Thoughts for Forsten’s tortoise upkeep

DreamenderCA

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5 Year Member
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Sep 4, 2016
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This morning one of our Forsten’s tortoises passed away abruptly. He was around 1.5 years old. There was literally no sign of health issues or whatsoever before this happened. He had been eating voraciously and always chasing for our fingers whenever we put food in, even two days ago. He was kept with three other 9 months old Forsten’s in a 2x4 enclosure since three months ago. All our tortoises were soaked daily and the humidity monitored. The substrates we used in their enclosure is spaghnum moss, which was watered regularly. A heater was put on a timer during nighttime to maintain the temperature around 80d F, which heats two ceramic crib our Forsten’s frequently slept under. We have raised the 1.5 years old Forsten’s since he came to us as a three weeks old. No sign of aggression were observed among the tortoises and they frequently slept next to one another.

We had no idea what the reason was, as was devastated by it. It seemed to us that hatchling/ yearling Forsten’s tortoises don’t show much (if any) signs of health deterioration before decided to go.

Wondering how’s other experience with this species? As much as we love this species (and wanted to breed them), it broke us inside out to lose them like this.
 
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