Hatchling will not eat

[Sundragon79]

Hello. We purchased a Sulcata Tortoise on Saturday, and I am very concerned that he/she has not eaten anything at all since we brought it home. I figured it was reasonable to assume the tortoise would begin eating after a day or so, as has been my experience with other reptiles.

The tortoise is about a month old. I'm told he was fed collards, squash, carrots, and other assorted vegetables. I also have offered these foods to him, and no interest. Tortoise seems a bit sluggish overall. I've soaked him daily in warm water for about 15 minutes. I've misted down his substrate a few times a day to ensure he has humidity, and also a humid hide.

His enclosure is about 3X2, made of wood and chicken wire, and lined on bottom/sides with coroplast (if you are familiar with guinea pig c & c cages, you'll know what that is). UVB is a ReptiSun 5.0 and I will get a basking/warm side temp with my temp gun in the morning.

What can I do to stimulate appetite? This is my first tortoise, but I am very fluent in diurnal lizards/leopard geckos, and have rehabilitated several. I certainly don't want to lose the little guy, but am considering bringing him back and trying again with an older Sulcata that is already "started".

 

[dmmj]

I suspect it is temperature related.

 

[Sundragon79]

I just temp gunned under the basking area and it's 93 degrees.

 

[mike taylor]

There's four temps you need . Basking temperature=95/100 °f Cool side =80/85°f Hot side = 90/95°f night temp= no lower than 80°f all over the enclosure humidity needs to be 70-90%. Read the threads at the top of the sulcata section .Tom has a good care sheet . The enclosure you have needs to be enclosed . Cover the sides and part of the top with aluminum foil or something. This will help hold in the heat and humidity . Some tortoises take a few days to eat in a new setup . He may just need some time to adjust .

 

[Tom]

What are you doing for night heat? What is the room temperature?

I suspect you are letting him get too cold. Unless that whole room is heated and humid, it will be difficult to maintain the correct conditions with such an open enclosure.

Compare your set up to the parameters listed here:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-raise-a-healthy-sulcata-or-leopard-version-2-0.78361/

These are good too:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/for-those-who-have-a-young-sulcata.76744/
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/

Do you know how this baby was started? Most people start them far too dry and the chronic dehydration in those first few day and weeks can really cause problems later on. Try this one: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/hatchling-failure-syndrome.23493/

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi, and welcome to the Forum!

 

[Sundragon79]

Tom, do you have a picture of your enclosed setups? I will switch to this for the time being. We did implement a nighttime heating bulb tonight, and tomorrow I am going to change up the substrate. Right now it is Eco Earth, which I keep misting, but it doesn't retain the moisture I'd like it to. Which, I should have known because I have had similar issues using in for humid hides with my geckos. Would an organic topsoil/Eco Earth mixture work? My thought is the topsoil would retain more moisture.

I've also spoken to my vet who graciously picked dandelions from her yard and told me to come in next week to give a calcium injection if need be. So long as he keeps hydrated and receives calcium, I would assume at some point he will eat. I have also tried doing soaks with baby food/water mixture. I'll syringe feed if need be; have done this when rehabbing geckos.

As far as the previous care, he was living in a 10g tank with IDK what as a substrate and was told he was eating fine. I've been in contact with the owner of the exotic store he came from, and he has offered to send sulcata to his vet, or take back if need be. I'd rather NOT give him back, as I don't mind nursing any animal back to health, and personally find it rewarding.

 

[Edizzle888]

Mine took like a week to adjust when I first got them. When I added cactus and rose pedals into the food mix they couldn't resist and are now lil piggies.

 

[Dizisdalife]

Tom, do you have a picture of your enclosed setups? I will switch to this for the time being. We did implement a nighttime heating bulb tonight, and tomorrow I am going to change up the substrate. Right now it is Eco Earth, which I keep misting, but it doesn't retain the moisture I'd like it to. Which, I should have known because I have had similar issues using in for humid hides with my geckos. Would an organic topsoil/Eco Earth mixture work? My thought is the topsoil would retain more moisture.

I've also spoken to my vet who graciously picked dandelions from her yard and told me to come in next week to give a calcium injection if need be. So long as he keeps hydrated and receives calcium, I would assume at some point he will eat. I have also tried doing soaks with baby food/water mixture. I'll syringe feed if need be; have done this when rehabbing geckos.

As far as the previous care, he was living in a 10g tank with IDK what as a substrate and was told he was eating fine. I've been in contact with the owner of the exotic store he came from, and he has offered to send sulcata to his vet, or take back if need be. I'd rather NOT give him back, as I don't mind nursing any animal back to health, and personally find it rewarding.

Welcome to the Forum! I had a minute so I did a search for you. Just follow the link to find a bunch of threads discussing "closed chambers". Tom's thread was the first one on the list. It is still my favorite. There have been some updates to lighting and heating since he first wrote this, but Tom should jump in here and describe those to you. Don't panic. Once your sulcata is acclimated, feels safe and can thermoregulate the way it should, it will eat.
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/search/3057533/?q=closed+chambers&o=relevance

 

[Tom]

Tom, do you have a picture of your enclosed setups? I will switch to this for the time being. We did implement a nighttime heating bulb tonight, and tomorrow I am going to change up the substrate. Right now it is Eco Earth, which I keep misting, but it doesn't retain the moisture I'd like it to. Which, I should have known because I have had similar issues using in for humid hides with my geckos. Would an organic topsoil/Eco Earth mixture work? My thought is the topsoil would retain more moisture.

