According to the research I did and after making my best guess at her species, I have been offering her a variety of things, such as good, organically grown salad greens (wide variety of mixed greens and reds), carrots, cut up raw French green beans, grated sweet potato, other leafy green veggies rich in calcium, young, delicate greens that are usually cooked, such as chard and ta-sai, strawberries, and hibiscus flowers. I just bought her some tiny baby zucchini and zucchini blossoms at the farmers' market this past weekend too.
Weather permitting, she also gets to go outside and take supervised walks around the garden for a little while every day (which she loves!) where there is grass, weeds, small, delicate succulents, rosemary (including flowers) and a big hibiscus tree with accessible leaves, but she has not shown any interest in eating anything since we took her in, and I am worried since it’s been three weeks now. I also put a couple young live potted succulent plants into her enclosure, but all she has done so far is overturn them and walk on them.
She does go into the little turtle pond I put in her enclosure on her own though, so I assume that she is drinking when she does that. She relieved herself pretty extensively when she first moved in, but I can't tell if she is doing so now - perhaps her digestive tract is cleaned out?
I wonder if the ambient temperature inside our apartment where her enclosure is is too low for her (probably mid-'60's, dropping into the low '50's at night, and she thinks she should be hibernating now?? (I have a 75W heat lamp over her enclosure so there is a warm spot for her in case she's too cold, but she seems to avoid it?!). I don't know enough about her or her basic condition to feel comfortable putting her into hibernation now, and I don't think the temperature here in South-Central L.A. will stay reliably cool enough to keep her hibernated if I do.
I also thought that perhaps her former owner had fed her a species-inappropriate diet, such as aquatic turtle pellets from the pet store, and so she doesn't recognize the veggies as food, but she looks too healthy for that theory to hold water……
Perhaps she's just reacting to a major change of location, habitat, routine, etc., and she'll eventually adjust??? She seems to have arrived in excellent condition and I really hope to be able to keep her that way, but I'm running out of ideas!
By the way, can anyone recommend a tortoise-specialized, affordable vet in the metro Los Angeles area?
Many, many thanks for any advice!
Very best wishes,
Brenda K
P.S. I'll try and get a post up about her ever-evolving habitat tonight when I get home.
Weather permitting, she also gets to go outside and take supervised walks around the garden for a little while every day (which she loves!) where there is grass, weeds, small, delicate succulents, rosemary (including flowers) and a big hibiscus tree with accessible leaves, but she has not shown any interest in eating anything since we took her in, and I am worried since it’s been three weeks now. I also put a couple young live potted succulent plants into her enclosure, but all she has done so far is overturn them and walk on them.
She does go into the little turtle pond I put in her enclosure on her own though, so I assume that she is drinking when she does that. She relieved herself pretty extensively when she first moved in, but I can't tell if she is doing so now - perhaps her digestive tract is cleaned out?
I wonder if the ambient temperature inside our apartment where her enclosure is is too low for her (probably mid-'60's, dropping into the low '50's at night, and she thinks she should be hibernating now?? (I have a 75W heat lamp over her enclosure so there is a warm spot for her in case she's too cold, but she seems to avoid it?!). I don't know enough about her or her basic condition to feel comfortable putting her into hibernation now, and I don't think the temperature here in South-Central L.A. will stay reliably cool enough to keep her hibernated if I do.
I also thought that perhaps her former owner had fed her a species-inappropriate diet, such as aquatic turtle pellets from the pet store, and so she doesn't recognize the veggies as food, but she looks too healthy for that theory to hold water……
Perhaps she's just reacting to a major change of location, habitat, routine, etc., and she'll eventually adjust??? She seems to have arrived in excellent condition and I really hope to be able to keep her that way, but I'm running out of ideas!
By the way, can anyone recommend a tortoise-specialized, affordable vet in the metro Los Angeles area?
Many, many thanks for any advice!
Very best wishes,
Brenda K
P.S. I'll try and get a post up about her ever-evolving habitat tonight when I get home.
