Ok, so we got our first tortoise 2 weeks ago today. We did loads of research but we are having problems feeding him.
So here is the deal. We don't know how old he is but he is about 4-5 inches from head to tail, and currently weighs about 75g. We keep him in a purpose built tortoise table, using a sand and top soil 70/30 mix and some straw in his bed area. He has a shallow dish for drinking (or trampling soil in as he seems to prefer) and we use a mercury vapour bulb for heat and uv etc. The area under the lamp is 30c and it goes down to about 23 at the cooler end. At night, the temperature doesn't drop below 15c.
When we first got him, he ate very little, mostly just a couple of small baby red leaf bits. Over the last week, he has stopped eating entirely. We put fresh food out in the morning and in the evening but he ignores it. (Not strictly true, he likes climbing on it and covering it in dirt).
He is very active once up and about. We have to take him out of his bed area in the morning and shut the entrance, otherwise he makes a beeline straight back in, but once he is out he is actively walking around, basking and sometimes digging in the substrate. He just doesn't eat though. We use a calcium powder on his food and he also has a cuttlefish bone thing. We bathe him every other day at the moment, and he drinks normally. He has passed urates a few times but nothing else, presumably because he doesn't eat. We fed him with mixed leaf stuff from supermarkets, and more recently a selection of fresh weeds, dandilion, clover and grass etc. None of them seem to get any interest.
So this lunchtime I am going to get some bird vitamins to bathe him in, and buy some squash as suggested on other posts, but does anyone have any other suggestions? If he is trying to hibernate, what else can I do to stop him?
So here is the deal. We don't know how old he is but he is about 4-5 inches from head to tail, and currently weighs about 75g. We keep him in a purpose built tortoise table, using a sand and top soil 70/30 mix and some straw in his bed area. He has a shallow dish for drinking (or trampling soil in as he seems to prefer) and we use a mercury vapour bulb for heat and uv etc. The area under the lamp is 30c and it goes down to about 23 at the cooler end. At night, the temperature doesn't drop below 15c.
When we first got him, he ate very little, mostly just a couple of small baby red leaf bits. Over the last week, he has stopped eating entirely. We put fresh food out in the morning and in the evening but he ignores it. (Not strictly true, he likes climbing on it and covering it in dirt).
He is very active once up and about. We have to take him out of his bed area in the morning and shut the entrance, otherwise he makes a beeline straight back in, but once he is out he is actively walking around, basking and sometimes digging in the substrate. He just doesn't eat though. We use a calcium powder on his food and he also has a cuttlefish bone thing. We bathe him every other day at the moment, and he drinks normally. He has passed urates a few times but nothing else, presumably because he doesn't eat. We fed him with mixed leaf stuff from supermarkets, and more recently a selection of fresh weeds, dandilion, clover and grass etc. None of them seem to get any interest.
So this lunchtime I am going to get some bird vitamins to bathe him in, and buy some squash as suggested on other posts, but does anyone have any other suggestions? If he is trying to hibernate, what else can I do to stop him?