Good evening,
In the last week I have lost 2 of the 3 hatchling leopard tortoises I had been raising for the past three months, with the 3rd tortoise in the final stages of death right now. My primary goal in reaching out to you is to try and understand what went wrong and how to prevent this from happening again. I've racked my brain over their care and can't seem to pinpoint anything obvious that I should have done differently. Not to steer my counsel, but the conclusion I keep coming to is that they were harmed during shipping and, despite showing some growth, were not going to make it regardless of what I did. I have since acquired 2 more hatchlings from a local breeder and they appear to be doing extremely well. I'm frankly terrified that I'm missing something, though, thus the novel I'm writing here for help. I appreciate in advance your advice and recommendations.
Before I get into some of the husbandry details, I'd like to put out there that I've owned various tortoise species for about 30 years now. While I followed the guidance of the specific breeder I acquired these from, bolstered by Fife's Leopard Tortoise book and care sheets on this forum, I successfully raised a pair of Leopards in the mid/late 90's, when it was commonplace to keep them on playsand and pyramiding's link to humidity weren't common knowledge. In retrospect, even with less than ideal conditions, they thrived in my care. Given my experience with them in the past, I found them to be a relatively easy species to care for (vs Panther Chameleons I've also experienced).
The first 3 tortoises arrived February 6th and looked good, though shy and not terribly active. I chalked that up to stress from the flight - but started to become concerned when, 3 days later, they still hadn't really eaten much - just a few bites and then no interest. Hatchlings I was accustomed to in the past (and now, with the 2 I purchased locally as a comparison) were little monsters, devouring everything in sight. I reached out to the breeder, a regular hatchling provider on kingsnake.com, who went through my setup, feeding, temp, etc and ultimately advised me to soak them every day vs every other day. I did and they seemed to improve.
A few weeks later, Feb 22, I reached back out to the breeder with a concern about them being lethargic... spending most of the day, eyes closed, under the heat lamp. They were all eating and growing well through March and into April.
I started to notice one of the tortoises fall behind a little in growth relative to the other two in April. Next her eyes began to stick shut (needing water to open them), shell got soft and in just a few days stop eating entirely and die. A week later the second tortoise went through the same steps and died earlier today... I came home from a business trip (gone 3 days... wife took excellent care of them while I was away) and now the 3rd tortoise is lethargic, won't eat, small feces and eyes stuck shut. This last one was always the best eater and most healthy - in fact Monday of this week (4 days ago) I had her outside, eating food like a champ, poops in every soaking (everyday).
I'll go into husbandry next... but based on what I've described so far, does anything jump out? Calcium deficiency? Vitamin A? Dehydration?
There was no mucus at the nostrils, and I keep temps above 70 at all times (per Fife's book and the breeder rec) so I am doubting respiratory problems.
Reading this thread from a few years back, it suggests tortoises can survive an incident, look fine and grow but ultimately die regardless of the care. Is that still general consensus?
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/hatchling-failure-syndrome.23493/
Best,
John
In the last week I have lost 2 of the 3 hatchling leopard tortoises I had been raising for the past three months, with the 3rd tortoise in the final stages of death right now. My primary goal in reaching out to you is to try and understand what went wrong and how to prevent this from happening again. I've racked my brain over their care and can't seem to pinpoint anything obvious that I should have done differently. Not to steer my counsel, but the conclusion I keep coming to is that they were harmed during shipping and, despite showing some growth, were not going to make it regardless of what I did. I have since acquired 2 more hatchlings from a local breeder and they appear to be doing extremely well. I'm frankly terrified that I'm missing something, though, thus the novel I'm writing here for help. I appreciate in advance your advice and recommendations.
Before I get into some of the husbandry details, I'd like to put out there that I've owned various tortoise species for about 30 years now. While I followed the guidance of the specific breeder I acquired these from, bolstered by Fife's Leopard Tortoise book and care sheets on this forum, I successfully raised a pair of Leopards in the mid/late 90's, when it was commonplace to keep them on playsand and pyramiding's link to humidity weren't common knowledge. In retrospect, even with less than ideal conditions, they thrived in my care. Given my experience with them in the past, I found them to be a relatively easy species to care for (vs Panther Chameleons I've also experienced).
The first 3 tortoises arrived February 6th and looked good, though shy and not terribly active. I chalked that up to stress from the flight - but started to become concerned when, 3 days later, they still hadn't really eaten much - just a few bites and then no interest. Hatchlings I was accustomed to in the past (and now, with the 2 I purchased locally as a comparison) were little monsters, devouring everything in sight. I reached out to the breeder, a regular hatchling provider on kingsnake.com, who went through my setup, feeding, temp, etc and ultimately advised me to soak them every day vs every other day. I did and they seemed to improve.
A few weeks later, Feb 22, I reached back out to the breeder with a concern about them being lethargic... spending most of the day, eyes closed, under the heat lamp. They were all eating and growing well through March and into April.
I started to notice one of the tortoises fall behind a little in growth relative to the other two in April. Next her eyes began to stick shut (needing water to open them), shell got soft and in just a few days stop eating entirely and die. A week later the second tortoise went through the same steps and died earlier today... I came home from a business trip (gone 3 days... wife took excellent care of them while I was away) and now the 3rd tortoise is lethargic, won't eat, small feces and eyes stuck shut. This last one was always the best eater and most healthy - in fact Monday of this week (4 days ago) I had her outside, eating food like a champ, poops in every soaking (everyday).
I'll go into husbandry next... but based on what I've described so far, does anything jump out? Calcium deficiency? Vitamin A? Dehydration?
There was no mucus at the nostrils, and I keep temps above 70 at all times (per Fife's book and the breeder rec) so I am doubting respiratory problems.
Reading this thread from a few years back, it suggests tortoises can survive an incident, look fine and grow but ultimately die regardless of the care. Is that still general consensus?
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/hatchling-failure-syndrome.23493/
Best,
John