Hello, looking to see if anyone can give me any ideas on if I did anything obviously wrong/ what possibly caused tortoise's death??
We got a baby red-footed tortoise (named Peepers) about a month ago and he unfortunately died this morning.
This was my first tortoise and I am feeling pretty guilty as I am not sure what I have done wrong to cause this?? A couple days after we got him he wouldn't open his eyes very often but other than that he was active and ate a lot. Thought it was the lights so I switched from MVB (w/ UVB strip) to an incandescent (still w/ UVB strip). A week later he seemed to open his eyes even less, so I tried some terramycin which helped a bit, but not for long. A week later he was very lethargic - didn't come out of his shell for about four days ( I continued daily soaks -sometimes with carrot baby food and eventually he came out and ate). A couple days later he stopped eating completely and wasn't active, so I planned on taking him to a vet, but I found him dead this morning.
When we first got him I posted on this forum my enclosure for him and made all suggested changes (from soil to orchid bark, from MVB to incandescent flood light, etc) - thank you to everyone that gave me advice.
Ultimately this is what my enclosure ended up being: 65w incandescent flood bulb with UVB strip on 12hr rotation w/ CHE for nighttime
temps ~85 on warm side, ~92 under basking, ~80 on cooler side
orchid bark substrate
consistently 80% humidity never dropped below 60%
Diet was things like blueberries, papaya, mustard greens, kale, spring mix, banana, etc. always sprinkled with calcium powder and he was soaked in warm water daily.
I know the only way to know his cause of death is to get a necropsy, but I just want to know if there was something obvious I specifically did wrong for this little guy that would have led to his death?
Sorry for the long read and thank you in advance for any input.
We got a baby red-footed tortoise (named Peepers) about a month ago and he unfortunately died this morning.
This was my first tortoise and I am feeling pretty guilty as I am not sure what I have done wrong to cause this?? A couple days after we got him he wouldn't open his eyes very often but other than that he was active and ate a lot. Thought it was the lights so I switched from MVB (w/ UVB strip) to an incandescent (still w/ UVB strip). A week later he seemed to open his eyes even less, so I tried some terramycin which helped a bit, but not for long. A week later he was very lethargic - didn't come out of his shell for about four days ( I continued daily soaks -sometimes with carrot baby food and eventually he came out and ate). A couple days later he stopped eating completely and wasn't active, so I planned on taking him to a vet, but I found him dead this morning.
When we first got him I posted on this forum my enclosure for him and made all suggested changes (from soil to orchid bark, from MVB to incandescent flood light, etc) - thank you to everyone that gave me advice.
Ultimately this is what my enclosure ended up being: 65w incandescent flood bulb with UVB strip on 12hr rotation w/ CHE for nighttime
temps ~85 on warm side, ~92 under basking, ~80 on cooler side
orchid bark substrate
consistently 80% humidity never dropped below 60%
Diet was things like blueberries, papaya, mustard greens, kale, spring mix, banana, etc. always sprinkled with calcium powder and he was soaked in warm water daily.
I know the only way to know his cause of death is to get a necropsy, but I just want to know if there was something obvious I specifically did wrong for this little guy that would have led to his death?
Sorry for the long read and thank you in advance for any input.