Lagn
New Member
Hello everyone! Thought I would share my story with all of you here as I don't have many Tortoise friends in my country. Sorry it's a little long...
My name is Jesse and I live in New Zealand. Three or so weeks ago my partner and I were gifted two Hermann's tortoises (hatched Xmas last year) from my Dad who has bred them for sometime. He didn't want to separate them. They also came from an elongated egg which I am told is even rarer for twins to emerge from? Anyway, three weeks ago when they arrived we were over the moon with excitement for our new friends. My Dad built a table for them that is 2x4 (maybe slightly larger) which they were already housed in but loved exploring the new setup when it was completed again at our house. Everyday has been so fun just being able to walk outside and have a little look on them! They are so fascinating and adorable at the same time. We decided to name them Aang and Zuko (any last airbender fans?).
We have been feeding them a mixture of dandelion, clovers, nustursium, wild turnip and watercress with a small side of tortoise mixture (pellets) watered down so they aren't hard. Nothing out of the blue has appeared in my opinion, although I am very new to this! A general day in the life of our tortoises has been popping their heads out of the substrate (a mixture of peat moss & top soil from an untreated area) between 8:30am-9:30am depending on weather. On a nice day they will generally be active from 10am until mid-day when they get some shade and then in the afternoon they boost around again for another two or so hours, have a feed and then by 4:30-5:00pm they are burrowing away for the night! On a poor day, which unfortunately we have had a wet start to summer over here, they will be up in the morning for a small amount of time, have a bite and head back into the burrow where they may or may not keep their wee heads poked out, I am assuming this is natural behavior being that they need sun/heat for them to be active. We bath them every second day, which they generally poo and pee after or in their bath. Nothing out of the ordinary here either, nice poos, nice wee's with urates (I think that's the white stuff right? Correct me if I'm wrong).
Yesterday, we awake too a pretty overcast day with little heat. This is typical of NZ weather as we had a beautiful day before that. It got to about 11am and I noticed that one of the tortoises, Zuko, wasn't out yet like his brother (not being very active but just getting what basking in he could). So I decided to have a look and found him in his hide, unfortunately, Zuko was very unwell. He was limp all over and had fluid coming out of his mouth and nose, also VERY cold. We tried everything we could to help little Zuko, I got a heatmat with a towel and put him under a lamp to try and warm him up, we tried hydrating with warm water keeping his head out of the water. To no avail by 12:30pm Zuko had passed away. Not much can affect me emotionally, but theres something about animal companions that get me extremely upset. It has been a hard couple of days now adjusting too seeing Aang in the table, but I know he doesn't really know or care as they are solitary in the wild. Aang has been his usual self, honestly possibly more active knowing there is less competition for food lol!
Zuko was eating, had pooed and pee'd the day before. I have a video of him munching down some dandelion leaf! Has anyone else had this happen too them? Sudden death of younger or even older tortoises? I understand it's just nature at times, I'm just someone who likes to find out as much as I possibly can so thought I would post my little story here.
The only thing I can really say about Zuko in his last hours were, he didn't smell very nice (whilst still alive), his cloaca seemed swollen and I could see purple/red around the opening. My Dad's vet who also has tortoises says it was possibly a prolapse which I sounded reasonably plausible considering the smell and colors. Sorry I am unable to provide photos of him in his final time, I was too emotional to think of autopsying and he's now wrapped up in our freezer, in a small container, as we have a friend who does reptile taxidermy.
If anyone is interested, I will happily share the table they are in, always look forward to making improvements where I can!
Thanks for reading!
Jesse.
My name is Jesse and I live in New Zealand. Three or so weeks ago my partner and I were gifted two Hermann's tortoises (hatched Xmas last year) from my Dad who has bred them for sometime. He didn't want to separate them. They also came from an elongated egg which I am told is even rarer for twins to emerge from? Anyway, three weeks ago when they arrived we were over the moon with excitement for our new friends. My Dad built a table for them that is 2x4 (maybe slightly larger) which they were already housed in but loved exploring the new setup when it was completed again at our house. Everyday has been so fun just being able to walk outside and have a little look on them! They are so fascinating and adorable at the same time. We decided to name them Aang and Zuko (any last airbender fans?).
We have been feeding them a mixture of dandelion, clovers, nustursium, wild turnip and watercress with a small side of tortoise mixture (pellets) watered down so they aren't hard. Nothing out of the blue has appeared in my opinion, although I am very new to this! A general day in the life of our tortoises has been popping their heads out of the substrate (a mixture of peat moss & top soil from an untreated area) between 8:30am-9:30am depending on weather. On a nice day they will generally be active from 10am until mid-day when they get some shade and then in the afternoon they boost around again for another two or so hours, have a feed and then by 4:30-5:00pm they are burrowing away for the night! On a poor day, which unfortunately we have had a wet start to summer over here, they will be up in the morning for a small amount of time, have a bite and head back into the burrow where they may or may not keep their wee heads poked out, I am assuming this is natural behavior being that they need sun/heat for them to be active. We bath them every second day, which they generally poo and pee after or in their bath. Nothing out of the ordinary here either, nice poos, nice wee's with urates (I think that's the white stuff right? Correct me if I'm wrong).
Yesterday, we awake too a pretty overcast day with little heat. This is typical of NZ weather as we had a beautiful day before that. It got to about 11am and I noticed that one of the tortoises, Zuko, wasn't out yet like his brother (not being very active but just getting what basking in he could). So I decided to have a look and found him in his hide, unfortunately, Zuko was very unwell. He was limp all over and had fluid coming out of his mouth and nose, also VERY cold. We tried everything we could to help little Zuko, I got a heatmat with a towel and put him under a lamp to try and warm him up, we tried hydrating with warm water keeping his head out of the water. To no avail by 12:30pm Zuko had passed away. Not much can affect me emotionally, but theres something about animal companions that get me extremely upset. It has been a hard couple of days now adjusting too seeing Aang in the table, but I know he doesn't really know or care as they are solitary in the wild. Aang has been his usual self, honestly possibly more active knowing there is less competition for food lol!
Zuko was eating, had pooed and pee'd the day before. I have a video of him munching down some dandelion leaf! Has anyone else had this happen too them? Sudden death of younger or even older tortoises? I understand it's just nature at times, I'm just someone who likes to find out as much as I possibly can so thought I would post my little story here.
The only thing I can really say about Zuko in his last hours were, he didn't smell very nice (whilst still alive), his cloaca seemed swollen and I could see purple/red around the opening. My Dad's vet who also has tortoises says it was possibly a prolapse which I sounded reasonably plausible considering the smell and colors. Sorry I am unable to provide photos of him in his final time, I was too emotional to think of autopsying and he's now wrapped up in our freezer, in a small container, as we have a friend who does reptile taxidermy.
If anyone is interested, I will happily share the table they are in, always look forward to making improvements where I can!
Thanks for reading!
Jesse.
