?︎???︎?? ????︎ advice (small for age)

TortyMomma

New Member
Joined
Sep 20, 2019
Messages
1
Location (City and/or State)
Fresno, Ca
I am so upset. In September, I adopted a baby sulcata and my bffs parents adopted two babies. One passed away early on but I just thought it got sick or was failure to thrive. I haven’t seen their other one because whenever I went over they had it in the back room. Meanwhile, mine has gotten really big and is healthy. She has an enclosure with Kellogg organic soil, coconut coir, and sphagnum moss and mulch. We have a hot side taking up 3/4 of her planter enclosure with two heat lamps along with her uvb lamp and we keep it moist and covered with a shower curtain so it retains heat. There’s wooden bridges and two huts, her water dish and food dish. Her cool side she has hut and we keep it dry. We feed her tortoise food that we soak in water and soak her for 15 mins every few days because she stays hydrated with the water in her food. She also gets spring mix and zucchini, everything else she won’t touch. No grass, carrots, strawberries, dandylions, nothing she’s super picky. We recently took her to the vet and treated her uri. She’s healthy. Anyways, They are a year old this month. Tell me why I go to my best friends house and I go to their enclosure and I see a tiny tiny tiny tortoise. I kept saying you guys got a new baby your other one died? And they were saying no, that that was the same baby they adopted a year ago. I really thought they were messing with me. It is so small. Looks sickly, so skinny and the underbelly of the shell is soft. All they feed it is flowers and zucchini and they soak it every day in a big bin of water that it has no way of getting up from I’m surprised it hasn’t drowned. It just lays in the water fully submerged. I told them I’m “taking it for a few weeks because it isn’t looking good and I want to see how it does at my house”. I don’t think I will ever give this poor baby back. They kept him in dry wood chips Substrate In a wooden planter with no heat lamp or uvb lamp with water, zucchini, a hut, and grass. She said it used to have a red lamp but it went out. Just look at the pictures. Just look at him compared to my tortoise. Is there anything I should do? We brought it home and it ate tortoise kibble and was so starving. We tried to soak it in just a little bit of water and still it just submerged itself and wouldn’t come up. He still walks around fine and is active but also sleepy. When you pick him up it feels like you’re holding a piece of paper. I don’t know how to help him survive, he is a year old and smaller than when they first got him at three months old!

F7DD45C9-A4AF-419D-A685-1F9DA69EFE92.jpegD8DF1C7F-0309-4C74-8D13-2907EBFF1F9F.jpeg96BD3D72-8C25-48AC-B60B-CC6DFB3FF97F.jpeg0924678E-9FBE-481C-901E-9C88EB79ED00.jpeg7BF59475-3B21-42A4-8715-BC164361EB0D.jpeg3A4CBE7F-6DDD-4B70-82A2-EAC68F72FA60.jpegimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpg
 

Ruszian Tortoise

Active Member
Joined
Apr 11, 2020
Messages
116
Location (City and/or State)
TX
I am so upset. In September, I adopted a baby sulcata and my bffs parents adopted two babies. One passed away early on but I just thought it got sick or was failure to thrive. I haven’t seen their other one because whenever I went over they had it in the back room. Meanwhile, mine has gotten really big and is healthy. She has an enclosure with Kellogg organic soil, coconut coir, and sphagnum moss and mulch. We have a hot side taking up 3/4 of her planter enclosure with two heat lamps along with her uvb lamp and we keep it moist and covered with a shower curtain so it retains heat. There’s wooden bridges and two huts, her water dish and food dish. Her cool side she has hut and we keep it dry. We feed her tortoise food that we soak in water and soak her for 15 mins every few days because she stays hydrated with the water in her food. She also gets spring mix and zucchini, everything else she won’t touch. No grass, carrots, strawberries, dandylions, nothing she’s super picky. We recently took her to the vet and treated her uri. She’s healthy. Anyways, They are a year old this month. Tell me why I go to my best friends house and I go to their enclosure and I see a tiny tiny tiny tortoise. I kept saying you guys got a new baby your other one died? And they were saying no, that that was the same baby they adopted a year ago. I really thought they were messing with me. It is so small. Looks sickly, so skinny and the underbelly of the shell is soft. All they feed it is flowers and zucchini and they soak it every day in a big bin of water that it has no way of getting up from I’m surprised it hasn’t drowned. It just lays in the water fully submerged. I told them I’m “taking it for a few weeks because it isn’t looking good and I want to see how it does at my house”. I don’t think I will ever give this poor baby back. They kept him in dry wood chips Substrate In a wooden planter with no heat lamp or uvb lamp with water, zucchini, a hut, and a
handful of grass. She said it used to have a red lamp but it went out. Just look at the pictures. Just look at him compared to my tortoise. Is there anything I should do? We brought it home and it ate tortoise kibble and was so starving. We tried to soak it in just a little bit of water and still it just submerged itself and wouldn’t come up. He still walks around fine and is active but also sleepy. When you pick him up it feels like you’re holding a piece of paper. I don’t know how to help him survive, he is a year old and smaller than when they first got him at three months old!
Okay. Good on you for helping out the poor little guy. But there are no pictures attached. I don't think I know anything that can help you ?,others probably will, but I wish you luck.
 

iAmCentrochelys sulcata

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 10, 2019
Messages
1,322
Location (City and/or State)
Alief
That tortoise Does not look as if it’s 1 year old at all, it seems like a hatchling. At this rate the way they would be keeping the tortoise they originally had ( a theory) would be Pyramiding due to the dry conditions and incorrect care. Just keep a eye on the tortoise make sure to soak it everyday, you might want to add baby food in the soaks for the nutritional value.
Also something to point out don’t keep both of them together the size difference is huge, and keeping in mind that that tortoise should be quarantined for the time being.

Edit: you will be able to monitor the tortoise if it’s kept alone, tortoises should not be kept in pairs.
 

KarenSoCal

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Tortoise Club
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Jul 8, 2017
Messages
5,749
Location (City and/or State)
Low desert 50 mi SE of Palm Springs CA
Good for you to help this baby!

I don't think there is a lot you can do except give it excellent care, a good environment, a great diet, and lots of soaks. You said it puts the head underwater? Is it drinking? Torts will put their head in to drink, and take in water through the nostrils. But of course, stay with it. Hold the head out of the water if you need to. He might be so weak he can't hold it up.

The way to get them to eat good foods is this. You take a small amount of the new food and cut it up very tiny. Mix it up in his food so he can't pick it out. This process can take weeks or months, but it's worth the effort. Once they get the taste of the new food, you can slowly add more until they eat it. Then start with another. Forget the fruit...it isn't good for them anyway. Concentrate on nutritional foods and grass.

You do need to address separating them. You said your tortoise recently had a URI? I hope he hasn't infected the new baby. And as said above, the difference in size is an issue.

There are 2 things I noticed about your enclosure. First, are you using a screw in UVB bulb? They do not put out UVB like they should, and more importantly, they have a tendency to burn babies' eyes. It would be best if you got a fluorescent tube type UVB.

The ramped water dish is dangerous for tort babies. They are fine for lizards, but torts can't bend in the middle. They stretch up to get over the side, and if they fall backward into the water, they can drown. A terra cotta plant saucer pushed down level with the substrate is safe.
 

Yvonne G

Old Timer
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It's not a good idea to keep them together. The little one should be kept on his own for his best chance of getting better.

He needs GOOD UVB and calcium.
 

Tom

The Dog Trainer
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Hello and welcome. Good for you for rescuing this little guy. You've got a few things right and a few others that need correcting. Read this and then come back with all your questions:
 

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