Breathe sound normal?

[pelchat22]

Hi everyone. Its been a while.

My red foot tortoise is near 5 years old now.

Since a couple of months, I started to hear her breathe more. She grew a lot this summer.
I tried to search a little bit about infection but she never do the same sound.

I finally found something. Her sound is like this one. 100% same.

Maybe im just freaking out for nothing..she do this sound commonly now.

She have no other sign...she eat a lot, move a lot, when I open the light in the morning she is getting up right away to start her day. There is no mucus and nothing coming from her nose or mouth. Poop is humid and normal.

Temp day 25-30C(hotspot)
Temp night 23C-24C
Humidity 80%

I read that RI is less common for older tortoise...

Is it normal breathing sound for bigger/older red foot?

Thanks

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

What a beautiful girl!

That breathing in the video is relatively normal imo, whilst our adult red doesn’t breathe like that constantly, she does it when exploring or when we’re giving her a soak, sometimes if she’s giving something a close up look lol.
If your red foot, like ours, is 100% healthy in every other regard, I wouldn’t worry.

On the other hand, I will say your night temperatures are lower than I’d be comfortable with my red foot in. Not necessarily deadly for an adult, but definitely lower than desirable for a red foot. You don’t want any part of her enclosure below 80f(26c) day or night, especially with 80% humidity. I’m guessing she’s kept indoors? What kind of heating/set up is it she has? Don’t suppose you have a pic?

 

[pelchat22]

What a beautiful girl!

That breathing in the video is relatively normal imo, whilst our adult red doesn’t breathe like that constantly, she does it when exploring or when we’re giving her a soak, sometimes if she’s giving something a close up look lol.
If your red foot, like ours, is 100% healthy in every other regard, I wouldn’t worry.

On the other hand, I will say your night temperatures are lower than I’d be comfortable with my red foot in. Not necessarily deadly for an adult, but definitely lower than desirable for a red foot. You don’t want any part of her enclosure below 80f(26c) day or night, especially with 80% humidity. I’m guessing she’s kept indoors? What kind of heating/set up is it she has? Don’t suppose you have a pic?

Yess I think its like yours. Soaking and looking around for food is what make her do it. Its loud but she knew food was coming after bath.

I put 2x 4x2 zenhabitat together so she have 8x2. 1 side is more humid and lower temp (25) and the other side is with light and CHE. She go between those 2. Its definitely indoor because I live in the north.. -25C during winter..now its already -2C.

The small problem I have with heat is that it reduce a lot the humidity and its not natural here (25% in home). I can try to still raise it at night like you suggested!

Thank you!

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Yess I think its like yours. Soaking and looking around for food is what make her do it. Its loud but she knew food was coming after bath.

I put 2x 4x2 zenhabitat together so she have 8x2. 1 side is more humid and lower temp (25) and the other side is with light and CHE. She go between those 2. Its definitely indoor because I live in the north.. -25C during winter..now its already -2C.

The small problem I have with heat is that it reduce a lot the humidity and its not natural here (25% in home). I can try to still raise it at night like you suggested!

Thank you!

Cool I’ve heard a few folks using those, do both sections have a ceramic? If not I’d consider it, that should definitely give you a more even heat distribution, red foots don’t really need a typical gradient with a ‘cool’ end and ‘warm end’, more so the whole space can range 80-86f day&night, no need for a night drop.

Do you have vents open? That’ll effect humidity, we keep our red foot in the 80’s with 80+ humidity, I imagine the zen habitat can maintain the same providing vents are sealed etc