, at the store he was kept in reptile sand with some hemp bedding. I want to keep him in topsoil mostly after doing my research but I know torts don’t take well to big changes of environment so I have slowly been removing the sand from his environment to make it purely hemp bedding, and will then slowly change to topsoil.
My little Turtle the Tortoise does not like to climb, he seems very shy and timid. He loves to burrow though and will burrow right down into his bedding to where I can’t find him most of the time. Recently, he has stopped eating and literally burrows under this little rock that he’s obsessed with and won’t come out. Day or night. Just stays there. I’m not sure what’s going on....

My question is, does anyone know what could be wrong? I bath him daily/every other day, I don’t take him out of his table unless I am giving him a soak, his hide is kept around 60/70% humidity and 23 degrees, and his basking temp is always around 36 degrees. I ALWAYS have fresh water available for him and leave fresh greens out for him but he just won’t eat them. He seemed to love dandelions and nastertium leaves mostly but he just won’t eat them anymore.
I’ve attached a picture of his table and the temps at both ends. Also a picture to show just how little he ate today and that was only after I took him out and set him in front of his food because he hadn’t eaten the previous day at all.
He was very tiny when I first got him (32g) and now he weights 47g so he is growing and was eating well, but just the past week has not been eating or coming out at all...any suggestions of what I can change to fix this? Is this normal for a 12month old hermann tort to be buried ALL THE TIME?

 

[Tom]

Hello and welcome.

What types of bulbs are in the hoods? Any UV?

What is the overnight low temp? Any night heat?

The enclosure looks very dry. Glad that you've learned about better substrates, but you can switch all at once without an issue. I would use damp coco coir or fine grade orchid bark. There is no way to know what composted material the bagged soil is made from, so no way to know if it is safe. It is very commonly used to this day and many of the old care sheets still recommend it, but I recommend against any kind of bought in a bag soil.

 

[Gillian M]

A very warm welcome to the forum.

Your tort is simply adorable. God bless.

Torts do not like change. Therefore they need time to get used to it.

 

[TurtleTina]

Hello and welcome.

What types of bulbs are in the hoods? Any UV?

What is the overnight low temp? Any night heat?

The enclosure looks very dry. Glad that you've learned about better substrates, but you can switch all at once without an issue. I would use damp coco coir or fine grade orchid bark. There is no way to know what composted material the bagged soil is made from, so no way to know if it is safe. It is very commonly used to this day and many of the old care sheets still recommend it, but I recommend against any kind of bought in a bag soil.

Hi Tom thanks for your response!

Yes one bulb is basking, and the other is UVB. I am aware the substrate is quite dry and so I do daily mistings of it to keep the humidity up! Wasn’t sure whether to switch straight from what little Turtle is accustomed to, or to do this slowly so as to avoid upset.

Still not sure why little Turtle has stopped eating this past week after being so good for the past 3 months that I have had him? also, is it normal for him to stay buried under that rock almost 24/7?

 

[Yvonne G]

The wrong kind of light, too dry an enclosure, not warm enough. . . these are all reasons why baby tortoises stop eating. If I had to guess, I'd go for the "not warm enough" reason though. It's very hard to keep an open-top tort table warm enough for a baby tortoise. You're probably going by what the thermometer is telling you, but that baby isn't living under the thermometer. If you'll check the temperature where he actually stays, you'll see it's quite a bit cooler than what the temperature dial is telling you.

 

[TurtleTina]

The wrong kind of light, too dry an enclosure, not warm enough. . . these are all reasons why baby tortoises stop eating. If I had to guess, I'd go for the "not warm enough" reason though. It's very hard to keep an open-top tort table warm enough for a baby tortoise. You're probably going by what the thermometer is telling you, but that baby isn't living under the thermometer. If you'll check the temperature where he actually stays, you'll see it's quite a bit cooler than what the temperature dial is telling you.

Hi Yvonne, thanks for the advice!

Little Turtle used to come up and bask under the basking bulb, then go straight to his food and then burrow down under his little rock (this is directly below his basking lamp). Now, he just stays burrowed and won’t come up to bask or eat or anything! He burrows down at the warm side of the table, could this mean anything?
I used to have a 150W bulb when I first brought him home and he did not enjoy it, he would spend all his time in his cooler hide and so I determined it to be too strong for him and downgraded to a 100W bulb. Do you think this is strong enough? The temp below is usually around 37degrees sometimes slightly higher

 

[Minority2]

Hi Yvonne, thanks for the advice!

Little Turtle used to come up and bask under the basking bulb, then go straight to his food and then burrow down under his little rock (this is directly below his basking lamp). Now, he just stays burrowed and won’t come up to bask or eat or anything! He burrows down at the warm side of the table, could this mean anything?
I used to have a 150W bulb when I first brought him home and he did not enjoy it, he would spend all his time in his cooler hide and so I determined it to be too strong for him and downgraded to a 100W bulb. Do you think this is strong enough? The temp below is usually around 37degrees sometimes slightly higher

What specific (include pictures/model/color) type of UVB bulb are you using? Are you using coiled overs or mercury vapor bulbs? And if you were to use (MVB) why would you need to pair that with a flood type basking bulb? That would be a waste considering the small size of your enclosure.

Your basking light is located all the way in the corner correct? I don't think your enclosure is getting the right range of temperatures. Please use a temperature reader/gun to verify.

There could be a number of reasons why tortoises may lose their appetites. Prior breeder handling history, diet, lighting, temperatures are all possibilities.

Please read the links provided and else you can do to improve their living conditions:
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/russian-tortoise-care-sheet.80698/
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/sticky-hermanns-tortoise-care-sheet-updated.101410/