!!! HELP WITH MY LEOPARD TORTOISE PLEASE !!!

[Ricardoleopard]

Hello everyone,


I recently bought my 6-month-old leopard tortoise last Monday (01/10/2024) and I’ve been really worried because she hasn’t been eating or basking at all. I'm not even sure if she's been drinking water when I bathe her.


When I got her, I also bought a tortoise table and a starter kit, but I realized that the all-in-one Arcadia 100W bulb wasn’t providing adequate coverage. Some areas were too cool, around 70°F during the day. So, I added a 150W heat lamp in a corner, aiming for a daytime temperature of 80°F–86°F in the hot area, a warm spot at 75°F–78°F, and a basking spot of 102°F.


I’m concerned that I might be doing something incorrectly. Are the heat and basking lamps too much for her, possibly causing her to avoid heating and basking? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

Lighting&heating equipment could do with amending, any kind of ‘all in one uv and heat’ bulbs aren’t appropriate nor are spot bulbs.

What your wanting for a basking light is an incandescent floodlight, temperature directly underneath should range 95-100f. The rest of the enclosure should be in the 80-85 range, you don’t want any part of your enclosure cooler than 80 day or night for a leopard. To combat this you need to install a CHE(s)(ceramic heat emitters) which are a non light emitting heat bulb, they need running on a thermostat.

Incorrect lighting and heating could be causing inactivity.

How’s your humidity reading? I don’t suppose you’d mind adding a photo of your set up? What do you use for substrate?

I think you’ll find this thread below a really useful read, I cover correct equipment(lighting&heating, including the correct uv), levels, substrates, appropriately maintaining humidity, the importance of a closed chamber, there’s lots of visual examples for everything and a good diet link to check out!

Leopard/sulcata starter

Hello there! In this thread I’m going to include some information below on how I’d personally tackle an indoor starter set up for a leopard/sulcata until they’re bigger. Hopefully it helps give people some ideas!” I know it looks like a lot to go over, I like to make sure all bases are covered...

tortoiseforum.org

This one is also really good to familiarise yourself with, it’ll help you avoid the wrong bulbs, substrates, housing etc, I also encourage double checking new purchases on the forum first!

Common keeping errors

Hello everyone! I’d been a long time lurker on this site long before joining just under a year ago now, over that time I’ve seen these husbandry issues come up time and time again, sometimes with dire consequences☹️ I thought this thread might serve as a good visual guide for these common...

tortoiseforum.org

Oh one last thing, with the uv timing, every other source of information will tell you 12hours of uv. This is essentially an old fashioned rule that has stuck with a lot of keepers, it stems from the presumption that once the basking light or ambient lighting is on, ie the ‘sun’, that uv must coexist the same amount of hours. Fact is, uv rays only peak for a few hours a day, anyone with a uv meter will confirm this. No tortoise is blasted with 12 hours of uv in the wild, therefore it’s not necessary in captivity.
The uv bulbs are much more expensive to replace once their uv strength diminishes, so it’s definitely best having it on a 4 hour timer that provides them with all the uv they need, saving your bulb life.
Then some cheaper led lighting for your ambient 12 hour light cycle as well as the basking light on the same 12hrs, your ceramics will run 24/7 on a thermostat, hopefully that will make more sense once you read the threads. I would adjust the timing for now until uv is amended with the correct type

Hope all this helps! Give those threads a read and let me know what you think! Always happy to answer further questions

 

[wellington]

Yes, you are housing incorrectly and temps are wrong.
You need a closed chamber enclosure with 80% humidity, basking temp with an incandescent FLOOD bulb that reaches 95-100 a tube flourescent for uvb and ceramic heat emitter for added heat.
Temps day and night all over should be 80 not lower. Night time should be dark, no light and that's what the ceramic heat emitter does. You may need two of them.
A low sided clay saucer for water and soak in warm water daily.
Make changes asap.

 

[Ricardoleopard]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

Lighting&heating equipment could do with amending, any kind of ‘all in one uv and heat’ bulbs aren’t appropriate nor are spot bulbs.

What your wanting for a basking light is an incandescent floodlight, temperature directly underneath should range 95-100f. The rest of the enclosure should be in the 80-85 range, you don’t want any part of your enclosure cooler than 80 day or night for a leopard. To combat this you need to install a CHE(s)(ceramic heat emitters) which are a non light emitting heat bulb, they need running on a thermostat.

Incorrect lighting and heating could be causing inactivity.

How’s your humidity reading? I don’t suppose you’d mind adding a photo of your set up? What do you use for substrate?

I think you’ll find this thread below a really useful read, I cover correct equipment(lighting&heating, including the correct uv), levels, substrates, appropriately maintaining humidity, the importance of a closed chamber, there’s lots of visual examples for everything and a good diet link to check out!

Leopard/sulcata starter

Hello there! In this thread I’m going to include some information below on how I’d personally tackle an indoor starter set up for a leopard/sulcata until they’re bigger. Hopefully it helps give people some ideas!” I know it looks like a lot to go over, I like to make sure all bases are covered...

tortoiseforum.org

This one is also really good to familiarise yourself with, it’ll help you avoid the wrong bulbs, substrates, housing etc, I also encourage double checking new purchases on the forum first!

