dehydration?

[Paige Lewis]

This has happened before and i am not sure what i am doing wrong. I weighed my tort yesterday evening and he was 50g, i picked him up this morning and he felt so light, i weighed him and he was 45g! I have no idea how that happened over night, it has been very hot here. He always has water available, i bathe him daily, he has a moist substrate,i am confused and concerned, i have bathed him a few times today but he is still feeling quite light, he is still quite active and eating, he is just feeling light but i am gathering it most be to do with fluid loss, like i said this as happened before. Any advice on how i can help him rehydrate and also what i could be doing wrong for this to happen?

Thanks in advance

 

[Annieski]

I ONLY have a Sulcata to go by--- sometimes I would find myself in the same situation with Mortimer---Did your guy just poo or pee? Maybe add 1 more soak in the day[can't hurt] and keep an eye out for any change in eating,activity or behavior.

 

[Paige Lewis]

Thanks for the advice, i am bathing him again now and he is feeling heavier than he did this morning but he is still feeling quite light.

 

[Seiryu]

Thanks for the advice, i am bathing him again now and he is feeling heavier than he did this morning but he is still feeling quite light.

Sounds like he just pooped to me, and a big one. That and he probably did urinate.

 

[Paige Lewis]

I am still worried about my tort, i do not know whether it is paranoia but i feel like he is getting a little less active, he is still eating and basking and drinking i am just worried. Also his weight has gone down a little more, this is his weight over the last few weeks:
13/06/2010 47g
20/06/2010 49.21g
27/06/2010 52.49g
04/07/2010 53.65g

and when i weighed him today his weight is 48.65g.

He has been at the vets recently and got treated for worms as the vet found some worm eggs when he checked a sample. I am thinking that may be he has got infected again as he is on a pure weed diet from my garden, could i have peoples opinions please on whether i should get him straight to the vets or whether i should keep an eye on him and his weight for now? The only other thing i was thinking is whether he change in behaviour could be stress as he has been spending a lot of time in his outdoor enclosure but with the constantly changing whether he is going back and forth from his outdoor to his indoor enclosure.

Thanks for any further advice!

 

[agiletorts]

IMO just keep an eye on him. If he's still eating, basking and drinking those are good signs.

 

[Paige Lewis]

Thanks a lot i will do that then and hopefully this isn't the start of anything.

 

[Madkins007]

Dehydration is a serious problem in tortoises, and I am unconvinced that forced soaks do much, even though they have a long history.

There is a formula you can use to determine if your guy is too light- the Donohue Ratio*:
Straight-line Carapace Length, in cm, cubed, times 0.191 should give you the target weight in grams.

or... SCLgm^3 x 0.191 = WTgr

We figured it out once somewhere here using non-metric units...
SCL(inches)^3 x 0.113 = WT(ounces) but I cannot confirm that is is always as accurate as the original formula is.


If he has been handled a lot lately, I may just let him rest for a while, but make sure he has access to the freshest (most moist plant cells) food possible. If you are feeding greens, soak them for 15 min in cold water in the fridge before feeding them (letting them warm back to room temp first).


(*- This was developed by a veterinary reptile nutrition specialist and should apply to all torts, although it is less accurate for some babies.)

 

[Kristina]

I will sometimes put them in a soaking dish, with their food floating in it at feeding time. They then get mouthfuls of water as they take bites of the greens

 

[Tom]

Dehydration is a serious problem in tortoises, and I am unconvinced that forced soaks do much, even though they have a long history.

There is a formula you can use to determine if your guy is too light- the Donohue Ratio*:
Straight-line Carapace Length, in cm, cubed, times 0.191 should give you the target weight in grams.

or... SCLgm^3 x 0.191 = WTgr

We figured it out once somewhere here using non-metric units...
SCL(inches)^3 x 0.113 = WT(ounces) but I cannot confirm that is is always as accurate as the original formula is.


If he has been handled a lot lately, I may just let him rest for a while, but make sure he has access to the freshest (most moist plant cells) food possible. If you are feeding greens, soak them for 15 min in cold water in the fridge before feeding them (letting them warm back to room temp first).


(*- This was developed by a veterinary reptile nutrition specialist and should apply to all torts, although it is less accurate for some babies.)

* I just applied this to my sulcata hatchlings and they are a good bit over the target weight. Are sulcatas one of the species that its "less accurate" for?

 

[Paige Lewis]

I have good news, his weight is going up again, it is up at 51.6 now, so i am hoping that everything is going to be ok now but i will still keep a close eye on him, i have noticed as well though that when i have him out in the garden he munches away like crazy but when i give him food indoors he doesn't eat as much, he also seems to be getting a bit picky, pulling out his favourite bits and leaving all the rest, he will barely even touch cats ear anymore and he used to love that, anyone have any idea why?

 

[Tom]

Just like a pregnant woman, their body tells them what they need. Also, just like little kids, they will pick there favorite stuff to eat. Put a bowl of ice cream with chocolate syrup next to a bowl of baby mixed greens with no dressing and which one do you think a little kid will go for? Once your tot gets some size and the weight is more stable, you might want to work on teaching him or her not to be picky by using some tough love mixed with a little hunger drive. Not now though. Picky eaters at my house get hungry and pretty soon they aren't picky anymore.

Glad to hear the weight is coming back up. Good news!

 

[Paige Lewis]

Thanks so much for all the advice, i am very grateful and as soon as he has put on some more weight i will certainly be trying to get him out of his picky habbits, i just can't believe how picky he has got lately, he never used to be like that.

 

[Madkins007]

* I just applied this to my sulcata hatchlings and they are a good bit over the target weight. Are sulcatas one of the species that its "less accurate" for?

The target weight in this context is the weight at which we would no longer consider them dehydrated, not an ideal weight for the animal. It would probably be more accurate to call it the 'minimum desired weight'.

 

[Paige Lewis]

My tort is doing so much better now, i think the room he was in was just getting far too hot with all this gorgeous weather we have been getting, even though he has been out in the day, even at night i noticed it was 28 degrees C in that room, so i have moved him and he has put on more weight, is eating plenty of everything again and is really active. I have a question though, even if he is really active and everything else is fine, could he still be dehydrated? I am still trying to encourage him to drink water and he does, just not very often and not when i try get him to, i place him in his water bowl, i put bits of food in his water, i bathe him and he just won't have any of it, can i assume that this means that he is not in need of it?