red-foot wont move/eat

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mer001

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Hi, I am new on here and am looking for some advice or hopefully good news!! I recently just bought two baby red-foots from a lady who had owned them for about 5 months. They were doing great and healthy looking and seemed to be well taken care of when I bought them.

However, now the smaller one (i believe a female) is very lethargic, and i hardly see her eat. I did get her to get out of her shell and move around a bit and I noticed she has a very obvious wobbly/limping action as she walks. I am worried she is sick or injured and I am hoping someone on here has some advice to offer.

Thank You, I look forward to hearing from you all :)
 

Yvonne G

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Hi Mer001:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

May we know your name and where you are?

We'll need to either see a picture of your habitat, or have you give us more information on how the tortoises are set up before we can help you. For instance, what kind of light do you have over the habitat?
 

dmarcus

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Hello and welcome to the forum.

Yvonne is correct, you will need to provide things like the temps in the enclosure what types of bulbs you are using and what types of food your feeding. That will help everyone provide you with the best possible answer..
 

ascott

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Welcome to the Forum :D We LOVE PICS :p

I recently adopted two Redfoots, there is one larger one and of course the smaller one.....the bigger one came out of the box moving and a grooving...the smaller one was wobbly and had a weird kinda walk compared to the larger one..and so I began to observe them and found that the larger one was larger because of some bullying going on and I "believe" as a result, the smaller one is less healthy than the larger one....IMO

In the short time I have had them I have had them outside all day in the warmth and exposure to sunshine in the am and the late afternoon...when I take them one at a time and feed them I have to hand feed the smaller one as she has eating issues, she is an air biter, and she seemed over all weak..well yesterday after feeding the little one I exercised her alot...at the onset she was wobbly, kinda rickety in her gate and after about 10 minutes of walking her gate and stride became a bit better....and then today she was even stronger...still the silly air biting but that is alright as I just make sure she gets a bite down the food hole (LOL) each time she opens her mouth...

The bigger one is aok...he is eating well, exercising well. They have a warm indoor enclosure that I keep at about 82-85 ish during the evening with misting before they go in for the night as well as I put warm water onto most of the substrate before they go in for the night to bump the humidity and I have the top partially covered to help keep in the warm and humidity...they do not have hides but rather I have silk plants in either back corner for them and they do retreat under the plants for sleeping....

I would say to be certain that they are well hydrated, kept warm and food offered, they do need to have light but not desert intense type of uv rays, just a lower grade over their enclosure if they are not having natural sun time each day, IMO

I hope your little one gets her groove and improves....
 

HipsterTorts

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ascott said:
Welcome to the Forum :D We LOVE PICS :p

I recently adopted two Redfoots, there is one larger one and of course the smaller one.....the bigger one came out of the box moving and a grooving...the smaller one was wobbly and had a weird kinda walk compared to the larger one..and so I began to observe them and found that the larger one was larger because of some bullying going on and I "believe" as a result, the smaller one is less healthy than the larger one....IMO

In the short time I have had them I have had them outside all day in the warmth and exposure to sunshine in the am and the late afternoon...when I take them one at a time and feed them I have to hand feed the smaller one as she has eating issues, she is an air biter, and she seemed over all weak..well yesterday after feeding the little one I exercised her alot...at the onset she was wobbly, kinda rickety in her gate and after about 10 minutes of walking her gate and stride became a bit better....and then today she was even stronger...still the silly air biting but that is alright as I just make sure she gets a bite down the food hole (LOL) each time she opens her mouth...

The bigger one is aok...he is eating well, exercising well. They have a warm indoor enclosure that I keep at about 82-85 ish during the evening with misting before they go in for the night as well as I put warm water onto most of the substrate before they go in for the night to bump the humidity and I have the top partially covered to help keep in the warm and humidity...they do not have hides but rather I have silk plants in either back corner for them and they do retreat under the plants for sleeping....

I would say to be certain that they are well hydrated, kept warm and food offered, they do need to have light but not desert intense type of uv rays, just a lower grade over their enclosure if they are not having natural sun time each day, IMO

I hope your little one gets her groove and improves....

I have to agree I think it may be a case of bullying.

I actually had the same issue with my baby greeks. Weirdly my smaller one was also an air biter on the rare occasions that she would eat. I'd actually advise you to separate them. I saw improvements with my tort, then a week later we'd be back to where we started. She wouldn't gain any weight, she actually lost weight. Now that they are separated she is more active then my large tortoise and eats a lot! Also, she is slowly gaining weight. But she does have side effects from the experience, her sight is crap I know she can see but not well. She's still an air biter and she walks with her head toward the ground, like she looks like she is constantly sniffing the ground. Other then that she is thriving and very healthy. I definitely thought I was going to lose her but separating them saved her.
 

mer001

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sorry i havnt responded, but izzy passed away three days after my post :( im still unsure of the reasoning behind it but on a brighter note vinny is doing great, active, eating well, etc

i have a heat emitter on one side and a light on the other. my temp gage isnt working but i try to maintain 75 degrees and great humidity.

what should the temp/humidity ideally be?

thanks to all of you so far
 

Yvonne G

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It should be around 100 directly under the light, getting slightly cooler as you move away. With around 80 + on one end and room temperature on the other end. But not cooler than 75.

So sorry about Izzy. She must've been sick when you got her.
 

Tnewton

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I would say a basking spot of no more then 90 for a redfoot, they do not like it hot. Cypress and sphagnum moss will keep your humidity up. Sorry to hear about the little ones passing :(
 
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