Hermann Tortoise Sleeps a lot - 8 weeks old now

[Lady Thompson]

Hi I hope I'm not repeating myself. I'm sorry if I am. I just want to make sure my little guy is fine.

He usually wakes up around 10 am in the morning and then basks for awhile and eats. Then he goes back to sleep for almost the whole day and night. He is only 2 months old so is this normal?

I bathe him once a day and sometimes he stays up a while and basks or eats after that but usually goes straight back to sleep. He eats mostly kale, dandelions, cactus, tortoise pellets, red leaf lettuce, romaine. And he has Repashi vitamins/calcium sprinkled on his food every other day.

His basking area is about 34 degress Celcius. He is housed on coconut husk fibers and has a couple hiding places. His favorite is under the little wooden shelf I put in with him. He also has a UVB light and Ceramic Heat Emitter for nighttime that is 24 degress celcius. But that is only on during nighttime when his heat lamp is off.

His name is Ormond.

 

[StarSapphire22]

Baby torts, just like human babies, sleep a lot. Keep that in mind.

Experts should be along soon with advice.

 

[Yvonne G]

I guess I'm going to have to break down and try to learn to convert celcius to farenheit. Half the time I'm too lazy to ask Google to do it for me.

Baby tortoises are prey, and because of that, they stay hidden most of the time. How boring, huh? Staying inside your hiding place with no TV or movies to watch...no music to listen to. But such is the life of a baby tortoise. I doubt he's actually sleeping, just hiding. As long as Ormond is eating and has bright, beady eyes, he's fine. Don't worry so much.

 

[JoesMum]

24C approx 75F
34C approx 93F

I would bump the basking temp up slightly you are looking for 35-38C. However, babies do sleep a lot. How are you emasuring the temperature? A temperature gun will be most accurate. If you post a picture of your enclosure, it will help us to assess if anything else needs tweaking

 

[Lady Thompson]

Thanks everyone. He finally woke up at 10 am and went and ate A LOT! He zoomed around for awhile and then went back to sleep hiding. We went out and then I woke him up around 4pm and he had a bath. After that he ate some more and now is hiding/sleeping. I think he is doing good. I sure hope so! I will post pictures now.

 

[jaredherman]

My little man was the same way for about a month. I added a couple more plants for him to hide under and he out now for most of the day. If hes a new tort I wouldnt worry

 

[Lady Thompson]

Thank you He does seem to be awake a little more lately and more feisty heehee

 

[RGB]

As he gets older he will be more active.
I find keeping them a little hungry promotes activity. So I often feed mine late in the day which keeps them hunting for food all day long.

 

[Laura Currado]

My adult pair still does this: active morning & evening. When I moved them to their outdoor enclosure this spring both hid constantly until I planted a ton of hostas, goutweed, dandelion, etc. a little more active, but they do sleep a lot.

 

[Lady Thompson]

He seems fine now, the little brat, teehee. He also decided he ONLY wants to eat dandelions sigh. He was up today and then when I came home I woke him up for his bath and after he ate again. I have tried feeding him clover leaves and flower, rose petals, kale, parsley, grass, cactus, dandelion flower, carrots, lettuce. But he only wants the dandelion leaves. He wont' eat if anything is mixed with it. He did eat a bit of Mazuri pellets but then I read if they eat that sometimes they won't eat weeds so I haven't given it to him again. He wasn't raised on it, I had just bought it.

 

[milkandsam]

My hatchling was the same way at first! He only wanted to endive. I just kept trying and truthfully I stopped feeding him endive completely! It only took my hungry little bugger a day and a half to decide that everything else wasn't that bad!