Hi everyone, first of all I would to say I'm sorry, im a new tortosie keeper, my husband had one for a little while years ago but it was stolen. So we know a little bit but not experts and I'm probably going to say some stupid newbie stuff, or have missed huge red flags. The bottom line is that our baby tortoise died, we are devastated, and just want some advice on what could have happened and if we could have done anything wrong. We are currently feeling like the breeder is bullying us into thinking we did something wrong but we think the tortoise may have come to us sick. also sorry this is really long...
My husband picked up the tortoise from the store (the owner of this reptile store breeds her own). It's a 5.5 week old redfoot. I had been talking with the owner for a a few weeks and she knew he was coming but not at the store to handle the sale of the tortosie. We needed a few things as well (bedding, light fixtures, UV and heat bulbs and calcium) we had hides and a tub and a thermometer at home. The employee sold my husband a coil UV, when I got home and notices we both knew it was wrong and we're going to buy one of long ones instead in a few days. Onelce arriving home, the tortosie was soaked in warm water for 20 minutes. Then out in his enclosure, we put him on his food dish with some spring greens and a small bit of raspberry, he vomited yellow bile like stuff. We did a Google search and boiled it down to stress we did not call the store because they were closed. Over the next few days we could not get the tortoise to eat anything, it never peed or pooped. We soaked it twice a day for 20-30 minutes. The low side was 75-78 and the hot was 98 and right under the center was 100. The humidity was at 70. We never saw our tortoise basking under the heat, he always wanted to hide or be in his water. He did have a shallow water dish with fresh clean water available to him 24 hours a day. On the morning of day three without him eating we contacted the breeder who told us it was too hot, we moved the heat lamp up higher my husband also returned to the store to pick up some tortoise pellets that I guess they were supposed to give us when we picked him up. At this time the staff member also admitted to maybe giving us the wrong uv bulb but also didn't send my husband home with anything In it's place. When he arrived home he found the tortoise in the place as when he left (gone for about an hour) inside it's shell, he put the food out and left it, when I came home an hour later we checked and it was still like that and unresponsive. We tried soaking him in nice warm water for a long time but still nothing. At this point we sent a message to the breeder and didn't hear back until late the following morning. We believed that the tortoise passed when my husband was going to the store to get the food they forgot to give us. So he died on the third evening we had him. We did monitor him for 24 hours before we were sure he was dead and calling the breeder. Also some things to note were that he had his eyes closed most of the time and was doing a movement that seemed a little strange to me with moving his head back in an out of his shell. His shell felt a little soft but I don't really have anything to compare it to as this is my first tortoise. The breeder said she doesn't know what happened but has never had a baby tortoise die before. She said we had it too hot. We think our biggest mistake was not contacting the breeder on day two of it not eating, we honestly thought he just needed time to settle in a bit. The breeder also never provided us with a care sheet or instructions. Apparently she keeps them at a temp of 75 with no basking or cool area and only gives them water to soak once every day or so. She has offered us a few things to do to "refund" us but before we make a decision we want some opinions on what else could have happened? We do feel he was sick when we got to our home, but if we did something wrong we want to know that too. I do have access to a very good reptile vet that I have an amazing relationship with and could probably get a necropsy done. Does anyone think it's worth it?
Thank you so much for your time and my apologies for being a newb, we are truly heart broken.
My husband picked up the tortoise from the store (the owner of this reptile store breeds her own). It's a 5.5 week old redfoot. I had been talking with the owner for a a few weeks and she knew he was coming but not at the store to handle the sale of the tortosie. We needed a few things as well (bedding, light fixtures, UV and heat bulbs and calcium) we had hides and a tub and a thermometer at home. The employee sold my husband a coil UV, when I got home and notices we both knew it was wrong and we're going to buy one of long ones instead in a few days. Onelce arriving home, the tortosie was soaked in warm water for 20 minutes. Then out in his enclosure, we put him on his food dish with some spring greens and a small bit of raspberry, he vomited yellow bile like stuff. We did a Google search and boiled it down to stress we did not call the store because they were closed. Over the next few days we could not get the tortoise to eat anything, it never peed or pooped. We soaked it twice a day for 20-30 minutes. The low side was 75-78 and the hot was 98 and right under the center was 100. The humidity was at 70. We never saw our tortoise basking under the heat, he always wanted to hide or be in his water. He did have a shallow water dish with fresh clean water available to him 24 hours a day. On the morning of day three without him eating we contacted the breeder who told us it was too hot, we moved the heat lamp up higher my husband also returned to the store to pick up some tortoise pellets that I guess they were supposed to give us when we picked him up. At this time the staff member also admitted to maybe giving us the wrong uv bulb but also didn't send my husband home with anything In it's place. When he arrived home he found the tortoise in the place as when he left (gone for about an hour) inside it's shell, he put the food out and left it, when I came home an hour later we checked and it was still like that and unresponsive. We tried soaking him in nice warm water for a long time but still nothing. At this point we sent a message to the breeder and didn't hear back until late the following morning. We believed that the tortoise passed when my husband was going to the store to get the food they forgot to give us. So he died on the third evening we had him. We did monitor him for 24 hours before we were sure he was dead and calling the breeder. Also some things to note were that he had his eyes closed most of the time and was doing a movement that seemed a little strange to me with moving his head back in an out of his shell. His shell felt a little soft but I don't really have anything to compare it to as this is my first tortoise. The breeder said she doesn't know what happened but has never had a baby tortoise die before. She said we had it too hot. We think our biggest mistake was not contacting the breeder on day two of it not eating, we honestly thought he just needed time to settle in a bit. The breeder also never provided us with a care sheet or instructions. Apparently she keeps them at a temp of 75 with no basking or cool area and only gives them water to soak once every day or so. She has offered us a few things to do to "refund" us but before we make a decision we want some opinions on what else could have happened? We do feel he was sick when we got to our home, but if we did something wrong we want to know that too. I do have access to a very good reptile vet that I have an amazing relationship with and could probably get a necropsy done. Does anyone think it's worth it?
Thank you so much for your time and my apologies for being a newb, we are truly heart broken.