Russian Tortoise acting a bit slow and not eating much?

[AudreyTheTortoise]

Hi, I have a baby Russian Tort, we think she's between 6 and 7 months old and we've had her for about 2 months. She's in a large rubbermaid container with a 50/50 mix of cocnut coir and repti-sand for substrate that I keep a little bit wet (not so wet that it sticks to her, but not bone dry either... I have a 100W Zoo med power-sun bulb and a heat lamp over a rock. She always has water available to her and I feed a good mixture of all of the good things. Recently (within the last 4 or 5 days) she has been acting really sluggish and not eating well. Her eyes seem a bit puffy and water-y (not to the point where they are closed, but definitely puffy). She's been sleeping A LOT, I almost don't see her awake unless I try to check on her and then she gets annoyed and burrows some more into one of her many hides. I did take her outside for a bit yesterday because it was actually a warmer day and she wandered around as though nothing was wrong and munched on some clovers that she hunted down. As soon as she got back inside she burrowed and went to sleep again,though. This past weekend, I went on a trip so my boyfriend's mother kept an eye on her, so I was hoping that she was only stressed from that, but it's been a few days and she still hasn't been acting normal. I'm worried that maybe the UVB bulb isn't letting off enough light any more or something... I guess just mainly I'm worried and want her to get better as soon as possible and will do anything to make it so. I can't find any vets around me to take her to, the closest is about 2 hours away, but I will trek out there if that's what everyone thinks I should do. Please help!

 

[dmmj]

It could be the weather mine are slowing down a bit I live in California so you know what the weather has been like , what is it's diet like. And not sounding mean or anything but at 7 months you can't sex them yet to small. Pics would be nice.

 

[AudreyTheTortoise]

Would the weather also account for her eyes being puffy? I did know that they couldn't be sexed yet but the guy at the reptile shope said that he thought "she will be a girl," so we decided to just go with it. Am I just being too worried about her? How can I make sure she's getting enough calcium and nutrients if she won't eat?

Also, I took her outside again today (another warmer day) ans she munched more clovers and wandered around happily. Maybe I'm just paranoid?

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly.

 

[dmmj]

the weather would not account for puffy eyes, it could just be an irritant from her substrate (see I am already calling it a her lol) Baby tortoises sleep a lot so that may not be unusual, how big is she? It sounds like she is eating just not eating on colder days which is what they do, they like to be warm when they eat.

 

[AudreyTheTortoise]

her shell is about 2 1/2 inches long, and I would put pictures up if I knew how to put pictures on here... She does have a few videos on youtube though, here's a link www.youtube.com/audreythetortoise

Should I attempt to lower my heat lamp a bit so that it stays a bit warmer with winter coming? I live in Wisconsin so that will definitely be an issue. I just had it pointed out to me that we recently put a new hide in her enclosure that's made from a dried out pumpkin shell. I googled whether or not they were allergic to them or anything but nothing seemed to be amiss... could that be the problem?

Thanks!

 

[dmmj]

It's possible that the dried out pumpkin shell could have irritated her eyes. They are not allergic to it but maybe a strand of pumpkin guts could have brushed against it. I watched her video she is definitely cute but way to small to sex at that size they all look female, again not being mean just saying. How far is her heat lamp away now ?

 

[AudreyTheTortoise]

The UVB lamp is about a foot away from the enclosure, and her heat lamp is about 7 inches away from the basking rock. The cooler side of her enclosure stays in the mid 70's and the warmer side in the lower 90's. It is on a timer for a 13 hour day and cools of to the mid 60's at night.

 

[Maggie Cummings]

What are you feeding her? Russian like weeds rather then grass and you say she goes for the clover. I'd suggest that she is slowing down to hibernate, but that wouldn't account for the puffy eyes...

 

[dolfanjack]

I hear people all the time say "keep the heat up and lights on for 12 hrs and they won't hibernate" and I have found in my limited experience that this is not the case. Mine always slow down,ate less, and sleeped more even with the heat up and lights on. The puffy eyes would be a concern, in human terms this would be from excess sleep, but for tortoises i don't know.

 

[AudreyTheTortoise]

Thanks for all of the feedback everyone, I'm glad to know that what's going on is relatively normal... I'll keep an eye on the puffyness in her eyes, but it seems like it may already be getting better.

We've been feeding her a mixture of dandelion (whenever we can get it, we will be starting to grow it as soon as the seeds we planted start coming up), Kale, collard greens, arugula, radicchio, clovers when we can find them outside, some spinach (not very often at all, just a little here and there) and romaine. We also just found a little organics store that sells a lot of the foods that sh can eat that we couldn't find before in the bigger box stores.