A tad worried.. odd behavior after eating a sprout.

[brookeekoorb]

So I put my little guy outside today for sunshine and grazing time, and he did something weird after eating a sprout. He took off RUNNING, I've seen the little Viking GO when he wants to move, but this little guy was RUNNING, so that worried me I picked him up and immediately took him inside, noticed his eyes started to water and his nose watered. I put him in a soak and that seemed to instantly relax him, the nose stopped running the eyes cleared and thinking about it, it kinda looked like a sprout to a pepper plant? Would having a nip at a pepper plant make him do all of the above? I mean.. if I bit into the a hot pepper I think I would have done the same.. Overall now he's acting fine, the soak seemed to help him..

Anyone ever had a little one do that? A pepper seed must have ended up in the seed mix, I'm currently not growing any either is the neighbors.

I'll keep an close eye on him but he seems OK now. He's walking normal, active as normal, clear eyes, clear nose.. took a drink of water (which is much needed if he had a hot pepper).

 

[Yvonne G]

I'm not sure about tortoises, but birds can eat really, really hot peppers and are not affected by them. I THINK same holds true for tortoises.

 

[brookeekoorb]

I can't seem to come up with anything when I google.. I really think it might have been a hot pepper sprout, obviously it would have been hot, watered his eyes and gave the little guy a jolt. He's acting 100% normal, munching and cruising his house as normal. But I'm going to keep googling see what I can come up with, new mom panic over here

 

[terracolson]

new mom panic is just fine..

 

[Tom]

Seems to me like the plant had something to do with it, but only the peppers are "hot" on a hot pepper plant. Not the sprouts or leaves. More likely it was something highly alkaline. A lot of plants are high in some toxic alkaloids. Post a pic and lets see if we can get your plant identified. Most toxic plants would require an animal to eat quite a bit over time to actually harm them. I think yours probably knows not to try that one again.

Personally, I wouldn't let my torts have access to any plant that I did not know the identity and toxicity of. It literally took me weeks to ID all the weeds in their current enclosure before I moved them in to it. Some weeds never did get an ID, so I pulled them up by the roots one at a time. I wish I'd known about this forum back then! Would have saved weeks of my time.

I know mine will eat things that they shouldn't. Some tortoises seem to mostly avoid things they aren't supposed to eat, but some don't. My thought is: In an unnatural captive environment, why take the chance.

 

[brookeekoorb]

The seeds I planted were a grazing tort mix, so all the sprouts are what I thought were "good" grasses and weeds I've been really keeping an eye on what he's munching, and unfortunately (well not to unfortunate) I plucked what was left right out of his enclosure, tossed it and checked for more, I should have taken a picture, mom mode kicked in and that was to remove the "bad" keep baby safe, before thinking of really identifying it, which now is a lesson learned. Plus his reaction to it was a enough to scare me, if he wouldn't have popped back so quickly (2-3 minutes) I was one foot out the door to the vet. I will be keeping an extra eye out for new sprouts just to make sure no more pop up

Other than my little scare, he seems absolutely fine, he has a bit of an attitude today.. I called him with little whistles (he loves the sound) and he perked up looked at me and went into his hutch lol who would have known torts can give you a guilt trip! GAH!

 

[dmmj]

well all I know is that's how I react when I eat somethign spicy, I also usually run for the bathroom .

 

[Tom]

The seeds I planted were a grazing tort mix, so all the sprouts are what I thought were "good" grasses and weeds I've been really keeping an eye on what he's munching, and unfortunately (well not to unfortunate) I plucked what was left right out of his enclosure, tossed it and checked for more, I should have taken a picture, mom mode kicked in and that was to remove the "bad" keep baby safe, before thinking of really identifying it, which now is a lesson learned. Plus his reaction to it was a enough to scare me, if he wouldn't have popped back so quickly (2-3 minutes) I was one foot out the door to the vet. I will be keeping an extra eye out for new sprouts just to make sure no more pop up

Other than my little scare, he seems absolutely fine, he has a bit of an attitude today.. I called him with little whistles (he loves the sound) and he perked up looked at me and went into his hutch lol who would have known torts can give you a guilt trip! GAH!

My outdoor pen is 6000 square feet and new and weird stuff is always sprouting up in there. I have to check it regularly. Stuff just blows in on the wind or in bird or animal droppings. That may be where your "bad" one came from. Bottom line is, I'm glad he's okay.

 

[brookeekoorb]

Definitely happy he's OK and I'm gonna be checking everyday now.. something new to worry about!