2yr herman not eating

[rossi]

Hi.

We just wanted some advice about our new (purchased 20/07/2010) 2 yr old herman tortoise (humprey). We can't seem to get him to eat everyday or every other day regularly, he's gone 1 week without eating now even though we are putting fresh greens out for him (parsley, curly kale, dandelion leaves and flowers, peppers).

He's living in a home built enclosure in the house with heat lamp, mini house, plant pots, soil, and he does like walking around in it when we have to wake him up and generally does seem ok when he's awake and we bath him daily too.

He's just not eating like we thought he would, even when we try and feed him to his face he just is turning his nose up at everything we try. We also are weighing him daily and he's slowly losing weight from 130g last week to today 125g.

We are thinking should we take him a vet, which we did when we first got him and they said he was perfectly healthy. But the vet wasn't a proper reptile vet, we don't know if we should take him to see one?

Is there anybody that give us some advise on this matter.

Regards, Ian

 

[Tracy Gould]

Hi.

We just wanted some advice about our new (purchased 20/07/2010) 2 yr old herman tortoise (humprey). We can't seem to get him to eat everyday or every other day regularly, he's gone 1 week without eating now even though we are putting fresh greens out for him (parsley, curly kale, dandelion leaves and flowers, peppers).

He's living in a home built enclosure in the house with heat lamp, mini house, plant pots, soil, and he does like walking around in it when we have to wake him up and generally does seem ok when he's awake and we bath him daily too.

He's just not eating like we thought he would, even when we try and feed him to his face he just is turning his nose up at everything we try. We also are weighing him daily and he's slowly losing weight from 130g last week to today 125g.

We are thinking should we take him a vet, which we did when we first got him and they said he was perfectly healthy. But the vet wasn't a proper reptile vet, we don't know if we should take him to see one?

Is there anybody that give us some advise on this matter.

Regards, Ian

Hi i a new tort owner too so i am no expert, but what are the temps in his home? if he is too cold he will not eat, they also take a while to settle in too and when stressed lose there appertite. temps should be about 90 in the hot spot and around 80 in the cooler area's shelby my little hermann was a bit picky with food at first too i just gave her warm soaks every day to keep her hydrated and she picked up

 

[Yvonne G]

Is there any chance that you can contact the previous owner and see what they were feeding him? Sometimes babies don't recognize new food as fit to eat.

In the meantime, buy some packaged lettuce, packages that contain dark leafy greens like escarole, endive, oak-leaf lettuce. I find it under the name "spring mix." This is a mixture of baby leafs of the different types of greens.

Also, if you are sprinkling calcium on his food, stop doing that. They sometimes won't eat if it has calcium on it, and you have to be creative to get the calcium into them.

Another thing to check is what temperature is the habitat (like Tracy said). You should have it room temperature (75 or so degrees) on one end, 100+ directly under the light, and 85 or so at the other end of the habitat. If they can't warm up to above 85 degrees, they won't eat.

Welcome to the forum!! I hope you see an improvement in your baby's appetite soon.