Not Eating for Almost a Week, only things thats changed is intro back into wild weeds

CleoTheLeo

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May 23, 2015
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Hi,

My 4 year old leopard tortoise, Cleo, hasn't eaten for almost a week. She also hasn't been as active as she usually is. She lives in about a 9 x 4 greenhouse indoors. Its ranges from 85-80 degrees from one side to the other and has a basking spot that ranges between 95-110 degrees. Her substrate is orchid bark. The only difference in her normal routine is the introduction of outdoor weeds back into her diet, like clover, dandelion, deadnettle, and different types of broadleaf weeds like, mouseear chickweed, henbit, persian speedwell, cud weed. I can't exactly remember if she stopped eating before or after I started feeding her them, because I remember it just being pushed around and a few of the store bought dandelion greens being gone maybe. Everything is from an untreated yard, no fertilizers or anything. Im worried about her, she usually gets a breakfast thats "about half her size." She usually eats most of it, about 3/4. She then gets dinner thats about "as big as her" or little bigger and she usually eats most of it too. Theres usually a little bit left over. Any ideas about whats going on?
 

TriciaStringer

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I’ll comment just to bump this to the top of the posts. No suggestions though.

What was she eating before introducing weeds again?
 

Tom

The Dog Trainer
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Temps sound good. What is the overnight low?

Are you soaking daily?

What size tortoise?

In most cases, tortoises need a month or more to transition on to new and unfamiliar foods. Even though what you are offering are "good" foods (Admittedly, I don't know some of the ones you mentioned, but I'm assuming you looked them all up...), they are still new tot he tortoise. Try going back to whatever you were offering previously, and see if the appetite comes back. If yes, then make a slower transition by adding small amounts of the new stuff and gradually increasing the amount over time.
 

CleoTheLeo

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May 23, 2015
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Thank you both for your replies! She started eating yesterday, I meant to take this post down! She also pooped yesterday for the first time since she stopped eating, I guess she might have had something upsetting her, I’m still not sure. Thank you both again!
 
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