Tori67
Member
Everytime I take my tort out of his hide under the basking light, he goes right back to his hide. What’s going on?
His enclosure is a 6x3 and his substrate is a mix of top soil, coco fiber and peat moss. It gets misted every morning but not soaking wet. I open the tops to let more light in. He is active but his appetite still isn’t good (as you can see from the leftover greens)Could be temperatures, could be something with that light, could be not enough other light, could be a tort that isn't used to new surroundings, could be many things.
Show us some pics of the tortoise and enclosure. What size is the enclosure? What substrate? Is it damp?
What type of light were you using before?I am switching to a separate uvb (t5) and basking bulbs. This behavior began recently. And he’s never been this way before. Also, it looks super wet because I was misting his lettuce to get the dirt off. I have a solar meter and it’s between 3 and 4 always
The problem with so called "Organic and natural soils" is that they are called that, but they are not. These soils are produced from green waste from everyones clippings and cuttings (including cities green waste) and unfortunately these ingredients include poisonous plants, plastics, plants that were sprayed with round-up and fertilizes (when they were living in someones yard). I have visited a plant where they produce soils and saw the entire process and believe me, you do not want your tortoise sitting on or God forbid eating these soils. They are called organic because these ingredients are from organic matter, but they are anything but organic. You will find that buying Orchid bark from your local nursery or Reptile-Bark from pet stores your tortoise will do much better.He never goes into it, just drinks from it. Had a big saucer but he just runs through it so I downgraded to a smaller one to drink from, and give him more space to run. He gets baths regardless. I do have a big saucer in his outdoor enclosure so he can cool off.
The soil is 100% organic and natural, no fertilizers or pesticides, I was going to switch anyways because it definitely is messy!!
Light was a mega ray MVB
And he has 95-100° basking spot, warm side is around 80°, cool side is 70-75° ish, ambient is 75°
I’m trying to figure out what changed for his behavior to be like this now, thank you for helping me 🥺