Common keeping errors

Hello everyone! I’d been a long time lurker on this site long before joining just under a year ago now, over that time I’ve seen these husbandry issues come up time and time again, sometimes with dire consequences☹️ I thought this thread might serve as a good visual guide for these common...

tortoiseforum.org

Oh one last thing, with the uv timing, every other source of information will tell you 12hours of uv. This is essentially an old fashioned rule that has stuck with a lot of keepers, it stems from the presumption that once the basking light or ambient lighting is on, ie the ‘sun’, that uv must coexist the same amount of hours. Fact is, uv rays only peak for a few hours a day, anyone with a uv meter will confirm this. No tortoise is blasted with 12 hours of uv in the wild, therefore it’s not necessary in captivity.
The uv bulbs are much more expensive to replace once their uv strength diminishes, so it’s definitely best having it on a 4 hour timer that provides them with all the uv they need, saving your bulb life.
Then some cheaper led lighting for your ambient 12 hour light cycle as well as the basking light on the same 12hrs, your ceramics will run 24/7 on a thermostat, hopefully that will make more sense once you read the threads. I would adjust the timing for now until uv is amended with the correct type

Hope all this helps! Give those threads a read and let me know what you think! Always happy to answer further questions

Hello and welcome to the forum!

Lighting&heating equipment could do with amending, any kind of ‘all in one uv and heat’ bulbs aren’t appropriate nor are spot bulbs.

What your wanting for a basking light is an incandescent floodlight, temperature directly underneath should range 95-100f. The rest of the enclosure should be in the 80-85 range, you don’t want any part of your enclosure cooler than 80 day or night for a leopard. To combat this you need to install a CHE(s)(ceramic heat emitters) which are a non light emitting heat bulb, they need running on a thermostat.

Incorrect lighting and heating could be causing inactivity.

How’s your humidity reading? I don’t suppose you’d mind adding a photo of your set up? What do you use for substrate?

I think you’ll find this thread below a really useful read, I cover correct equipment(lighting&heating, including the correct uv), levels, substrates, appropriately maintaining humidity, the importance of a closed chamber, there’s lots of visual examples for everything and a good diet link to check out!

Leopard/sulcata starter

Hello there! In this thread I’m going to include some information below on how I’d personally tackle an indoor starter set up for a leopard/sulcata until they’re bigger. Hopefully it helps give people some ideas!” I know it looks like a lot to go over, I like to make sure all bases are covered...

tortoiseforum.org

This one is also really good to familiarise yourself with, it’ll help you avoid the wrong bulbs, substrates, housing etc, I also encourage double checking new purchases on the forum first!

Common keeping errors

Hello everyone! I’d been a long time lurker on this site long before joining just under a year ago now, over that time I’ve seen these husbandry issues come up time and time again, sometimes with dire consequences☹️ I thought this thread might serve as a good visual guide for these common...

tortoiseforum.org

Oh one last thing, with the uv timing, every other source of information will tell you 12hours of uv. This is essentially an old fashioned rule that has stuck with a lot of keepers, it stems from the presumption that once the basking light or ambient lighting is on, ie the ‘sun’, that uv must coexist the same amount of hours. Fact is, uv rays only peak for a few hours a day, anyone with a uv meter will confirm this. No tortoise is blasted with 12 hours of uv in the wild, therefore it’s not necessary in captivity.
The uv bulbs are much more expensive to replace once their uv strength diminishes, so it’s definitely best having it on a 4 hour timer that provides them with all the uv they need, saving your bulb life.
Then some cheaper led lighting for your ambient 12 hour light cycle as well as the basking light on the same 12hrs, your ceramics will run 24/7 on a thermostat, hopefully that will make more sense once you read the threads. I would adjust the timing for now until uv is amended with the correct type

Hope all this helps! Give those threads a read and let me know what you think! Always happy to answer further questions

so I follow your instructions and this is what it looks like!!!
Today we saw her eating, make me feel more secure, but she still sleeping
Maybe I need a more heat in the enclosure?!

 

[Tom]

so I follow your instructions and this is what it looks like!!!
Today we saw her eating, make me feel more secure, but she still sleeping
Maybe I need a more heat in the enclosure?!

How much does the baby weigh in grams?

You've got the wrong substrate, the wrong type of enclosure, and you need a humid hide. The food should be in a bowl to keep it from being pushed into the substrate.

I know this is frustrating for you, but most of the care info found out in the world is all wrong. If we don't point out what is wrong, you won't be able to fix it and improve the tortoise's situation.

Read through these two threads at least twice. There is a heating and lighting breakdown in the first one. You are welcome here, and questions are welcome too. We will help you sort through the conflicting and wrong info.

Info For New People. Please Read This First.

Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...

tortoiseforum.org

The Best Way To Raise A Sulcata, Leopard, Or Star Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. Babies hatch during the...

tortoiseforum.org

 

[wellington]

Unfortunately it's still wrong, sorry. A closed chamber means no open top or sides. All the heat and humidity needed is going out the screen top.
The substrate should not be any moss of any kind. Orchid bark, fir bark or coconut coir is recommended.
The water dish is a flipping hazard. Switch it for a low sided clay saucer, one for water he can fit in and a smaller one for food
I recommend a bigger enclosure as this one isn't giving enough room to exercise with the proper food and water dishes and the open screen top isn't good
A cheap option is a pop up greenhouse, see pics, or a large plastic storage tote box. You want all lights and heat to be inside the enclosure.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

so I follow your instructions and this is what it looks like!!!
Today we saw her eating, make me feel more secure, but she still sleeping
Maybe I need a more heat in the enclosure?!

Your levels don’t look too bad for now but your humidity won’t stay where it needs to with the open mesh top, I appreciate you adding a photo though because the other members above have been able to make further suggestions for you, substrate and dishes do need fixing.
You’ve got baby more comfortable for now which is good! But as wellington says above, I’d consider going with a bigger upgrade, the tank appears below what we’d recommend even for hatchlings, you’ll find it tricky getting the right temperature gradients in there I reckon but judging by your monitors you definitely don’t need more heat