Worried about our baby red-foot.

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elijahandalana

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Hi, about 6 months ago we adopted a 3 year old cherry-head red foot tortoise named Toti. Recently we built her a new enclosure, and after reading about tortoise co-habitation decided to adopt a new friend for her. 4 days ago we bought a 6 month old cherry-head red foot tortoise, also a female which we named Ponyo. The reptile expert from the store said two red-foots would be fine together and it was ok to house them together in our new enclosure. Since we have brought her home we have noticed that Ponyo is sleeping almost all the time, she is not eating very much, and when she does walk around she almost always has her eyes closed. Is this normal behavior for a baby tortoise, or is something wrong. Toti is fine and acting like normal and has not been aggressive with Ponyo, just pretty curious. We are worried about Ponyo and the reptile expert from the store is not working for another three days so we have to wait to ask him. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you.
 

theelectraco

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Can you describe your enclosure and humidity/temps?


What type of uvb bulb are you using?
 

RedfootsRule

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Give a full description of your humidity, temperatures, substrate, lighting, basic housing, feeding...Post a picture of your enclosure if possible. Do you soak them? Soaking is CRUCIAL for hatchlings; its basically just placing them in a container of warm water with water only up to about the bottom of their throat to soak for 15-20 minutes, so they can stay hydrated.
The eyes closed thing is usually one of two:

(1) Vitamin A deficiency. Basically, just an improper diet.
(2) The humidity is to low, and they are to cold.
However, this all would affect the other hatchlings also, so its hard to say.

Hatchlings don't move very much when they're under 6 months, but the eyes closed thing is worrying. Ponyo could just be unhealthy...Pet stores, reptile stores, they don't raise tortoises right...they just don't. Your torts may have likely came from bad conditions, and are recovering. Perhaps Ponyo was just more stressed then the others.
 

elijahandalana

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This is a picture of our enclosure. We have a fog machine that comes out near the pond and dry area for humidity. The hot area is around 95 and the cooler area is 75, we have a temperature monitor at both ends. On the hot side we have ground up walnut shells (that looks and feels like sand, we read up that it was better for their allergies and better if they ate some of it). I cant remember whats on the other side I have to ask. Its wood or something. But there is a layer of mulch under both the walnut shell sand and the other part. We made it deep incase they wanted to dig. We were wondering if maybe she was freaked out by the size because she was in a really tiny enclosure at the pet store. Also she was the only tortoise at the pet store, so is she maybe also scared of our other tortoise Toti? On the day we picked her up I noticed that she kept closing one of her eyes but then for the second day we had her she seemed to be fine. We bought her the same food she was being fed from the store. It is called Rep-Cal Tortoise Food.

We have not been soaking her, but up until yesterday she was spending a lot of time in the water. Should we also be soaking her, even if she is spending time in the water? I dont think she is too cold because we read up that it should be around 90 and ours keeps getting closer to 95.
 

turtlelady80

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You need to pull Ponyo out of that enclosure right away. She/he cannot be in with your other Cherryhead in case of an illness. Otherwise, yes Cherryheads can be housed together as long as they are around the same size. But Ponyo needs to be housed separately until you get her figured out. Soak her twice a day in warm water for 20 minutes each time. Get her all set up in a nice warm enclosure. And PAY ATTENTION. Keep a close eye on her and keep us posted with her activity level, eating habits etc.


Just a side note...you can't sex a Cherryhead at 6 months old. It could turn out to be male. No biggie right now though. Just get her/him better:)


Also I noticed that you said she soaks a lot. If she is soaking in cold water in her enclosure she will get sick for sure. She needs to be soaked in warm water. And do not let the water cool down, that will make her sick as well.
 

Cowboy_Ken

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And please get rid of the ground walnut shell! Look at it this way with walnut shells, when you crack a walnut shell, you get those very sharp edges that will cut skin very effectively. When ingested, walnut shell does not digest, so you have these sharp little edges scraping the insides of your tortoises delicate internals. This is not a good thing by any means. Read the habitat posts in the specie section for the proper substrate to use with your tortoises to help them live long healthy lives. Often pet store employees think they are giving good advice but ultimately they are trying to make a sale. On here, no one has anything to gain by promoting what needs your tortoise has and they are just fellow keepers helping out by sharing their knowledge. Keep us posted, and we are glad you're here asking questions.
 

TortoiseWorld

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Never put a new tortoise together with your existing tortoise with out proper quarantine. I agree with the members above, take the new tortoise out right away, and follow quarantine procedures.
I would also contact that guy you bought him from asap to let him know what's going on in case it gets much worse. Unfortunately in many cases, once a tortoise gets really ill they don't recover :(
 

Laura

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did you spend time watching this new one you got from the petstore? was it eating and acting normal? eyes open? Sometimes, they get stressed with a new home and take time, but it can be something else as well.. you reall y should seperate then until you know for sure.. go back to the store, look at the other animals, see if they look ok,, maybe take this new one back too...
 
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