Are you keeping the water warm for the entire duration of the soak?
A little help please!
- Thread starter Worriedjojo2456
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Worriedjojo2456
New Member
Well probably not accurately but i drain it and add new warm water every 5-10 minutes, and he will scramble around for just a bit and then fall asleep. I gave him a soak just a bit ago because he had some hanging out of his butt so i let him soak for a while and it didnt look like he was getting it out after about 20 minutes so i assisted him with a pair of tweezers. I think maybe this internal hydration might be an issue as it was very dry before he got soaked. He has a water dish but i am gonna puck him some cucumbers and aloe vera stalks today and put a few pieces around his enclosure to see if that helps.
Is free feeding the babies okay or do i need to like.. do a scheduled feeding? I kind of take my random grass and weeds, chop it up really small and dust it in calcium powder before i sprinkle it all around the enclosures. I know its a lot of calcium but he was atill squishy on his sides and whatnot so im im trying to avoid MBD
Put the soaking tub somewhere warm, like inside the enclosure, or in the sun on a warm day, but do be careful. Usually the evaporative cooling effect balances out the warming up by the sun effect, but watch the water temp carefully if you use this method.
I pull stuff out of their butts regularly. Its common for that to happen when feeding long strands of grass and some weeds. If you are feeding grass to a little baby be sure that it is super soft freshly sprouted grass, not the usual tough more mature lawn grass.
My torts don't care for aloe vera, but give it a try.
Only do calcium powder once or twice a week. You are feeding a good calcium rich diet of weeds, so calcium is less important for your tortoises when compared to someone feeding mostly grocery store lettuce and spring mix.
Use a food dish to reduce accidental ingestion of substrate. You can place multiple food dishes around the enclosure if you like.
All tortoises should be free fed. They are a grazing animal. They need to be able to graze all day.
Finally, if your tortoise is squishy on the sides, that is not metabolic bone disease. That is likely the later stages of breeder failure syndrome. It what happens when the kidneys and other organs fail due to chronic dehydration in their first few weeks of life. There is nothing anyone can do about that. All you can do is offer the best conditions and diet possible and hope they pull through.
Worriedjojo2456
New Member
It isnt squishy like a sponge, their sides feel like plastic lids but ive read that they are supposed to be pretty hard by now. Do you think this is still BFS? They seem to be mostly very active running around and eating a lot so i "think" they are doing okay. This is pretty stressful 😩
Plastic lid type flexibility is good. Stiffness comes with size, not age. They have not grown much, so the shell material has not thickened much yet.
Worriedjojo2456
New Member
Hello! I have a few updates. The "healthy" one has now gained 10 grams since adjusting her diet and enclosure. I dont know if 10 grambs between then and now is good or not, so let me know!
The "sick" one still hasnt grown. I have been working on his diet and stuff and nothing has really worked. I watch him eat and he seems disinterested most of the time but will occasionally go ham eating his grass. But recently it seems like he cant chew his food? I hadnt really watched him eat before but now that im watching him he cant really like.. take bites off. I even scooped put some aloe vera from a stalk i bought so he could just have the i sides with no skin, and he cant really cut pieces off so he ends up to going it into his mouth, chokes goop out, sucks it back up, and repeats. I can take a video if needed but im kinda at a loss. Hes been eating a LOT of optunia cactus aloe vera and cucumbers because it seems to be the only thing soft enough to eat and even then it has to be cut up very very small or he cant get it down
The "sick" one still hasnt grown. I have been working on his diet and stuff and nothing has really worked. I watch him eat and he seems disinterested most of the time but will occasionally go ham eating his grass. But recently it seems like he cant chew his food? I hadnt really watched him eat before but now that im watching him he cant really like.. take bites off. I even scooped put some aloe vera from a stalk i bought so he could just have the i sides with no skin, and he cant really cut pieces off so he ends up to going it into his mouth, chokes goop out, sucks it back up, and repeats. I can take a video if needed but im kinda at a loss. Hes been eating a LOT of optunia cactus aloe vera and cucumbers because it seems to be the only thing soft enough to eat and even then it has to be cut up very very small or he cant get it down
Worriedjojo2456
New Member
Having seen the videos, I think the food chunks are too big and difficult for him to eat. Please grater these food items and mix them up, then give it to him. Use calcium powder sparingly, a small pinch sprinkled or mixed with the food twice per week is enough. Be sure of maintaining the correct temperatures and lighting, and the humidity level.
