The screen is quite open (2 cm square I'd guess) so I don't think it's an issue with the light. He's a little better now that I rearranged the furniture, so maybe that was the issue (as Maggie pointed out). Thanks everyone, I appreciate your input. I'll try adding a few more pieces of wood...
It's a wood enclosure, about 3x4 feet with a screened top. Watson's probably about 6-7 inches from snout to tail. We never let him outside (MN, brrrr), but let him wander in the living room supervised. He really likes our cats, which I find hilarious. He's very energentic when he's out...
Watson has taken to pacing around the circumference of his enclosure, just marching round and round. He also occassionally stops and stretches up as far as he can and scrabbles like he wants to climb out. We often let him run around on the floor for ~15 minutes a day, so part of me is thinking...
Watson seems fine this morning - no bubbles. One thing that may have exacerbated the situation is that I think I woke him up when I took him out yesterday, and I believe I've read that stress can cause them to bubble sometimes. I'll definitely closely monitor him over the next few days.
I...
I don't have water in his tank; I soak him twice a week and spray his food. The temp is around 70 at night on the cool side; 90 during the day on the hot side.
Watson's tank is usually 50-60% humidity at night. I've noticed recently that he's blowing a lot of bubbles out of his nose and I'm worried about respiratory infection. The liquid is clear. He's eating normally and acting pretty much normal, although he seems to stay in his "house"...
Sometimes when Watson (my greek) eats, his beak "clicks"; I think the top and bottom are rubbing together. Is this normal? I wasn't sure if torts are like rabbits in that their beaks (or teeth) grow and need to wear down.
Shannon
I use coconut bark in my Greek's enclosure, and he absolutely loves it. There's one thing I don't like though - it's tough to spot clean. Watson will deficate, and if I'm not right there he'll usually walk through it and track it around the enclosure. This means it gets all over the place...
I give Watson one raspberry about once a week now that they're in season. He absolutely loves them and it hasn't affected his bathroom habits. I'd echo though that if it did I would stop it. It's nice to see a fellow Minnesotan on the board!
What's your greek's favorite food?
Watson loves peppers - we've given him green and orange so far. He'll nose through his salad and pick out the peppers first. I've got a picture of him afterward with a pepper seed stuck to his nose - very cute!
I'm using a ReptiSun 5.0 spiral bulb for my UVB. According to the website Crazy1 cited, it's OK. Watson doesn't seem to have any problems - he's out and about quite a lot and his eyes look fine (I've been checking every day, just to be safe).
I wouldn't mind removing Watson's water dish because it seems like he never uses it other than dumping coco bark into it (which means I get to change it every day). When you soak your tort, how deep is the water? I've read elsewhere that no deeper than their plastron (? their lower shell), but...
I have a follow-up question: when you soak your greeks, how long do you soak them for? I've noticed mine eyeballing his water dish a fewtimes, acting like he wants to go in, then he moves along and ignores it.
Update: switching to CoCo bark has helped the humidity issue. Watson still has the occassional nose bubble but doesn't seem too bothered by it. We'll keep an eye on him all the same.
Thank you, I really appreciate the advice. I may try moving him to Coco Bark while he's in the glass aquarium.
I'm using just plain hum-drum topsoil from a bag I got at Wal-Mart and mixed it with play sand. I didn't sterilize or bake it. I may try that when his turtle table is done just to...
I just noticed one more thing that now has me worried. I've noticed that when Watson is just handing out, he sometimes does what I've started referring to "the chicken dance"....he'll have his head and lets partially out, but then twitch, drawing his head and legs in a little bit.
Kind of...