Josh2269
New Member
Hello everyone, I have been scouring these forums for the past month and have made an enclosure to meet the general enclosure idea of Tom's and others threads for Leopard tortoises. Now that my baby tortoise has arrived many more questions have arose. If anyone can answer them it would be greatly appreciated. Here is some background information:
The tortoise is 5 weeks old and weighs 33g on 3 November. When he arrived on 31 October he weighed 28g. His weight gain I expect is from water since he was mailed overnight. The tortoise will eat when I put him in front of the food and every once in a while on its own, but it doesn't eat a great volume, maybe 2 small leaves total. The food being fed is organic spring mix, cat grass, succulent leaves, timothy hay, and Zoo med grassland tortoise(3x week for zoo med). There is also an additional calcium + D3 supplement put on the food 3x a week(that's the schedule I will be following). He is given 20 minute warm soaks between 85F-95F daily and has a ceramic plant saucer for all day water. The tortoise has never basked in the light and seems to stay away from it. He will go to the corners of the cage away from the basking zone or inside of a humid hide. In general he seems rather lethargic in terms of activity. He doesn't roam and barely comes out except to eat or drink. His closed enclosure has one corner of heated, UVB B&A from a MVB with a temperature of 100F-105F and a ceramic heater near the center of the enclosure put on a thermostat for 81F in the cool corner. The substrate is coconut, with sections of wet sphagnum. Everything is moist and the relative humidity is 70+ (It's very hard to keep it higher than 80). There are two hides one warm and one cool with moist moss in both. Also, he has been outside once for 20 minutes since I got him due to weather. His shell temp hit 78F and then I brought him in.
Here are my question:
My main concern is his lack of activity and exploring along with a possibly soft shell. I don't want this little guy to be or get sick due to my mistakes. I have tried to get as much information as possible before acquiring this little fella and I want him to live a long and happy life.
The tortoise is 5 weeks old and weighs 33g on 3 November. When he arrived on 31 October he weighed 28g. His weight gain I expect is from water since he was mailed overnight. The tortoise will eat when I put him in front of the food and every once in a while on its own, but it doesn't eat a great volume, maybe 2 small leaves total. The food being fed is organic spring mix, cat grass, succulent leaves, timothy hay, and Zoo med grassland tortoise(3x week for zoo med). There is also an additional calcium + D3 supplement put on the food 3x a week(that's the schedule I will be following). He is given 20 minute warm soaks between 85F-95F daily and has a ceramic plant saucer for all day water. The tortoise has never basked in the light and seems to stay away from it. He will go to the corners of the cage away from the basking zone or inside of a humid hide. In general he seems rather lethargic in terms of activity. He doesn't roam and barely comes out except to eat or drink. His closed enclosure has one corner of heated, UVB B&A from a MVB with a temperature of 100F-105F and a ceramic heater near the center of the enclosure put on a thermostat for 81F in the cool corner. The substrate is coconut, with sections of wet sphagnum. Everything is moist and the relative humidity is 70+ (It's very hard to keep it higher than 80). There are two hides one warm and one cool with moist moss in both. Also, he has been outside once for 20 minutes since I got him due to weather. His shell temp hit 78F and then I brought him in.
Here are my question:
- Is it normal for baby leopards (babcoki) to be inactive and sleep for 20+ hours a day?
- Are their shells a little soft at this age? His under belly isn't really soft but it does have some give to it. Kind of like a plastic tupperware container, but I'd say a little harder.
- Is this species generally alert? It will take him about 20 seconds to open his eyes when woken up, but it does respond quickly to noises or fast motion.
- What is a healthy shell temperature for the tortoise? The highest I have seen his temp was 93F because he always goes to the cool end of the enclosure. Is that a healthy temperature?
My main concern is his lack of activity and exploring along with a possibly soft shell. I don't want this little guy to be or get sick due to my mistakes. I have tried to get as much information as possible before acquiring this little fella and I want him to live a long and happy life.