It's been a while since I've last posted. Since then Hendrix, the leo, has become very lethargic. He tends to sleep all day. The most active is when ever I take him out for a soak and then put him back in his pen. He will crawl back to his hidey hole and go back to sleep. I try to feed him every time after the soak but he doesn't eat. I've taken him outside to feed on the yard, little progress. He will try to eat something and then stop and then lay down. I've tried to hand feed him food too and he won't eat.
His diet is mainly romaine lettuce, carrots, spring mix and broadleaf weeds. All chopped with a spray of calcium. He has become more inactive every day, I feel as if he will pass soon. I am trying my hardest to save him...

Going to upgrade his living space today, getting a better heat lamp (I already have a UVB bulb that stays on from 7AM-9PM)... My house is at a constant 79-81 degrees F so at night I am sure it is that same temp.

Let me know if i should do anything! Thanks!

I would make sure to keep him warm, not lower then 80. what is his humidity? Get him in the sun as much as possible, without letting him over heat. Calcium every day is not good. Only 2 times a week should be enough. Try baby food carrot soaks. Mix in the warm soaking water, let him soak for at least 30 minutes to an hour. Keeping him warm. If your using a coil bulb get rid of it. Romaine is okay, but not every day. Neither is carrots. Try more broad leaf greens, Mazuri tortoise diet a couple times a week, natural weeds, flowers, etc. check out the tortoisetable.org for more edible items. Good luck, hope he bounces back.

Where did you acquire him? It seems to me that the breeder possibly left him in the incubator too long and he ingested a good amount of vermiculite. That stuff wreaks havoc on a hatchlings system...because it impacts the digestive system. Not much you can do...but it seems like you're doing everything else right! Good luck!

It sounds like things are not good with the tortoise. I would recommend a vet visit as soon as you can, but at the same time, you'll need to figure out what might have caused him to get to this point.

Do you have a basking area, or an area in his enclosure where he can get his body temperature to 90 - 100 degrees? How often do you soak? What type of substrate do you use? Any other details you could give will help others brainstorm ideas of what might have happened.

Get him to a vet ASAP. PM me if you need help.

(10-16-2012 08:11 AM)DeanS Wrote:  Where did you acquire him? It seems to me that the breeder possibly left him in the incubator too long and he ingested a good amount of vermiculite. That stuff wreaks havoc on a hatchlings system...because it impacts the digestive system. Not much you can do...but it seems like you're doing everything else right! Good luck!

There was a reptile convention here in Arlington, Texas a couple months back. I had a friend who went buy him for me. As for humidity, I keep his enclosure moderately soaked. I spray a lot of water daily to keep it from going too dry.

I have mazuri feed, I soak it, get it soft and crumble it over the food I leave but he doesn't touch it.

His plastron has gotten significantly soft in the past week but his shell is still sturdy. He looks really weak.

As for substrate, I use the 100% cypress mulch. It's soft and soaks a lot of the water to maintain humidity.

Let me know if any of this needs changing. Thank you!

(10-16-2012 08:11 AM)DeanS Wrote:  Where did you acquire him? It seems to me that the breeder possibly left him in the incubator too long and he ingested a good amount of vermiculite. That stuff wreaks havoc on a hatchlings system...because it impacts the digestive system. Not much you can do...but it seems like you're doing everything else right! Good luck!

There was a reptile convention here in Arlington, Texas a couple months back. I had a friend who went buy him for me. As for humidity, I keep his enclosure moderately soaked. I spray a lot of water daily to keep it from going too dry.

I have mazuri feed, I soak it, get it soft and crumble it over the food I leave but he doesn't touch it.

I have a basking area, quite small but still it provides sufficient heat. And I soak twice a day, once in the morning before I goto work for about 15-20 mins, and then once after work for about 30-40 mins. While he is soaking, I generally prepare the food. Take him out and leave it front of him and watch him for a bit. Then I walk away and he crawls into his hide hole.

What are your temperature maximums and minimums throughout the day?

Under the heat lamp, it is around 90 F. Warmer areas is anywhere from 75-82. At night, it is maintained around 80.

I would suggest bumping up the temperature underneath the heat lamp by about 10 degrees, as well as keeping him in the 85 - 90 degree minimum at all times until he turns around.

If he's not spending any time around his heat lamp, the temperatures in his enclosure won't be warm enough for him digest any of his food and therefore will not develop any sort of appetite....then his health will spiral downwards which it sounds like you are currently seeing.

So I upgraded his enclosure to a larger one this afternoon while he was soaking. Bought a high wattage heat lamp so its a little hotter now. The humidity is around 40-45% throughout the day. I am located in Texas near Dallas, not all that dry really.

Good thing is after the soak he was pretty much awake till right now when I turned off the UVB light. Bad thing is he didn't eat more move around as much. And when he tried to move around, he looked very weak, as if he was dragging himself along the substrate. For some reason, it looks like he isn't using his front left leg or one of his hind legs but when I put him in soaking, he uses it all to walk around.

I am using a 30-Gallon tank right now with an open top. I have a 5" inch white sheet of paper that goes along the sides of the tank so he can't see out. The UVB is aimed throughout the enclosure while the heat is directed towards one end of the the tank.


Ahhhhh, let me know if you guys need more detail, this has helped a lot. I plan on going to the store tmrw to buy some greens, any tips on getting him to eat would be great! This is much appreciated. I will upload a picture of him when I get a chance. Thanks!

Are you able to post any pics of your tortoise and setup so we can perhaps better assist in helping

The black thing is his water dish. More like a small pool. Red thing is the food dish. I don't leave the food dish in there unless there is food. The UVB bulb I am using is an Exoterra Solar Glo 125W.

awww he's so pretty! Leopards are very pretty. Anyway it doesn't sound like anythings wrong, how old is he?

(10-17-2012 04:24 AM)animalfreak Wrote:  awww he's so pretty! Leopards are very pretty. Anyway it doesn't sound like anythings wrong, how old is he?

There's def something wrong with him. I got him about 2-3 months ago.