health

[breniciadlt]

I have a baby sulcata tortoise that is 16 weeks old and he is not eating or defecating he just lays there like nothing I went to the vet yesterday and the veterinarian said that he probly has a calcium problem thats why hes not growing they gave him two vitamin shots the vet said he should start being more active in a few hours and noting has happened please help

 

[wellington]

Hello,and Welcome. Sorry to hear about your little sully. Please read Toms threads below in. Y post for proper housing. If your not housing him properly start getting that right. In the mean time, also give us more info on how you are housing him. The temps, humidity, lighting and heating you are using. If you have any coil bulbs, get rid of them. If it's warm where you are, get him outside in the sunshine for some need UVB, just be careful to not let her over heat.

 

[TortieLuver]

Temps are very important for eating and digestion, so you want to make sure he is warm enough. Also, are you doing soaks? Vitamin shots usually usually help stimulate eating, but won't help with adding calcium...what are you using for calcium. Also, natural sunlight and UVB bulbs playa vital role that goes hand in hand with calcium.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi breniciadlt, and welcome to the Forum!

I'm really sorry to hear that your vet gave your baby a vitamin shot. Watch him carefully now to be sure the skin doesn't become raw and weepy.Too much vitamin A will do that, especially to baby tortoises. I'm guessing that your vet doesn't have too much experience working on baby tortoises.

Here's what you do:

Every morning when you turn on the baby's light, set him in a shallow dish of warm water. Do this every day, even after he's well. Make it to where the water comes up to the middle of the tortoise's sides. Set the dish in the habitat at the edge of where the light shines on the floor of the habitat...not directly under the light. Leave him in the water for about 15 minutes. While he's soaking, cut up his food. For babies I start with a base of endive, escarole, raddiccio and to that I add whatever edible weeds I can find outside. Cut it up pretty small, in fact tiny. When the baby is through with his soak, set him in front of the food and quickly move out of his sight.

With a good temperature measuring device, check the temperatures all over the floor of the habitat. Because he's sick, you should have it be around 80F all over the whole habitat. After he gets well, you can use the temperatures shown on the care sheet in our sulcata section.

The number one reason baby tortoises stop eating is NOT a vitamin deficiency, but rather its due to the way you are keeping him. He's probably not warm enough. Read the "Important Threads" at the top of the sulcata section, paying particular attention to the one entitled "How to raise smooth sulcatas" (I'm paraphrasing because I'm too lazy to go look at the real title)

Good luck with your baby. I hope you can pull him out of this slump.