sulcata nose whistle

[roberthoffman]

My 13.5 inch male sulcata is currently residing in a large indoor enclosure. He has cypress mulch / timothy hay hay substrate with just the mulch in his sleeping /hide tunnel. (FYI, he removes all mulch substrate from his hide hole, sleeping area every night: he scoops it out. If I put timothy hay in the tunnel, he pushes it around until he has created a mound blocking the entrance from view. He has a large ceramic tile warmer in his sleeping area: it is comprised of two 12" ceramic tiles sandwiching a 4" X 6" heat pad. Depending on his mood he will sleep on / off the ceramic tile heating area. There are three lamps: 1 fluorescent UV bulb; one full spectrum "gro-Lux" fluorescent bulb and; a "Zoo Med" (brand name) 100 watt UVA basking lamp. These lamps are situated in a series next to each other so that he gets light from all three when basks. He has always been a great eaater and I take great care in feeding him grasses (he just wont eat timothy hay, hence the substrate) with dandelions ,kale, chicory, etc as greens. I also recently (one week ago) began to give him a small amount of "Zoo Med" grass land tortoise food (pellets which he sometime eats and sometimes just ignores. For treats I will give him some yellow squash which he eats like candy.
This morning he is making a faint whistle type of noise from his nostrils (mouth closed) his appetite seems normal (he just polished off a large hand full of dandelion greens . i don't see any type of discharge from nostrils, eyes, or mouth. He seems very active as usual. I was going to give him a bath but I haven't yet in case this is a upper resp problem. He never drinks from a water bowl (or at least never when I'm around) but when I give him his greens, they are always soaking wet because I wash them in warm water: this seems to provide him with plenty of water: he pees and poops regularly.
This morning

 

[ascott]

Welcome to the Forum! What a beautiful tortoise. If all other regulars are good..eating....walking...breathing with mouth closed and no gapping for air no mucus bubbles from the nose....it may be that his enclosure humidity is a little dry...I am guessing you live somewhere that you have no sun? And that is why he is indoors? I would absolutely go right ahead and give him a warm soak for about 45 minutes (if he likes soaks he wont mind) also you can cut the hay up really small and sprinkle onto his other food offerings and then spritz it with water so the hay will stick to the yummy stuff...this may allow you to begin to introduce the hay.....

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Robert:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

May we know appx. where you are?

Whistling sometimes is an indication of the habitat being too dry. Also, take a close look into his nostrils and see if there's something stuck in there. If this is the case, you can buy a squirt bottle of saline solution (from the contact lens department of the pharmacy) and squirt some with a firm squeeze into each nostril. Don't worry about it going into his lungs, as the nostrils end up in the roof of his mouth, not down his throat.