Leopard tortoise help not eating/ sleeping all day

[Al r]

Hi all new here. I
have a hatchling leopard that I have had for about a month.
He has recently been sleeping all day not opening his eyes unless I soak him and I feel like he hasn't been eating a lot.
I'm not sure what Iam doing wrong I researched a lot before getting him to make sure I was prepared.
A little details . His enclosure is about 3 feet long by 2 feet wide. I have cypress mulch as a substrate with spagmoid moss for some bedding I spray down the moss daily.
I have a basking rock in the middle with a hide and shade to either side.
The cool side is in the 80s the basking middle park is in the high 90-100s where I use a power sun vapor bulb during the day that gives uva/uvb light and at night I use a ceramic heater. The other side of the enclosure under his hide Is the humid side.
When he does eat which he hasn't lately been doing. I try and feed him a mix of greens collard greens, hibiscus leaves, romain Lettuce, kale, mustard greens, and a mix of grasses and weeds.
I soak him daily where I do see him drink and he does pass urine.

Please help. Tell me what Iam doing wrong?

He does open his eyes when soaked.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[wellington]

I would try to get the whole enclosure humid to 80%. I would add piedialyte and baby food carrot to his soaks. If he was started to dry from the breeder, there may be nothing you can do. Everything else sounds good as far as the enclosure and diet.

 

[Neal]

Can you provide a picture of your set-up?

Are you sure the lowest temperature all throughout the enclosure is in the 80's? How cool does it get at night? How are you measuring your temperatures?

 

[Al r]

I have three different thermometers in the enclosure, the hot, cool and his humid hide box.
I'm not a 100 percent sure the temps are fluent throughout . I'll take a pic In the Am and post it.

I will defiantly try the baby food soak Tommorow .

Any other advice ?

I really would hate to lose this little guy.
I

 

[Al r]

Can you provide a picture of your set-up?

Are you sure the lowest temperature all throughout the enclosure is in the 80's? How cool does it get at night? How are you measuring your temperatures?

I like in Philadelphia so right now the lowest are getting to 60's but I do have a cermaic heater on at night for him. Under that heater it is in the 90's, Iam guessing the rest of the box is room temp.

How should I go about raising the temp of the hole enclose ? Does it require multiple lamps?

 

[Blakem]

Do you have an open top enclosure? If so, your humidity and heat is escaping

 

[cmacusa3]

Sounds like enclosurer issues,, can you post pics.

 

[Al r]

 

[Al r]

Should I be spraying the enclosure daily as well?
Is it providing to much moisture and he has developed a cold ?

 

[Al r]

Do you have an open top enclosure? If so, your humidity and heat is escaping

 

[wellington]

You need to follow the closed chamber thread. All your heat and humidity is not doing much but escaping out the top. Are you measuring temps at tortoise height? What are you using to read them?

 

[wellington]

You need to follow the closed chamber thread. All your heat and humidity is not doing much but escaping out the top. Are you measuring temps at tortoise height? What are you using to read them?

Okay, this disc thermometer are not accurate. Get a digital ones with probes and a point and shoot temp gun. The enclosure should not go below 80 day and night. Humidity along with the temps should be 80%. You should have a taller sided enclosure also. I think your baby is getting too cold and kept too dry.

 

[Neal]

The habitat is not suitable for the tortoise in my judgement. It's a good size and is nicely decorated but it is nearly impossible to maintain consistent temperatures in that type of enclosure if your house is 60 degrees. I like enclosed habitats because they are easy to maintain humidity and temperatures at appropriate levels. The forum has lots of good ideas for enclosed set-ups, so I would suggest having a look around.

I would focus on your temperatures right now, that is the likely culprit for the sluggish behavior you are seeing. You will need a different tool to measure them. Temperature guns work great as do digital thermometers, most are reasonably inexpensive.

Sleeping all day and not opening the eyes unless he's soaked is not a good sign, but you may have some hope of turning him around if he is still eating. Until his appetite and activity level improve I would try to keep him at temperatures close to 90 24 hours a day.

 

[Al r]

The habitat is not suitable for the tortoise in my judgement. It's a good size and is nicely decorated but it is nearly impossible to maintain consistent temperatures in that type of enclosure if your house is 60 degrees. I like enclosed habitats because they are easy to maintain humidity and temperatures at appropriate levels. The forum has lots of good ideas for enclosed set-ups, so I would suggest having a look around.

I would focus on your temperatures right now, that is the likely culprit for the sluggish behavior you are seeing. You will need a different tool to measure them. Temperature guns work great as do digital thermometers, most are reasonably inexpensive.

Sleeping all day and not opening the eyes unless he's soaked is not a good sign, but you may have some hope of turning him around if he is still eating. Until his appetite and activity level improve I would try to keep him at temperatures close to 90 24 hours a day.

Okay I'll get on it today Iam going to make him a closed enclosure and get a better temp gague. Thank you all for your help. I'll post some pics and updates when it is done.

 

[Kasia]

I have three different thermometers in the enclosure, the hot, cool and his humid hide box.
I'm not a 100 percent sure the temps are fluent throughout . I'll take a pic In the Am and post it.

I will defiantly try the baby food soak Tommorow .

Any other advice ?

I really would hate to lose this little guy.
I

Read the thread below - where did you get him/her from? Did you checked for parasites? Does he poop? Is it runny?

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/ernie.136677/

 

[Yvonne G]

While he is "sick" you can forget about the beautifully landscaped enclosure, and just keep him in a smaller, plain hospital tank. A 10 gallon aquarium works well for this. Get the temperature up to 85 or 90F degrees in that tank, and have a moist substrate with a hiding place. Soak him daily for at least 30 minutes. You can also add a half a jar of Gerber's strained carrots to the soaking water. You should start to see an improvement in about 3 days. While you have him in the hospital tank, be working on his beautiful enclosure to see how you can cover it to keep the cool house air out and the warm air inside.

 

[Tom]

Housing, temperatures and more are explained in here:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-raise-a-healthy-sulcata-or-leopard-version-2-0.79895/
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/

 

[Al r]

Hey guys I'm doing making my closed enclosure I'm going to post pics soon and I got some digital temps

 

[Al r]

I decided to dedicate my day to trying to improve this little guys quality of life.
I have him a nice soak with carrot baby food mixed in. Then I created him a new wooden closed enclosure.

 

[Al r]

Temps are: right under his vapor bulb 102-105 with the infrared thermometer. Next to it is the digital prob with a temp of 100. Middle of the enclosure temp is 95 with a humidity of 57-60 percent. Under his hide box is humidity is 80 % with a temp of 82. The cool spot in the other corner is 84 degrees.