NYGiants-1925
New Member
Okay so I have read lots of things on here but never posted. Hopefully I am doing this correctly.
I have a friend that was gifted 3 Russian tortoises and one of those Amazon tortoise houses which was way too small for 3. It was 43"X24". She had 2 males and 1 female, all together. She tried finding them a home for about a year. I have now taken 2 of them. And I am going to be honest here, I don't have the indoor room for 2 8x4 enclosures. So I have made 2 6x3 indoor enclosures and I am going to start the outdoor enclosures soon. about 15x3 for each of the those.
Now to my issue. When I first took them a couple of weeks ago, I kept them together in the one indoor enclosure for about a week while I built the second one. Everything was fine. He was annoying her but they were both eating well everyday, walking around quite a bit and would bury every night under the hot side. Neither one has ever used the hides. I brought them to the vet, had them checked over and she said all appears well and healthy. Still waiting on the decals and blood work to come back from the lab. Once the second enclosure was done, I moved him into it. He has not eaten since. It has been 5 days now. He doesn't look weak at all. Still will move around, seems energetic but is refusing to eat. I have tried increasing the soaks to 3 times a week. I have tried different kinds of greens. I stopped adding the calcium powder in case that was bothering him. I even tried to put him back in with the female for feeding and nothing. Getting a little concerned here.
Both enclosures are set up the same. As of now the hides are just cardboard boxes until I make something out of stone. I am using the Arcadia ProT5 UVB kit with the 12% HO bulb in each. I bought the solarmeter 6.5R and at ground level the reading is a 6. I have that on 5 hours a day. I have the hot side heat lamp over a piece of flat stone which is around 97 degrees. I am using the Flukers deep thermal heat bulb for that. I just ordered a couple of ceramic heat emiters because the vet told me to keep the cool side between 75 and 80. I was just keeping the room at 72, but she wants it higher. I feed and water them on terra cotta plates. I am using Coco Bliss coco coir for the substrate. And I have 2 LED daylight br40 flood lights on each enclosure for extra light, plus they are near windows which really brightens up during the day.
So, question is, and I know I shouldn't feed fruit but is there anything you feel I can try to add to the food to entice him to start eating again? Smash a few blueberries or some banana into the greens maybe? Or am I doing something wrong that led to his refusal to eat?
Thanks for any thoughts.
I have a friend that was gifted 3 Russian tortoises and one of those Amazon tortoise houses which was way too small for 3. It was 43"X24". She had 2 males and 1 female, all together. She tried finding them a home for about a year. I have now taken 2 of them. And I am going to be honest here, I don't have the indoor room for 2 8x4 enclosures. So I have made 2 6x3 indoor enclosures and I am going to start the outdoor enclosures soon. about 15x3 for each of the those.
Now to my issue. When I first took them a couple of weeks ago, I kept them together in the one indoor enclosure for about a week while I built the second one. Everything was fine. He was annoying her but they were both eating well everyday, walking around quite a bit and would bury every night under the hot side. Neither one has ever used the hides. I brought them to the vet, had them checked over and she said all appears well and healthy. Still waiting on the decals and blood work to come back from the lab. Once the second enclosure was done, I moved him into it. He has not eaten since. It has been 5 days now. He doesn't look weak at all. Still will move around, seems energetic but is refusing to eat. I have tried increasing the soaks to 3 times a week. I have tried different kinds of greens. I stopped adding the calcium powder in case that was bothering him. I even tried to put him back in with the female for feeding and nothing. Getting a little concerned here.
Both enclosures are set up the same. As of now the hides are just cardboard boxes until I make something out of stone. I am using the Arcadia ProT5 UVB kit with the 12% HO bulb in each. I bought the solarmeter 6.5R and at ground level the reading is a 6. I have that on 5 hours a day. I have the hot side heat lamp over a piece of flat stone which is around 97 degrees. I am using the Flukers deep thermal heat bulb for that. I just ordered a couple of ceramic heat emiters because the vet told me to keep the cool side between 75 and 80. I was just keeping the room at 72, but she wants it higher. I feed and water them on terra cotta plates. I am using Coco Bliss coco coir for the substrate. And I have 2 LED daylight br40 flood lights on each enclosure for extra light, plus they are near windows which really brightens up during the day.
So, question is, and I know I shouldn't feed fruit but is there anything you feel I can try to add to the food to entice him to start eating again? Smash a few blueberries or some banana into the greens maybe? Or am I doing something wrong that led to his refusal to eat?
Thanks for any thoughts.
Let's leave it as a last resort 
