Baby Sulcata Help

[Mrclaud91]

Hello , i'm new to the group, but i need some advice.

I got a baby sulcata, about 5-10 weeks old, and when we first got him, he was consistently walking always eating, and now he's barely getting around, won't hardly eat. I bathe him 2-3 times a week for 15-20 minutes in warm water, feed him dark leafy greens, and he won't eat it now.

The tank is a 55 gallon with coconut bedding which was recommended from the pet store where I live, and one side is a UV light that does not emit heat, and that's where i keep his food. The opposite side has a heat bulb that heats up to 120 degrees, he also has a moss hide on that side of the tank I got from petsmart.

I recently changed the heat bulb to a blue UV light that the pet store recommended and that only gets up into the 90's for heat. I've called petsmart and the only thing they recommended was changing up the food.

I don't want my new addition to the family to die

but he's not acting himself. Anyone else been through this?

 

[wellington]

120 is too high. The basking temp should be 90-100. The over all temp should be 80 and that's day and night. Blue light is no good. With what your using your night temps are too cold as you dont have any night heat. There is also missing humidity which should be 80% and there should be a top on the enclosure. A wide varied diet is needed, not the same thing fwd daily.
Read the sulcata care sheets and closed chamber threads and make all needed adjustments.
A picture of the enclosure should help us help you too.

 

[theTurtleRoom]

120 is too high. The basking temp should be 90-100. The over all temp should be 80 and that's day and night. Blue light is no good. With what your using your night temps are too cold as you dont have any night heat. There is also missing humidity which should be 80% and there should be a top on the enclosure. A wide varied diet is needed, not the same thing fwd daily.
Read the sulcata care sheets and closed chamber threads and make all needed adjustments.
A picture of the enclosure should help us help you too.

This basically covers it but I would add that you can probably save yourself the trouble of checking with the pet store, they likely have no idea what they are talking about. If you are concerned about the health of your tortoise find yourself a vet that specializes in them in your area.

There are a lot of great Sulcata related resources on this forum too that you should probably also review before you would consult the pet store, check some of the pinned threads here: https://www.tortoiseforum.org/forums/sulcata-tortoises.88/

I would also recommend you up your soaking to daily in warm water and see if that doesn't help too. I know others have tried mixing some baby food in with their water to encourage them to at least get SOME nutrients as they drink/soak so maybe that is an option too in the meantime.

 

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Start with these so you can see what you need to change. Also be aware that most breeders and sellers don't start this specie correctly and a large percentage of them don't survive. Hope your is one of the lucky ones.

 

[Tony the Tort42]

What the others said should help. If you have access to a lawn and its a sunny warm day, i recommend letting him out for an hour. The natural sunlight is better than artificial uvb, and little torts love to play and graze on grass