mrpresitort
New Member
My russian tortoise is a 2 year old (ish) male. He's usually very active in the mornings and goes out in search of food, but for the past week, maybe week and a half, I have had to encourage him to come out of his burrow to eat something, and then once he's eaten he goes right back to his burrow to sleep. When I hand feed him, he eats very well, but he doesn't seem to have the energy to trot over to his food dish in the corner these days. It seems far too early for him to start brumating in early August in NJ so I'm getting really concerned.
I've inspected his eyes for puffiness, nose for runniness, and tail end for cleanliness, but nothing seems obviously wrong physically. I'd really appreciate any leads on this! I'm leaving for a week-long vacation soon and won't be able to personally monitor him or take him to a vet in that time-frame, so I'm trying to get an urgent appointment in the next few days.
Diet:
I've inspected his eyes for puffiness, nose for runniness, and tail end for cleanliness, but nothing seems obviously wrong physically. I'd really appreciate any leads on this! I'm leaving for a week-long vacation soon and won't be able to personally monitor him or take him to a vet in that time-frame, so I'm trying to get an urgent appointment in the next few days.
Diet:
- Collard greens
- Mustard greens
- Spring mix
- Escaroles
- Occasional kale and spinach
- Occasional carrot or cucumber treat, very rarely a piece of strawberry
- Last year I'd have him roam around outside more and eat the dandelions, but this year I am living in an apartment complex that sprays a lot of pesticides so he hasn't gotten as much outside time
- 24" x 40" wooden, open top enclosure with a 24"x10" second floor that he has access to via a fake log. I keep it on the floor of my bedroom.
- Temperature: 90F in the basking area, in the 70s in the cooler areas of his enclosure during the day. At night, I have a ceramic heat emitter that keeps the temperature right below it in the 70s.
- Humidity: ~50% in the central part of his enclosure; He's gotten seemingly very stressed out when I raise it much higher
- Substrate: Mixture of Eco Earth coco coir, Miracle Gro peat moss, and Thrive fir bark bedding
- I put his food on a large flat stone; He has a petsmart water dish that I refill every one or two days to a depth that isn't too shallow but also not so deep that it's dangerous.
- Decorations: I have small colorful pebbles (bigger than he could ever even attempt to swallow) and a Rubik's cube lying around for him to play with. He doesn't really play with any of them though. There is a large log he can use as a hide or as a ramp for the second floor. He also has a fake tree-shaped humidifier, though I don't usually have it on because it doesn't work too well given the open top
- NJ, it is currently August and the outside temperatures are in the 90s pretty much every day, so we have the AC on most of the time set to 70-72F
- I would let him roam around my carpeted room (approximately dorm-sized) when he got really antsy in the mornings and he would just run around for 1-2 hours until he got tired and retreated to some shady spot. Now he just goes straight to the shady spot.