Neither tort has eaten yet. I am sure they are settleing in and it hasn't helped that I meddled in the enclosure with putting in a hide and such, but even after misting, the seem uninterested. I have them heated with an infared heater to about 83F on one side of the enclosure, no other heat. I have a ambient light from a grow rack of violets behind them and I placed a 48'' fixture with UVB and a daylight bulb, that is on for maybe 6 hrs a day, since they dislike exposure to bright lighting. I have a large basket, covered with faux ferns that occupies the cool end of the cage, and also provides areas under the ferns, but not under the basket to walk and hide. They are on moist coir and ambient temps are between 74F-78F, with around 70F being the normal nightly lows. I will use a ceramic heat emitter in place of the infared bulb, but the one I had decided it wouldn't work, so infared is on for now, though off at night, as the torts could see just fine in the red light and I worried it would disrupt thier sleep. The habitat is 40''L X 24'' W and dark green, plenty tall enough to prevent them seeing out and open topped for air circulation. I have a terracotta saucer for watering and a plastic one for food, though I may change this to terracotta to help with beak and nail wearing. I have misted them a few times today to stimulate fedding, but have tried to stay away and avoid disturbing them for now.
Food I am offering is a chopeed mix of:
white mulberry (new leaves)
dandelion leaves
dandelion flowers
viola flowers
mill thistle leaves (tender new growth)
blackberry leaves(tender new leaves)
wild rose(tender new leaves)
mullein (small amount of young leaves)
chickweed (small amount)
bitter cress(small amount of newer leaves)
and young grape leaves
they have touched none of it. They do soak in the water, regulate back and forth between the cool area of the cage and the warmer area and seem normal, though fairly sedate. I'm sure much of the food is forgein to them as well, b/c I like to feed field grown greens, when I can, b//c they have so much better nutrition than supermarket stuff, that has been grown in overworked and overused soils. I will get out and pick up some turnip greens, collards, and romaine to see if I can entice them this weekend. I also tried soaked forest tortoise diet by Zoomed, with no luck. I just had a container on hand, not something I want to use regularly.
Anything I should change and when do I get concerned about thier inappetite? Thanks in Advance
Food I am offering is a chopeed mix of:
white mulberry (new leaves)
dandelion leaves
dandelion flowers
viola flowers
mill thistle leaves (tender new growth)
blackberry leaves(tender new leaves)
wild rose(tender new leaves)
mullein (small amount of young leaves)
chickweed (small amount)
bitter cress(small amount of newer leaves)
and young grape leaves
they have touched none of it. They do soak in the water, regulate back and forth between the cool area of the cage and the warmer area and seem normal, though fairly sedate. I'm sure much of the food is forgein to them as well, b/c I like to feed field grown greens, when I can, b//c they have so much better nutrition than supermarket stuff, that has been grown in overworked and overused soils. I will get out and pick up some turnip greens, collards, and romaine to see if I can entice them this weekend. I also tried soaked forest tortoise diet by Zoomed, with no luck. I just had a container on hand, not something I want to use regularly.
Anything I should change and when do I get concerned about thier inappetite? Thanks in Advance