we got our hatchling to eat for a few days in a row and now he's back to not eating again. Also he will have one eye closed or both quite a lot, even after we put him in front of food. I've been doing the zoo med eye drops for a few days but see no improvement. His home is the right temp with all the right amenities. Please help! Thanks.
Eyes closed a lot on hatchling and he won't eat
- Thread starter tiffew
- Start date
Please tell us those temps and what the humidity is. Your right temps may not be what we consider right temps. Also tell us what you are using for heat, the kind of bulbs and what you are using to read those temps. What kind of substrate and how often do you give warm water soaks.
It's 85 on the hot side, 77 on the cool side. He is in soggy terrarium moss. We have a 10 watt zoo med uvb bulb during the day and a heat lamp that's red at night. Sandy Barnett told me to stop soaking him
Since she told us to make the terrarium moss soggy.
Since she told us to make the terrarium moss soggy.
My concern would be the temps, that soggy moss will be hard to keep warm enough with a red light at night. If it's open top the only place you will get 85 will be directly under the light and the rest will stay room temp if not colder because of the soggy moss. He won't eat if he's not warm enough and now it sounds like he might be getting sick. I keep my enclosures slightly damp, but they are closed chamber and are kept warm at all times.
I would cover as much as you can and raise the temps. I'm betting anywhere but under the lamps it's not more than room temp. Room temp at my house is usually around 70 and with that cold moss it's probably a little cooler.
I went back and looked it up. We are talking about a box turtle, right?
I can't comment on temps or substrate, but I see two major problems:
1. The 10 watt coil type UV bulb is likely burning his eyes. Shut it off ASAP. Use real sunshine, or a long tube for UV. When their eyes hurt, they don't eat.
2. No one should use red bulbs for heat. It makes everything red, it messes with their circadian rhythms, and it kills their appetite sometimes. They should have "white" sunlight simulating light during the day and darkness at night. Use a CHE set on a thermostat to maintain the ambient temp that you want day and night.
What is the length of your 10 watt UV bulb? Does it screw into a fixture like an incandescent light bulb?
What are you using for daytime heat?
Normally if it is just one eye, it is an injury or irritation. A scrape from something in the tank corner, the substrate or decoration, etc. That should heal with eye drops and removing any possible causes.
If both eyes are closed or swollen, the most common causes are water quality issues, or vitamin A deficiency. Chlorine in the bath water can irate the eyes of turtles and result in eyes kept closed. You might check the chlorine level in the water you use. If not fresh and clean, contaminated water can also cause this. So look at the quality of the water you are using for your turtle to soak in. Check the diet and see that enough vitamin A rich foods are offered and eaten. With tortoises, this is less an issue as so many of the leafy vegetables are so high in vitamin A, but with a box or aquatic turtle, it is easy to get them hooked on more animal / insect foods that don't have enough vitamin A
I just soaked him for 30 min in warm water with some Critical Care Carnivore mixed in and a few drops of Zoo Med Eye drops and he ate three Omega One juvenile pellets. I learned the eye drops are pointless since they can't absorb Vitamin A through their eyes. Hopefully he got some in the water and in the three pellets he ate. I have Tobramyacin eye drops and will try those next time. Is eating three pellets good enough for a turtle missing Vitamin A?
The eye drops are still a good idea to keep infection down. The pellets should give enough vitamin A, but if that deficiency is the problem it will take a little while to see the results. Keep him eating those pellets! See if he will also nibble on some dandelion greens - one of the best vit A sources next would be kale. Both really high in vit A
We offer Kale and red lettuce daily. He walks away from them as he does the worms! Even before the eye issues began he had no interest in lettuce. I'm going to do the Tobramyacin for a week. How many pellets is good enough each day if he continues to have no interest in the worms (presumably because of his eyes making him uncomfortable)? Thanks!
The pellets are good on their own for the vitamin A. Let him eat as much as he wants. It also has a 2:1 calcium : phosphorus and vit D3. All good. If he like the pellets, that all around better for him than the greens.
Should I soak him again today to try to eat more pellets or just leave him for the remainder of the day? I hear handling the least amount is desirable, but I know he needs to eat and drink. Also, what should his weight be at 7 months? He is 26.5 grams.
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As far as the diet - Eastern Box turtles, when babies, are nearly 100% carnivorous, they aren't going to show any interest in green leafy food and rarely do as adults. Generally baby Box turtles are hunters, they react to moving prey such as earthworms, crickets, slugs, snails and small insects. They don't usually show much interest in food sitting still and don't eat processed pellet foods. As they reach adulthood they will begin to consume more vegetable and fruit matter but still be very much "meat eaters" too. Baby Box turtles in general are more demanding in terms of care requirements than are baby tortoises.
Humidity - Ambient air humidity, soil moisture and drinking/bathing water are very important to their well being and activity levels. But they should also not be kept in constantly damp conditions without adequate air exchange. They need the opportunity to be able to get completely dry periodically. This can be a bit challenging to provide but can be done. Rather than a coil UVB lamp a better choice might be a tube type UV that saturates the entire enclosure with light and UV with a separate incandescent basking lamp in one corner with a flat rock below it that remains completely dry. You can still cover part of the enclosure that is not around the basking area. The eye issue could be from dryness or it could be due to a deficiency in vitamin A. If the tortoise is a hatchling or very young baby it's less likely that it has developed a vitamin A deficiency already. That generally takes place over a longer period of time, not instantly. But I would not rule it out either.
Baby Box turtles in general are more demanding in terms of care requirements than are baby tortoises.
Humidity - Ambient air humidity, soil moisture and drinking/bathing water are very important to their well being and activity levels. But they should also not be kept in constantly damp conditions without adequate air exchange. They need the opportunity to be able to get completely dry periodically. This can be a bit challenging to provide but can be done. Rather than a coil UVB lamp a better choice might be a tube type UV that saturates the entire enclosure with light and UV with a separate incandescent basking lamp in one corner with a flat rock below it that remains completely dry. You can still cover part of the enclosure that is not around the basking area. The eye issue could be from dryness or it could be due to a deficiency in vitamin A. If the tortoise is a hatchling or very young baby it's less likely that it has developed a vitamin A deficiency already. That generally takes place over a longer period of time, not instantly. But I would not rule it out either.
Baby Box turtles in general are more demanding in terms of care requirements than are baby tortoises.
Thank you 
We do not use a coil light and he does have an area to go bask, but chooses not to.
He is eating Omega One pellets while soaking every day. He still is refusing worms for some reason, though there was a period about two weeks ago when he would happily eat a red wiggler.
Unfortunately I don't think when we first got him in mid February his habitat was anywhere near humid enough for him. It definitely is now though.
Hopefully he will resume interest in worms very soon!!
We do not use a coil light and he does have an area to go bask, but chooses not to.
He is eating Omega One pellets while soaking every day. He still is refusing worms for some reason, though there was a period about two weeks ago when he would happily eat a red wiggler.
Unfortunately I don't think when we first got him in mid February his habitat was anywhere near humid enough for him. It definitely is now though.
Hopefully he will resume interest in worms very soon!!
