Can someone please help? We are new parents of a very sweet greek named Feta. We have just adopted him from a harmful situation. I have immediately taken him to the vet. She says he looks fine other than a URI! His other home had NO heat!!! Anyway, back to my boy. The vet said to give him some leafy greens, peppers a variety of veggies. I gave him red bell peppers & I think he binged out on them he even seemed to regurgeatate some. His home temp is around 80 and basking temp is around 90. The humidity is around 30. This is his last day for the antibiotic and he still has a bubbly/runny nose. He peed on me yesterday and it was reddish in color and smelled like red peppers. The vet said because he ate red peppers. However I have since haulted the red pepperd and switched out for romaine lett & cactus leaf. He has not touched it. I also worry he hasn't seemed to touch his water. I do soak him 1 or 2 x's a week in warm water and heating pad under it. On nice days he goes outside but the weather hasn't really broke enough for it to be a constant. Am I doing something wrong? I wanna do right by this sweet little guy. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for your time!
need help! new owner
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Hi Brandy:
Feta is one lucky tortoise to be in your care now. You obviously care quite a bit about him.
You can offer Feta any of the dark, leafy greens that are sold in the produce section of the store...endive, escarole, turnip greens, etc. The key is to offer him a nice variety of things. You can buy a bunch of dandelion greens one time and feed them until they're gone, then buy endive the next time and so on. You can also cut weeds from outside for him.
Read through this thread and you'll get some feeding ideas:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread-Diet-help#axzz1GEC5Rbix
Feta is one lucky tortoise to be in your care now. You obviously care quite a bit about him.
You can offer Feta any of the dark, leafy greens that are sold in the produce section of the store...endive, escarole, turnip greens, etc. The key is to offer him a nice variety of things. You can buy a bunch of dandelion greens one time and feed them until they're gone, then buy endive the next time and so on. You can also cut weeds from outside for him.
Read through this thread and you'll get some feeding ideas:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread-Diet-help#axzz1GEC5Rbix
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If your Greek tortoise does have an upper respiratory infection it would be better not to take him outdoors from indoors. This exposes him to temperature and humidity fluctuations and potential dampness from being on the ground. A tortoise with a respiratory infection will remain stronger and recover sooner if kept in a more constant evironment. Along with anti-biotics, the temperature should be kept within the range of no lower than 70 degrees (at night) and as warm as 85 degrees during the daytime with a basking area that is within the 95-110 degree range. Ambient humidity should be kept midrange during this recovery time, 45-55% and the tortoise should be kept very well hydrated. Once the recovery process is over and the tortoise is confirmed to be in optimum health temperature, humidity and outdoor exposure can go back to normal. Their diet, even when ill, should consist of anywhere from 70-90% good quality, high fiber greens. The rest can be a variety of good quality vegetables. Squashes, pumpkin, yams and occasionally some bell pepper, other vegetables and cactus pad are good for them.
Congratulations on your new friend! He is lucky you got him! I agree with the above advice for him ... basically the same way I keep mine.
Yvonne,
Thanks so much for all your help and kind words! I hope all works out we really do enjoy having him around. I will def try the diff varieties for him. I'm still getting used to looking for diff things and I find it sometimes hard to find some things. Thanks again
GBtortoises,
Thanks for your response. I got alot of good info. one question though. After Feta is better should the humidity go back down to around 30 or should the humidity stay in the moderate range? Thanks again.
Kimber,
Thank you for the kind words. Thanks also for the reply.
Thanks so much for all your help and kind words! I hope all works out we really do enjoy having him around. I will def try the diff varieties for him. I'm still getting used to looking for diff things and I find it sometimes hard to find some things. Thanks again
emysemys said:
GBtortoises,
Thanks for your response. I got alot of good info. one question though. After Feta is better should the humidity go back down to around 30 or should the humidity stay in the moderate range? Thanks again.
GBtortoises said:
Kimber,
Thank you for the kind words. Thanks also for the reply.
kimber_lee_314 said:
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"After Feta is better should the humidity go back down to around 30 or should the humidity stay in the moderate range?"
Once healthy your Greek tortoise will be more comfortable and active if kept in an ambient air humidity range of 55-75%. The humidity level can occasionally dip a little lower and go higher than that too but that range is the "comfort zone" for them. in the middle of that, around 60-65% is ideal. 30% is much to low.
Once healthy your Greek tortoise will be more comfortable and active if kept in an ambient air humidity range of 55-75%. The humidity level can occasionally dip a little lower and go higher than that too but that range is the "comfort zone" for them. in the middle of that, around 60-65% is ideal. 30% is much to low.
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