yearling horsefield. sleeping for days?

[Paranub]

Hi forum

My George who is between 12 and 16 months old recently (about 2-3 months ago) started sleeping for days at a time. If we leave him to his own devices it can be anywhere between 2 and 4 days before he gets up of his own accord.

We took a poo sample to the vets for tests. All of which pointed to a healthy tortoise.
If we force him to get up. We get hissed a but after a soak, and a toilet visit. He chomps down. Eats his food. Has a wander about for an hour or two and then either has a bask. A chill out or just goes back to sleep.

He is in a tortoise table. With constant access to food and water. Basking temps of 30-35°c. Cool side of his table is 19-23°c. Nighttime temps never fall below 18°c. A uvb strip is active with his basking lamp from 8am to 8pm every day.

He gets a wide mix of food. Almost never pellets as those are his treat. All sprinkled with calcium and multi vits every few days.

His poo. Wee and urates all look as they should and are regular when he has a bath. His shell is hard and he walks fully off the ground. Never dragging his underside on the floor.
His nose looks clear and I have never seen him with a runny nose.

Me and my wife are at a lose end now. Is this just normal? Do we leave him to do his own thing or should we continue to force him awake every few days? We're too scared to leave him past 4 days asleep..

 

[Yvonne G]

Sometimes a NEW UVB light helps their attitude. How old is your UVB light?

 

[Kasia]

Hi forum

My George who is between 12 and 16 months old recently (about 2-3 months ago) started sleeping for days at a time. If we leave him to his own devices it can be anywhere between 2 and 4 days before he gets up of his own accord.

We took a poo sample to the vets for tests. All of which pointed to a healthy tortoise.
If we force him to get up. We get hissed a but after a soak, and a toilet visit. He chomps down. Eats his food. Has a wander about for an hour or two and then either has a bask. A chill out or just goes back to sleep.

He is in a tortoise table. With constant access to food and water. Basking temps of 30-35°c. Cool side of his table is 19-23°c. Nighttime temps never fall below 18°c. A uvb strip is active with his basking lamp from 8am to 8pm every day.

He gets a wide mix of food. Almost never pellets as those are his treat. All sprinkled with calcium and multi vits every few days.

His poo. Wee and urates all look as they should and are regular when he has a bath. His shell is hard and he walks fully off the ground. Never dragging his underside on the floor.
His nose looks clear and I have never seen him with a runny nose.

Me and my wife are at a lose end now. Is this just normal? Do we leave him to do his own thing or should we continue to force him awake every few days? We're too scared to leave him past 4 days asleep..

Does he get normal sunshine? Time out?

 

[Paranub]

Sometimes a NEW UVB light helps their attitude. How old is your UVB light?

its about 5 months old now, but would have been 3 when he started "acting up"

Does he get normal sunshine? Time out?

He does when its warm outside yeah. Hasnt had an awful lot of outside time recently though.

 

[Linhdan Nguyen]

Maybe try raising the temps? My basking spot is 35-38C
This should raise the temps a little for the cool and warm side of the enclosure as well.

 

[Paranub]

Maybe try raising the temps? My basking spot is 35-38C
This should raise the temps a little for the cool and warm side of the enclosure as well.

we have just recently had a heat wave, which raised the temps to those sort of levels. He just slept through that too

 

[Isabella13]

Hi forum

My George who is between 12 and 16 months old recently (about 2-3 months ago) started sleeping for days at a time. If we leave him to his own devices it can be anywhere between 2 and 4 days before he gets up of his own accord.

We took a poo sample to the vets for tests. All of which pointed to a healthy tortoise.
If we force him to get up. We get hissed a but after a soak, and a toilet visit. He chomps down. Eats his food. Has a wander about for an hour or two and then either has a bask. A chill out or just goes back to sleep.

He is in a tortoise table. With constant access to food and water. Basking temps of 30-35°c. Cool side of his table is 19-23°c. Nighttime temps never fall below 18°c. A uvb strip is active with his basking lamp from 8am to 8pm every day.

He gets a wide mix of food. Almost never pellets as those are his treat. All sprinkled with calcium and multi vits every few days.

His poo. Wee and urates all look as they should and are regular when he has a bath. His shell is hard and he walks fully off the ground. Never dragging his underside on the floor.
His nose looks clear and I have never seen him with a runny nose.

Me and my wife are at a lose end now. Is this just normal? Do we leave him to do his own thing or should we continue to force him awake every few days? We're too scared to leave him past 4 days asleep..

Hello! This same thing happened to me also! It definently sounds like your tortoise is really healthy. When my tortoise was sleeping for days at a time, I would wake him up after every few days or so to eat and to bathe. Otherwise, it is normal. If it's possible, I think your tortoise would benefit from some exercise outside to get at least 15 minutes of sunlight a day. Natural sunlight is really important for the tortoise's growth and health, because it provides vitamin D which tortoises need, especially young, growing ones. I started doing this with my tortoise after the long winter months when he would sleep most of the time, and it really improved his activity. If you don't have any outdoor room to let your tortoise run free, try putting your tortoise under a windowsill or other area in your home that gets full sunlight. Also, if you don't already, try bathing your tortoise once a week and letting him\her soak in the water for at least 10 minutes. Your tortoise will be more active if it is hydrated. I really hope this helps!!

 

[Paranub]

Thanks isabella. I will try to give him more outside time. He is under a windowsill at the moment so his enclosure often gets natural sunlight into it in places. I've read many people having the same issue as me early on in tort life. Hopefully it's just a phase

 

[SarahChelonoidis]

Thanks isabella. I will try to give him more outside time. He is under a windowsill at the moment so his enclosure often gets natural sunlight into it in places.

Just in case you don't know, if there is glass or a fine mesh in the window (ie. the window is not completely open to outdoors), being under the window will only provide visible light and heat, not the UVB needed to synthesis vitamin d. UVB is easily filtered out by glass and even fine screens cut down most of it, so it might look like 'natural light', but it's missing a vital component. The bright light and heat from the window could still be stimulating, but it isn't providing the important UVB that actually being outside would (or under a good UVB light).

 

[Paranub]

An update guys, George seems to have snapped out of his sleeping for days, he now wakes up right as his heat lamp comes on, is eating loads and generally back to his usual self, we are trying to get more outside time (being in the uk thats often a struggle with the weather...)