Hatchling Leopard not doing so well...please help

[kotogoddess]

Hello,
My name is Katie and I am a relatively new tortoise keeper. A few months ago I purchased a hatching leopard tortoise. Unbeknownst to me all of the information I had been reading about leopard hatching was out dated. So my baby has been kept in a dry environment for the past few months. The hatching seems to be sluggish and has never eaten very well, I've tried mustard greens, collars greens, turnip greens, kale and even mazuri tortoise chow. The only thing that its has touched is white clover. It also will raise its head and let out a little squeak sound. The feces also consists of undigested food. I soak it once a day in warm water for about 15 min. About a week ago I added whole spagnum moss and some peat moss to my setup, keeping the hot side damp and the cool side dry because I found out that leopards need humidity but the behavior hasn't changed much. The temps are 107 hot side, 84 cool side during the day 80 hot side and 75 cool at night. Do the baby's symptoms sound like a URI? I'm not sure what to do.....

 

[Yvonne G]

Re-check the temperatures on the floor of the habitat. (Those round thermometers that stick on the wall aren't any good) You want it to be about 105F directly under the light with 85F or so on the hot side and room temperature, but not cooler than 75F on the cool side. Your habitat might not be big enough to have a hot side and a cool side.

Soak the baby in Gerber strained carrots for at LEAST a half hour every day. You should start to see an improvement in three days. Take a small tub or a bowl with tall sides, but a small foot print and put in a half jar of Gerber strained carrots. Add enough warm water to come up to the middle of the baby's sides.

To re-cap...make sure the habitat is warm enough and soak daily for at least 30 minutes in Gerber water.

Good luck.

 

[kotogoddess]

I will thank you.

 

[Maggie Cummings]

Move your lights up to about 12 inches above the substrate. Is there a coil type light in there? Or spiral?

 

[bouaboua]

Re-check the temperatures on the floor of the habitat. (Those round thermometers that stick on the wall aren't any good) You want it to be about 105F directly under the light with 85F or so on the hot side and room temperature, but not cooler than 75F on the cool side. Your habitat might not be big enough to have a hot side and a cool side.

Soak the baby in Gerber strained carrots for at LEAST a half hour every day. You should start to see an improvement in three days. Take a small tub or a bowl with tall sides, but a small foot print and put in a half jar of Gerber strained carrots. Add enough warm water to come up to the middle of the baby's sides.

To re-cap...make sure the habitat is warm enough and soak daily for at least 30 minutes in Gerber water.

Good luck.

Learn something here. Thanks Yvonne even I may still very far away from hatching any baby.