I've also spoken to my vet who graciously picked dandelions from her yard and told me to come in next week to give a calcium injection if need be. So long as he keeps hydrated and receives calcium, I would assume at some point he will eat. I have also tried doing soaks with baby food/water mixture. I'll syringe feed if need be; have done this when rehabbing geckos.

As far as the previous care, he was living in a 10g tank with IDK what as a substrate and was told he was eating fine. I've been in contact with the owner of the exotic store he came from, and he has offered to send sulcata to his vet, or take back if need be. I'd rather NOT give him back, as I don't mind nursing any animal back to health, and personally find it rewarding.

Eco earth is fine. I don't like topsoil. Orchid bark is best, but none of these are your problem.

Misting doesn't work because it just evaporates out of an open top. You need to dump water into the substrate, but its still going to evaporate and you'll need to watch your temps carefully. Using a closed chamber solves all these problems.

Calcium injections usually result in the death of small babies and simply are not necessary.

I still suspect your temperatures are your problem, but you haven't told us what they are. They need it dark at night, so I'm not sure a night bulb will help you. Colored bulbs tend to mess with their heads. Use a ceramic heating element set on a thermostat to maintain ambient and night temps.

 

[naturalman91]

it's your temps with a enclosure like that you can't hold a ambient temp or humidity

there is a lot of bad info out there that is just outdated and doesn't work Tom wrote a thread that he linked you in a earlier post called how to raise a happy and healthy Sulcata or Leopard 2.0 read those threads and make the changes accordingly

Dizisdalife also linked you to the closed chamber thread written by tom to lol a good chunk of us use this method not all but most

 

[Dizisdalife]

Has your little one eaten yet, @Sundragon79?

 

[cassieopia]

How about an update?

 

[Sundragon79]

He or she passed yesterday. We only had it for a little over a week so I don't believe it was anything I did. Although I didn't have anything to check humidity, I kept my substrate damp and the temps were around 96 on warm end and around 80 on cool end. The tortoise never went over to the cool side. I know it isn't optimal but I put it in a rubber maid tub covered with foil to keep in warmth and humidity and make it a little less open to reduce stress from kids/cat/etc. Tortoise was moved to my bedroom so I could keep close eye on it. I did my soaks, and tried syringe feeding it with baby food and calcium powder mix.

 

[teresaf]

So sorry. Doesn't sound like anything you did was horrible enough to make him die in a week. Poor thing. Tortoises are wonderful. Will you try again?

 

[Tom]

So sorry. Doesn't sound like anything you did was horrible enough to make him die in a week.

Teresa, you are awesome, so don't be offended, but I don't agree.

Most people don't keep sulcatas warm enough. The initial set up that was shown had no night heat and was wide open. Cold damp night conditions could most certainly kill a baby sulcata in a week. The other clue here is where Sundragon informs us that the baby never went over to the cool side. This is a behavioral clue from the tortoise telling us that it is not warm enough.

Sundragon, I'm very sorry for your loss and I have no intention of hurting your feelings, but I feel it important to mention this so that you and others can learn from this experience.

When a new baby doesn't eat much, always sits on the warm side, or in other cases hides all the time from a coil bulb that burns their eyes, it actually IS the fault of the new keeper. When babies die of complications from what the breeder did wrong, it usually takes several weeks or months.

 

[Sundragon79]

Yes. There is a reptile show this weekend and the store the tortoise came from will replace the tortoise. My husband made the error of purchasing from a local exotic/reptile store. I do not want to have dealings with them but I feel it was their lack of husbandry that did this guy in. He told me he will have a new sulcata tomorrow. So, I am sending husband with a list of specific questions to ask the owner.

Anyone have something to add to my list other than inspecting the shell, eyes, nasal passages, cloaca? I want to know exact husbandry, diet, hatch date, supplements given, what temps/humidity kept at, substrate.

 

[Sundragon79]

The tortoise was in the enclosure for 2 nights before being moved to my bedroom in an enclosed tub. To give you an idea of how the tortoise was kept at the store, he had been left soaking in a shallow bowl of water with a lod on top and no heat ALL NIGHT. He was never active from day 1. There was no UVB in his 10 gallon tank at store. So, no, I don't think my 2 nights of improper setup did him in.

 

[Yvonne G]

You can blame the seller, and they surely are some to blame, but I feel that you must bear some of the responsibility. The baby was kept in an open-sided box and then put into a covered tub. Baby tortoises need to be kept warm all the time. The open-sided box didn't allow for that. A moist environment coupled with a drop in night time temperatures was most likely the cause of this baby's demise. I'm so sorry that you lost the baby. Before you set up your new baby please re-read the care sheet pinned at the top of our Sulcata section, and set this new one up properly.

 

[Sundragon79]

The tortoise had both night and daytime heat in enclosed tub.