Cherry Red Not eating Well

[Animals1234]

[/align][/font][/color][/size]Hello I have a Cherry Red tortoise and shes about 3ish? Im very worried about her because ive tried everything to get her to eat. She has had plenty of variety of food but usually stomps on it. The only thing she has been eating for 6-12 months is Tortoise pelleted food and when she can sneak a piece or two of the dogs food.

Her lighting is 80-90 durning the day and 60 at night. Im really concerned about the humidity I did the moss thing (the stuff that doesnt mold.) but it always goes back down to 0 on the gauge.I spray her 2-5x a day. Could this be the problem? Any tips on keeping humidity up?

She use to love strawberrys,mellons,lettuce, and other stuff. Now she wont touch it. she may take a bite out of the fruit but she will not eat even a tiny bite of lettuce. Im going to attach a picture of her aquarium. She also is very active and LOVES her head scratched and she doesnt appear to be skinny (on legs ect) shes a very curious tortoise who im worried about. So please any info would be great! Please no mean feedback! Im trying!

 

[Jacqui]

Uggghh! Sometimes I so dislike my laptop! I had a very long response typed and it was deleted. So here goes agian...

Welcome!

First thing I feel when I look at your enclosure is hot and dry. You say you spray the substrate, but do you actually pour water on it and get it deep down wet (damp)? The water source looks to small for her to actually get in there and have a good soak. Might want to add some long strand spagnum moss to her hide. The light seems really bright in there, is it? How long is it on each day? Have you tried covering part of the enclosure top?

Are those strips and meters on the side of the tank what your using for readings? Might want to invest in a temp gun, because those types like you have are not always accurate, along with you not being able to get various readings on different areas right down where the tortoise actually is.

Are those the pellets your feeding? The fruity ones? What happens if you don't feed those for like a week? Does she then eat her fresh food?

The enclosure seems a little small, are you going to be upgrading it soon?

I am going to end this post for now, because I am afraid it too may get lost. Those are some starting thoughts and questions atleast for you.

 

[FLINTUS]

I completely agree with Jacqui. Try funghi.

 

[Madkins007]

I agree. If I was to rate your husbandry based on the photos, it would be a low C, with a good grade for effort!

The tortoise looks big for the space. There is not absolute for habitat size, but a good goal is 8 shell lengths by 4 shell lengths. Your place is about 4x2.5 shell lengths. This is not the biggest problem, but you can apply the other ideas if you redesign it.

The tortoise and the substrate look dry. How you manage this depends partly on what the ambient relative humidity is in that room overall, but covering the habitat and adding water to the substrate will help. The Library, linked below, has other ideas that might help as well.

The layout looks odd to me. He kind of has to work his way around things to get to food, and I personally REALLY hate those water and food dishes that look like rocks- they are fine for snakes and lizards, but tortoises really have a hard time getting into them- I prefer recessed or flat bowls and dishes.

Besides the hide, there is not a lot of other shade available- something else to consider in a larger space.

If the mirror is there for entertainment or enrichment, it is not really helping a lot. There are better options.

There are a lot of good sites online that can help you tweak your set-up, which will help your tortoise's appetite. The Library has a list in the Helpful Sites section, as well as several articles on red-foots in general.

 

[wellington]

Take all the great advice given and apply it to your tortosies new, larger enclosure ASAP. If you can't get the humidity to stay up with the advice given, then pipe in a humidifier. Lots of us has had to do it to keep humidity up. Hopefully with the correct housing and husbandry, things will be better for her.

 

[Steve_McQueen]

One thing that's really standing out to me is the night time temperature. Ideally it should be 80-82 day and night. Look into getting a ceramic heat emitter (or two, for the much larger enclosure that you need) and a thermostat to keep the temperature where it needs to be. Hot and humid is good, cold and humid is very bad.

Switch the substrate to something like cypress mulch, and it will help keep the humidity up. If you do this without fixing the temperature, though, your tortoise will likely develop a respiratory infection.

That water bowl needs to be cleaned, too.

 

[Tortoise]

My Red foots enjoy Mazuri tortoise food occasionally , other favourites are mushroom and watermelon, cacti pads, fruits such as grapes, berries, pumpkin, melons
Hope your red foot starts eating more for you.
be sure to soak in warm water often to ensure hydration.

 

[WinterRose]

Hi! I'm a newbie myself and I know how crazy you can get trying to keep up both humidity and temp... so don't feel bad!! But I SWEAR by the Reptifogger (not the ReptiRain). I could not get by without it. And I have one of those lil temp guns too which I love... much easier than moving those gauges all the time.

Good luck... let us know how you're baby is doing!!

 

[Animals1234]

Thanks for all the feedback. What type of size aqaurium do you recommend? she is in a believe a 40 gallon. What other types of water bowls would you suggest? I will try the Reptifogger! Should the bedding always be wet or swampy? Im afraid it will cause skin problems. Looking for new inclosure as we speak. anymore feedback will help! Thanks everyone!

 

[abclements]

Thanks for all the feedback. What type of size aqaurium do you recommend? she is in a believe a 40 gallon. What other types of water bowls would you suggest? I will try the Reptifogger! Should the bedding always be wet or swampy? Im afraid it will cause skin problems. Looking for new inclosure as we speak. anymore feedback will help! Thanks everyone!

As for aquarium size, like Mark said above, 8 shell lengths by 4 shell lengths and it should be bigger for a growing tort. Otherwise you will be getting a new enclosure every couple month. So if your tort is 6" in length, you need an enclosure that measures, at a minimum, 2' by 4'. But once again, keep in mind that you tort will outgrow that in a mere couple of months.

For a good enclosure with lots of space at minimal cost, a lot of people just buy a bookcase for their tort and lay it on it's back (take out the shelves), line it with a pond liner or something of that sort and make their enclosure that way.

The best way to boost humidity is to cover the enclosure with plexi-glass. This will also help with heat too! A CHE hooked up to a thermostat always is a good combo for that too!

Your bedding should never be "wet" or "swampy", you want it to be fairly dry on top and damp/moist down underneath the surface. If I could find Cypress Mulch, I would do a bottom layer of coco coir that was damp/moist and and top layer of Cypress Mulch that would remain dry but still allow the humidity to rise from the coir. But for now, I'm just stuck with the coco coir and it seems to work fine. I use a heat rope about 2" under the surface to bring the humidity up as well.

 

[Animals1234]

Great Idea with the bookshelf! I never would have thought of that! Im going to try the bedding also. Thank you so much for the information!

 

[abclements]

Ya and people sell great bookshelves on Craigslist all the time! Glad I could help

 

[Animals1234]

Ok guys I built a bigger cage. Now does anyone want to give me pointers on it? I am currently using a paint tray for her water dish. Any recommendations? She seems to like it. So far no change in her wanting to eat I am going to get some plexi glass for half of it. Let me know what ya think!! Thank you!

 

[abclements]

Looks solid. Mine hates the paint tray, but as long as she likes it, it is a fantastic way to go! The next question is, how much are you feeding her? Sometimes keepers just put way too much food in the enclosure and the tort gets their fill and it looks like they haven't even touched it (I was a culprit of that early on lol)... Not saying that this is the case, just another variable to check off the list...