Those chunks of food will choke him.
Aloe isn't a good food. Opuntia is good, but not every day. The main diet for little ones should be leafy greens either from the store with amendments added, or weeds and leaves from outside. Tender young grass is good too, but not too much or too often for a tiny baby. Grass will be their primary food as an adult, but more greens as a baby.
10 grams in a month is better than no growth, but it is still very slow. This is not surprising given the foods you are offering though. Cactus pads, aloe, cucumber and grass are all very low in protein and very high in water. Look for some clover, broad or narrow leaf plantain, fresh grown alfalfa, and even peas or green beans a couple times per week. Mazuri 5M21 will help in a case like this too and ensure good balanced nutrition is getting into the tortoise.
Public Service Announcement - Tortoise Food Chunks
I was reminded today that not everyone knows that "hard" foods like opuntia, cucumber, carrots, or this time of year, pumpkin should not be cut up and fed in chunks. Chunks of these types of food will be swallowed whole by tortoises and can cause them to choke to death. It doesn't happen every...
tortoiseforum.org
Worriedjojo2456
New Member
Aloe isn't a good food. Opuntia is good, but not every day. The main diet for little ones should be leafy greens either from the store with amendments added, or weeds and leaves from outside. Tender young grass is good too, but not too much or too often for a tiny baby. Grass will be their primary food as an adult, but more greens as a baby.
10 grams in a month is better than no growth, but it is still very slow. This is not surprising given the foods you are offering though. Cactus pads, aloe, cucumber and grass are all very low in protein and very high in water. Look for some clover, broad or narrow leaf plantain, fresh grown alfalfa, and even peas or green beans a couple times per week. Mazuri 5M21 will help in a case like this too and ensure good balanced nutrition is getting into the tortoise.
Public Service Announcement - Tortoise Food Chunks
I was reminded today that not everyone knows that "hard" foods like opuntia, cucumber, carrots, or this time of year, pumpkin should not be cut up and fed in chunks. Chunks of these types of food will be swallowed whole by tortoises and can cause them to choke to death. It doesn't happen every...
Hello! This is not their diet. They eat majorly baby grass, clovers, and whatever other greens i can find in my yard, like dandilions. Picture included. This is what i load up their cages with daily.
Here is a poorly shot video of the enclosures i have set up :
I have a 100w che on a thermostat, a 60w flood bulb under the dome on a timer, thats a 100w led light that i use to make it bright in there for daytime, also on a separate timer, and a 12" arcadia uv tube but it is he 8 or 9 not the 12 also on a separate timer
Everything is pretty close to the ground i know but the surface temp under the flood is 100. Probably too hot right under the CHE
According to my accurite and the thermostat on the che, i keep the enclosure at 99% humidity and 90 degrees at all times because hes sick, thermostat and accurite are on "cold side" but i heard the temp is pretty much the same all around when its a closed top
The aloe and cactus are what i have been feeding the sick one since he seems to not be able to cut the grass, he seems like he almost chokes but maybe i worry to much. Is he fine in the videos to you tom?
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If it were me, I would buy Spring Mix from the grocery store, get some amendments from Kalipolo Farms...I think that's correct. I have headstarted maybe hundreds of Sulcata hatchlings...and I treated them like newborns...Spring Mix cut up small, placed at random spots around the enclosure, and I mean cut up small...Leave them in the water long enuf they will start to swim quickly and frantically, that generally works... I think soaking for 20 minutes once a day is good...that is so they kinda don't get used to the water and they try to get out...I believe you CAN soak babies too much...
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