Slow weight gain in juvenile hermann's tortoise

[FujiBaird]

I've had my Hermann's tortoise, Roma, since the middle of December (purchased from a pet shop). I don't know her age or weight at the time of purchase, but I am concerned that she has not put on much weight in the last month, even though she has grown a little. Am I being paranoid, or is there something to be concerned about?

• 1/12: 71 g, 67 mm SCL
• 1/23: 75 g, 70 mm
• 2/5: 83 g, 72 mm
• 2/19: 84 g, 74 mm

Although she weighed 84 g yesterday, her weight has been much closer to 80-82 g for the past 2-3 weeks. I weighed her just now (after some lunch and a poop) and got 79/80 g. At 74 mm SCL, that seems very underweight using the Jackson Ratio for hatchlings chart.

She spends at least 6 days a week outdoors, where she has free run of a 3 x 6 enclosure planted with these plants. She seems to eat heartily outdside, always nibbling on whatever's sprouting. This week, she has been laying waste to the kale and bok choy, haha. Additionally, I give her 1-2 pieces of Mazuri a day (sprinkled with vitamin or calcium powder on alternating days), which she rarely finishes. She is soaked for 15-20 minutes every day. She is lively and active, with clear and bright eyes, and she has regular and healthy-looking poop and urine/urates. (Pic available upon request... )

Temps: outside, ambient air temps are in the 80s, basking area in direct sun gets to 95-100, and there's a shady area that's 75-80 degrees. I bring her indoors in the evening, where the overnight low is around 70-75. Due to the ample tropical sunlight, I do not use a UVB bulb indoors, though I have an incandescent basking bulb set up for evenings and days she stays inside due to the weather. On days inside, hot side: 85, cool: 75-80, basking: 100, humidity 75%.

 

[wellington]

Most likely she was not raised correctly before you got her. This poor condition will slow their growth and it will take quite some time, maybe a year or more of correct care to get them to start growing in a more normal way.

 

[FujiBaird]

Thanks @wellington , she definitely didn't have a great start... she was in a tiny enclosure with another hermann's and 2 leopards, just plain dry orchid bark with no water, hide, or food.

I'm more concerned about the large variability in her weight -- +/- 6 g or so over a week. Is that normal for a tortoise this small? Slow growth is one thing, but I worry that her weight is decreasing (especially since she already seems to be light for a 74 mm tortoise).

 

[wellington]

I know my leopard would go up and down some when he was small. I rehabbed a leopard that had a bad start and was very light and ate like a pig and never seemed to gain weight or size. That went on for over a year. This past summer she finally started to gain a little weight to her and finally this winter, she has some good weight on her and has some new growth.
You have want to check her for parasites. If she is clean, and doesn't stop eating then I would guess it might be similar to my rehabbed leopard. Just very slow at the weight and size. Maybe @Yvonne G has more ideas, she rehabbers a lot of torts.

 

[FujiBaird]

A vet tech friend took a look at a stool sample and found roundworm eggs. We have a vet appointment for Monday. This is a new vet to me (the usual vet doesn't do exotics)...what should I expect for treatment? What questions should I ask?

 

[leigti]

I would take in a fresh stool sample from that day. They should weigh your tortoise in case they have to give medications. If they do give you some medicine one easy way I have found to give it to my tortoise is to spread it onto Romain leaf. The type my vet uses is not too runny so it sticks okay. Then I roll up the leaf like a little Barito and my tortoise eats it right up. Don't let the vet give your tortoise a vitamin injection.

 

[FujiBaird]

Had our vet appointment today and Roma was diagnosed with pinworms, but was otherwise given a clean bill of health. The vet gave us a round of panacur. Roma really hated the first dose...very hard to administer to a tortoise this small! But overall the vet (while not a reptile specialist) seemed cautious and thorough and caring.

I'm so glad for the collective knowledge of the forum's members...really put my mind at ease to know what to expect at the vet.

 

[FujiBaird]

As a quick update, Roma finished her first course of Panacur about a week ago, and she'll start another one this weekend. Since then, she has grown to a whopping 99 gr and 77 mm SCL! Before, she was consistently low on the Jackson ratio chart, but now she's right on. She's put on 10 gr in the past week alone, and she is getting obvious growth lines around all her scutes.

She's still in the "recovery suite" with warmer temps and dampened paper towels for substrate, but I hope to get her back outdoors where she belongs sometime next week.

 

[WithLisa]

Of course it's better to get her dewormed if she has too much pinworms (tortoises always have a few). But what makes you think she didn't gain enough weight? Wild Hermann's reach 100g at around 6 years, it's normal for them to grow very slow. I guess I would be worried if my babys were growing as fast as yours now.

 

[FujiBaird]

@WithLisa , that's very interesting about wild Hermann's growing that slowly! I'd love to read more about it, do you happen to have a link with more info?

I worded it poorly, since I definitely don't have a notion that my tortoise is "supposed" to be growing X grams/mm per week or a certain size at a certain age. If she didn't grow another inch, I would be ok with that as long as she's healthy! I was worried she might be ill since she was consistently very low on the Jackson ratio chart... and she was only falling further behind as she grew a little in length but wasn't putting on any weight to go with it, even though she was eating like a horse. If she was always a skinny one, that would be ok too... as long as she's healthy. But the vet seemed to think that she had a lot of pinworm eggs, and last night she passed some stool that had quite a few dead worms in it...I'd estimate 15-20% of it was just dead worms, yuck! So I hope that with those out of her system, she can settle in at a whatever size and rate of growth is right for her.