Repetitive sneezing/eye rubbing

hunterk997

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10 Year Member!
Joined
Mar 17, 2013
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897
Location (City and/or State)
Wayland, NY
I am attempting to attach a video to help explain my tortoise's problem. I was soaking her a few minutes ago, and she would make a squeak noise when she would make a biting motion, then suck her head in, pop it out, then sneeze while sucking it in again, then her eyes swelled and she would rub them. Then she'd look normal again, but just to start it again, and repeat. She did it a few times, I thought she was just getting some dust out of her eyes at first and happened to sneeze. But I'm not sure now. She is eating normally, her basking temp. is usually 92 F, sometimes a bit higher, and her cool end is usually 75 F. Her humidity hovers around 30%. I thought maybe her substrate is too dry and she got some in her eye and inhaled some dust? Any help will be a big relief.
 

tellablue

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5 Year Member
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Feb 25, 2014
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70
Location (City and/or State)
Wisconsin
My tortoise did something that sounds very similar about a month ago after a few quick bites of a very juicy pear. I was worried at first, but all seems to have turned out fine. I wonder if it is a way to expel excess liquid?
 

pfara

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Mar 28, 2013
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Maryland
Was the squeak noise more like a chirp or click sound? If so, I believe it's called stridulation and is caused when the upper and lower beak rub against each other. It's totally normal. Do a forum search for "stridulation" and see if the other threads match up.
 
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