Not eating. HELP!!

[Stormy Rose]

I've had my tortoise for about a month now and I am having a few issues with feeding him.

1) He refuses to eat Mazuri diet, do I am unsure if he's getting enough variety in his diet using just the organic spring mix and baby kale I've been feeding him.

2) He favors the red leafs in the spring mix, and recently has only been eating the red ones.

3) For the past 3 days he has not been eating. He ate one red leaf and left the rest 3 days ago, then yesterday he didn't eat at all, and I just tried feeding him today and he once again refused to eat.

I am worried that he may be dehydrated, and I am going to go out before posting this to buy some pedialyte for his daily soaks. I soak him everyday since I got him a month ago, as well as spraying his enclosure a few times a day. His sibstrate is a mix of cypress and coir bedding that I keep really moist. I just measured his enclosure temps and his enclosure is ~82 degrees in the middle, with a 95 degree basking temperature, and ~70 on both ends. At night the temperatures drop to around 65 degrees.

Are these temperatures right for him. I am pretty sure he is only about 6 moths old. The only thing I can think of that explains why he is not eating is that he may be dehydrated. He has noticeably become more hydrated since I first got him, but maybe that it not enough.

Sorry for the long post. Any suggestions for helping my little guy??
Thanks!

 

[Gab5150]

What kind of tortoise do you have?

 

[Yvonne G]

Usually not being warm enough is the reason for a tortoise to not eat, however, if your tortoise is the one in your avatar, then he's probably trying to get ready to hibernate. They stop eating for a couple weeks before they hibernate. Doesn't matter if he's indoors. Some Russians just seem to know when it's that time of year.

 

[Stormy Rose]

What kind of tortoise do you have?

He's a Russian

 

[Stormy Rose]

Usually not being warm enough is the reason for a tortoise to not eat, however, if your tortoise is the one in your avatar, then he's probably trying to get ready to hibernate. They stop eating for a couple weeks before they hibernate. Doesn't matter if he's indoors. Some Russians just seem to know when it's that time of year.

Thanks for your reply! He is the one in my avatar. Is there anyway to stop him from trying to hibernate?

 

[lismar79]

Keep them warm and keep lights on and bright for 12 plus hours. I have mine on for 14. My russian also did this and every day I soaked her under her uvb light and then I hand feed her her favorite food- romaine but I hid other leaves under the pc of romaine to trick her into eating better. You do need to add more variety to your diet. Try endive, escrole, dandelion greens, collard greens, turnip greens, mustard greens. These are available at most grocery stores.

 

[Tom]

Don't use pedialyte. No need. Just water is fine.

Warm up your temps. Your temps are fine for a russian most of the time, but when you are trying to prevent hibernation, go a bit warmer with the ambient, day and night.
Add some lighting to brighten it up. A long florescent tube in the 6500K color range will work wonders. Keep the lights on for 14 hours a day.

Where did you get him?

 

[Stormy Rose]

Don't use pedialyte. No need. Just water is fine.

Warm up your temps. Your temps are fine for a russian most of the time, but when you are trying to prevent hibernation, go a bit warmer with the ambient, day and night.
Add some lighting to brighten it up. A long florescent tube in the 6500K color range will work wonders. Keep the lights on for 14 hours a day.

Where did you get him?

I got him from a reptile expo in Hamburg, PA. I currently have him under one 100Watt MVB. It is 15 inches away from his substrate. He climbs on top of a log to bask which is about 11 inches away from him. Do you think that it is too close and drying him out at all? I don't want to lower it more because I know that it way too close to him. I originally had it further away but had to lower it to increase his temperatures.

I will go out tomorrow and get a new heat lamp for him. Should I go for another MVB, baking bulb, or a regular heat bulb? Right now the enclosure it two plastic tubs connected together since he is such a little guy right now. I'm not sure how I could install a florescent tube..

 

[Tom]

In that case he might actually be only six months old. It is common practice for the chain pet stores to sell wild caught tortoises that are at least several years old, that the animal is 6 months old and captive bred.

Only your thermometer can answer the questions about bulb height. 11" sound too close to me, but use your thermometer and check it. If I were you, I would add a 48" florescent tube to light the whole thing up, and a 100 watt ceramic heating element set on a thermostat to maintain ambient temps a little higher day and night.

 

[lismar79]

I did that as well, forgot to mention, I added a 50 w ceramic heat element to my enclosure to raise the heat overall about 5 degrees work well.

 

[ascott]

coir bedding that I keep really moist + night the temperatures drop to around 65 degrees

This equation can land you an ailing tortoise...cold and wet is not good.

Also, if you have a tortoise that is head strong set on and has a deep seeded need to brumate---then all of the lights and all of the heat and such will not force him to remain awake....now, if you try these things and it works ---kudos, you will force a species to remain awake that is designed to brumate.....but you are the one that is the keeper....I also would not use pedialyte ---plain warm water is perfect.

 

[Stormy Rose]

Has anyone ever heard of a RT favoring only red leafs? I can't get him to eat anything else..

 

[lismar79]

Has anyone ever heard of a RT favoring only red leafs? I can't get him to eat anything else..

Yep, mine went through a period were all she would eat was raddichio ( I may have spelled that wrong...) I mashed mazuri on it and rolled other leaves into it so she ate well with out knowing it. This last time it was romaine and I did the same thing. I'm just happy if she's eating anything during one of her phases...just takes a little more effort on my part.

 

[Stormy Rose]

UPDATE: Raising his temps worked! I added a 100Watt CHE with a dimmable fixture to adjust the temps and keep the enclosure warmer at night. Now he's eating and active again (and even eating green leaves!!). He's even drinking every time I soak him, so I'm less worried about him being dehydrated.
Thanks for all the help! I learn so much on the forum!!

 

[ZEROPILOT]

OOPs. Too late, but I'm glad that it all worked out for you. My tortoises seem to prefer the color red when everything else is equal. As in flowers. Same type and size of hibiscus. If you placed orange, red and yellow hibiscus side by side by side, only the red would get eaten. Also, with the bagged greens, the red cabbage gets gobbled up before the greens.

 

[stojanovski92113]

I'm glad that you didn't rush to use the pedialyte....

 

[stojanovski92113]

I'm glad that you didn't rush to use the pedialyte....

UPDATE: Raising his temps worked! I added a 100Watt CHE with a dimmable fixture to adjust the temps and keep the enclosure warmer at night. Now he's eating and active again (and even eating green leaves!!). He's even drinking every time I soak him, so I'm less worried about him being dehydrated.
Thanks for all the help! I learn so much on the forum!!

I'm glad to hear your tort is eating