Mayne
New Member
- Joined
- Aug 16, 2014
- Messages
- 17
Hello,
I acquired a baby leopard tortoise about two months ago, who is around 5 - 7 months old now. His shell started becoming soft and he became almost lethargic like, isn't very active, doesn't open eyes much and is eating less and less each day. When I first noticed the symptoms (1 1/2 weeks ago) I began soaking him in a mix of water and liquid vitamins. I noticed an improvement almost immediatly but, now he seems to be going downhill again. I'm not sure what else I can do for him, any suggestions?
He is kept indoors in an aquarium, due to the extreme weather of the desert and his size. He weighs 26 grams and is 2 inches. His habitat is maintained with a herpstat pro which manges a 50 uvb light tube which is the length of his habitat. Also he has a heated bottom that maintains a tempeture of 83 during the day and then drops to 80 at night. There is also a 100 wat ceramic heating bulb that is kept at 95 during the day and 90 at night. I try to maintain half of his cage at a 30% -50% humidity.
You can see in the photos he has a hiding spot a water dish and a food bowl that always has grassland pellet type food (he never touches it), throughout the habitat I dispurse fresh food that changes weekly, this week he is eating a mix of bok choy, kale, romain, and watercress. I used to use a dry calcuium with d3 every other day, but I found that he wasn't eating his food with the dry vitamins so I have switched to liquid and he seems to eat it, when he eats.
I try to get him outside as often as I can, usually only a couple hours a week. He gets daily soaking of about 15 - 30 mins and lately with the added liquid vitamins. His shell has gotten harder but, not completely, his belly is the softest area. He has lost about 2 grams in weight this past week. Any ideas on what I can change or how to better treat him? Let me know if I missed anything, and thank you in advanced for the help. I'll try to attach photos in a message below, my iPad won't allow me to.
I acquired a baby leopard tortoise about two months ago, who is around 5 - 7 months old now. His shell started becoming soft and he became almost lethargic like, isn't very active, doesn't open eyes much and is eating less and less each day. When I first noticed the symptoms (1 1/2 weeks ago) I began soaking him in a mix of water and liquid vitamins. I noticed an improvement almost immediatly but, now he seems to be going downhill again. I'm not sure what else I can do for him, any suggestions?
He is kept indoors in an aquarium, due to the extreme weather of the desert and his size. He weighs 26 grams and is 2 inches. His habitat is maintained with a herpstat pro which manges a 50 uvb light tube which is the length of his habitat. Also he has a heated bottom that maintains a tempeture of 83 during the day and then drops to 80 at night. There is also a 100 wat ceramic heating bulb that is kept at 95 during the day and 90 at night. I try to maintain half of his cage at a 30% -50% humidity.
You can see in the photos he has a hiding spot a water dish and a food bowl that always has grassland pellet type food (he never touches it), throughout the habitat I dispurse fresh food that changes weekly, this week he is eating a mix of bok choy, kale, romain, and watercress. I used to use a dry calcuium with d3 every other day, but I found that he wasn't eating his food with the dry vitamins so I have switched to liquid and he seems to eat it, when he eats.
I try to get him outside as often as I can, usually only a couple hours a week. He gets daily soaking of about 15 - 30 mins and lately with the added liquid vitamins. His shell has gotten harder but, not completely, his belly is the softest area. He has lost about 2 grams in weight this past week. Any ideas on what I can change or how to better treat him? Let me know if I missed anything, and thank you in advanced for the help. I'll try to attach photos in a message below, my iPad won't allow me to.
