An acquaintance gave my husband and I 3 baby tortoises to watch while they went on an extended trip. We have a 3 year old sulcata and year old european marginated, so we thought that we would be great candidates foe the extended babysitting.
The torti we are watching are a Herman's (hermie), a red foot (tomato), and a russian (yuri). I gave them the names to keep track of them.
The guy shows up with the babies, and tells me they are a year old. I can tell right away that he is either lying and they are just hatchlings or they are severely malnurished. None of them weigh more than 65 grams, their shells are sunken in on the bottoms, and they are still very soft. Luckily Hermie and Tomato seem to have fared better than Yuri and are active and eat when food is offered. Yuri's eyes were completely shut when they arrived 10 days ago, and I just now got him to at least partially open them.
My immediate thought was that they are all malnurished, so I have been feeding dark leafy veggies (kale, spinach, and dandelion) with vitamin sprinkled on top, as well as mazuri tortoise chow. The Herman's and Red Foot are eating well, they are more active, and seeming to do better. They get soaks in warm water twice a day and they are actually drinking the water. It looks like the two of them will make a great recovery if I can get them to put on some weight.
Yuri is who I am worried about. After days of intense care and fretting over him, he has finally started opening his eyes. I wasn't sure if it was a vitamin A deficency or dehydration that was causing the problems with his eyes, so I treated for both. He still moves around, but doesn't eat much. He gets soaks and eye drops just like everyone else does. His eyes are cloudy though, which is something that I have never come across. Is this normal for tortoises whose eyes have been shut for so long? Is it a bacterial infection? Has he gone blind? I am really worried for him. I know that turtles can have double lidded eyes, do tortoises as well?
It makes me sick that his owner let him get like this!
The torti we are watching are a Herman's (hermie), a red foot (tomato), and a russian (yuri). I gave them the names to keep track of them.
The guy shows up with the babies, and tells me they are a year old. I can tell right away that he is either lying and they are just hatchlings or they are severely malnurished. None of them weigh more than 65 grams, their shells are sunken in on the bottoms, and they are still very soft. Luckily Hermie and Tomato seem to have fared better than Yuri and are active and eat when food is offered. Yuri's eyes were completely shut when they arrived 10 days ago, and I just now got him to at least partially open them.
My immediate thought was that they are all malnurished, so I have been feeding dark leafy veggies (kale, spinach, and dandelion) with vitamin sprinkled on top, as well as mazuri tortoise chow. The Herman's and Red Foot are eating well, they are more active, and seeming to do better. They get soaks in warm water twice a day and they are actually drinking the water. It looks like the two of them will make a great recovery if I can get them to put on some weight.
Yuri is who I am worried about. After days of intense care and fretting over him, he has finally started opening his eyes. I wasn't sure if it was a vitamin A deficency or dehydration that was causing the problems with his eyes, so I treated for both. He still moves around, but doesn't eat much. He gets soaks and eye drops just like everyone else does. His eyes are cloudy though, which is something that I have never come across. Is this normal for tortoises whose eyes have been shut for so long? Is it a bacterial infection? Has he gone blind? I am really worried for him. I know that turtles can have double lidded eyes, do tortoises as well?
It makes me sick that his owner let him get like this!