Norbert Not Eating

[STayl02]

Hi All,

We've had our little tortoise, Norbert since the beginning of November. He used to eat like a horse but has barely eaten over the past several weeks. He has also started sleeping a lot more. He'll go for several days without getting up (we do take him out to soak at least every other day). Overall he seems uninterested in his food. I've seen him wander over to his food dish occasionally, but he'll only take a few nibbles and then leave it alone. I've had some luck with him eating a piece of food that I put directly in front of him or offer him by hand. Other than not eating much and sleeping a lot, he seems fine. Clear eyes, clear nose, weight has been fairly constant. We took him to the vet last week to get him checked out and he said that he was breathing fine, walking fine, hydration looked good. Right now we're just waiting for Norbert to poop, so we can take it in to get analyzed. He had been pooping about once a week or so - of course now that I want to get it analyzed he hasn't gone.

We switched him over into a new enclosure in the beginning of February. Substrate is mostly cypress mulch, spaghnum moss around his hide, and some repti bark where his food dish is (less likely to accidentally eat it). We mist the enclosure usually twice a day. When I fill up his water, I dump the rest of the water from the glass around the enclosure and mix it up to keep moist. Temps in the enclosure during the day are 70-95; night temp is room temperature (around 68-70). We are currently using a Reptisun tube UV light and a 75w black night heat lamp. I'm planning to switch the heat lamp out with a MVB to add some more light to his enclosure.

Any suggestions/advice on how to get him eating again would be appreciated! I've included some pictures below for your viewing pleasure. The enclosure is his current one, but we did switch out his hides with ones that he can't easily climb. We thought he had been climbing because his old enclosure wasn't big enough, but we must just have a tortoise who loves to climb!

Thanks in advance for your help!
Stephanie

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Hello, Stephanie, and a very warm welcome to Tortoise Forum to you and Lovely little Norbert.
I would slightly increase the daytime temps, so the basking spot is 95 to 100°. and the minimum 75°.
(night time temps are fine) .
I think you have a humidity problem, it looks dry to me, pour in water by hand and mix it in so the substrate is moist but not wet.
Your humidity should be 65 to 70 % and to achive this you may have to cover the top of the enclosure, leaving spaces for where the lamps shine through.
Ensure he has total darkness at night so he can sleep properly.

 

[STayl02]

Thank you for the response! I mixed in some water with the substrate so it's nice and moist, and I'm working on increasing the temps. His lights and heat are on timer so he has darkness at night to sleep. He did walk around a bit after his soak today instead of heading straight to burrow or into his hide like the past several days, but no eating. Do you think it's at all possible that he's trying to hibernate even though he's inside with lights and heat?

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Thank you for the response! I mixed in some water with the substrate so it's nice and moist, and I'm working on increasing the temps. His lights and heat are on timer so he has darkness at night to sleep. He did walk around a bit after his soak today instead of heading straight to burrow or into his hide like the past several days, but no eating. Do you think it's at all possible that he's trying to hibernate even though he's inside with lights and heat?

I should think it's a bit late in the year for him to be thinking about hibernation now, unless maybe you're having a sudden very cold spell.
Make sure he's kept nice and warm, his core temp must be 85 degrees if he's to eat and digest his food properly.
Substrate :
Warm and moist = healthy tortoise;
Cold and damp = sick tortoise.

 

[dmmj]

you have a very wide range of daytime temperatures is that overall? you should have 4 temperature zones a cool side and warm side a basking spot and overall

 

[Yvonne G]

It might help to keep the temperature up in that habitat if you could figure out a way to cover it. Tortoises won't eat if they're not warm enough.

 

[STayl02]

Thank you, everyone. The temperatures that I gave were the range that he has in his enclosure, with the highest being the basking temp (95) and the lowest being the cool side (70). I did manage to get the basking temperature up to close to 100 today. The pet store was out of lamp stands (so I ordered one on Amazon) but I plan to try out a 50w heat lamp I have from when we first got him to try and get his cool side up to 75 during the day. In the meantime, I'll keep our apartment a bit warmer during the day than I typically do while we're at work.

He kept peering out of his hide at me while I was messing with his lamps earlier today, so I pulled him out and set him under his basking lamp. He's been up walking around since then, which is more than he's done the past several days Still no eating though as far as I can tell. He did finally poop today, so I was able to take that into the vet to get analyzed.

Thank you for all the help so far!

 

[STayl02]

Vet called and Norbert has worms we start him on some meds tomorrow. Hopefully after his treatment and with his upgrades to temp and humidity, he'll be back to his old self and eating everything in site!

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

I always thought worms made them eat more.
Many tortoises have worms but it usually doesn't become a problem until you can see them in the poop.
Anyway, hopefully he'll recover soon.