Hello,
I am a first time tortoise owner that despite my best efforts, have been seeing a decline in my tortoise’s health. We’ve had her for about two years now and she’s somewhere around twelve years old as a best guess. She’s been way too quiet lately; not leaving her hide unless forced to, and almost immediately crawling to a corner to sleep when put outside or really anywhere where there are corners to find. She’s also at an almost complete refusal to eat. We’ve been feeding her all sorts of different kinds of nutritious vegetation; fruits, vegetables, leafy greens, tortoise supplements, etc. etc. However, now more recently we’re just trying to get her to eat anything at all. Which means mostly just offering her red leaf lettuce on the side of supplements and vegetables. (We’ve tried mixing it all together but then she just ignores the whole thing). Today’s breakfast offering is apples. We’ve also tried calcium supplements with no behavioral changes from her.
She spends most of her days outside (temp has been consistently around 80 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny) and is brought inside where she has a heat lamp over a large planter box with a hide and reptile bark to dig in. She is soaked at least three to four times a week, but we’ve been upping the consistency to nearly every day with her decline. She always has access to a variety of safe foods and there’s nothing she could have ingested that could have harmed her.
She’s tried a similar stunt before, last fall where she tried to hibernate/brumate early and we had to convince her not to per vet recommendation. But it’s not even close to cold now. It’s 80-100 degrees outside and then she comes inside to a heat lamp. We’re just not sure what else we could possibly try or could otherwise be doing wrong. Ideas, advice, recommendations, and even finger shakings at this point are all appreciated.
Thank you!
I am a first time tortoise owner that despite my best efforts, have been seeing a decline in my tortoise’s health. We’ve had her for about two years now and she’s somewhere around twelve years old as a best guess. She’s been way too quiet lately; not leaving her hide unless forced to, and almost immediately crawling to a corner to sleep when put outside or really anywhere where there are corners to find. She’s also at an almost complete refusal to eat. We’ve been feeding her all sorts of different kinds of nutritious vegetation; fruits, vegetables, leafy greens, tortoise supplements, etc. etc. However, now more recently we’re just trying to get her to eat anything at all. Which means mostly just offering her red leaf lettuce on the side of supplements and vegetables. (We’ve tried mixing it all together but then she just ignores the whole thing). Today’s breakfast offering is apples. We’ve also tried calcium supplements with no behavioral changes from her.
She spends most of her days outside (temp has been consistently around 80 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny) and is brought inside where she has a heat lamp over a large planter box with a hide and reptile bark to dig in. She is soaked at least three to four times a week, but we’ve been upping the consistency to nearly every day with her decline. She always has access to a variety of safe foods and there’s nothing she could have ingested that could have harmed her.
She’s tried a similar stunt before, last fall where she tried to hibernate/brumate early and we had to convince her not to per vet recommendation. But it’s not even close to cold now. It’s 80-100 degrees outside and then she comes inside to a heat lamp. We’re just not sure what else we could possibly try or could otherwise be doing wrong. Ideas, advice, recommendations, and even finger shakings at this point are all appreciated.
Thank you!
