Leopard tortoise has hard time eating

[DreamenderCA]

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My Leopard tortoise of ~5 years old has recently been biting into the air while trying to eat.
She would try a few times before giving up. Please see the video. She was soaked for 10 mins or so in warm water before being fed.

More info: She is kept indoor with a mercury bulb that turns on for 6 hours per day and kept warm by a heater overnight. She is typically very voracious and love crunching vegetables down.

Would appreciate for any inputs on this.

Thank you!

 

[wellington]

See this more in hatchlings then ones this size. First is she in an 80F enclosure? She must be kept at 80 day and night not lower. Be sure this is temps at her level. Second she must be able to bask under 95-100F basking bulb. The mvb causes pyramiding and really should not be used.
If temps are actually correct then I would put her food in a pile. Hopefully she is fed more then just romaine? Not much nutrition in lettuce but is okay if a small part of a varied diet

 

[zovick]

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My Leopard tortoise of ~5 years old has recently been biting into the air while trying to eat.
She would try a few times before giving up. Please see the video. She was soaked for 10 mins or so in warm water before being fed.

More info: She is kept indoor with a mercury bulb that turns on for 6 hours per day and kept warm by a heater overnight. She is typically very voracious and love crunching vegetables down.

Would appreciate for any inputs on this.

Thank you!

It looks to me as though the tortoise cannot see properly. It is possible that the lighting you are or were using now or previously is or has been hurting its eyes.

 

[DreamenderCA]

See this more in hatchlings then ones this size. First is she in an 80F enclosure? She must be kept at 80 day and night not lower. Be sure this is temps at her level. Second she must be able to bask under 95-100F basking bulb. The mvb causes pyramiding and really should not be used.
If temps are actually correct then I would put her food in a pile. Hopefully she is fed more than just romaine? Not much nutrition in lettuce but is okay if a small part of a varied diet

Yes, she’s been fed spring mix and romaine lettuce. We mix it around evenly. She likes to bask under the basking bulb whenever it’s on.

Typically we turn on the heater at night before going to bed. So there’s a time when the temp is lower at night, like mid 60s. We think her size should be able to handle it. Will try to make the temp higher throughout the day now. Thanks!

 

[DreamenderCA]

It looks to me as though the tortoise cannot see properly. It is possible that the lighting you are or were using now or previously is or has been hurting its eyes.

Hmmm… We switched to using caged light fixture for housing the mvb after the domed one broke few months ago. Perhaps should switch back to a domed light fixture for better light diffusion?

 

[wellington]

You need to do a bit more improvements. Just lettuce and spring mix is not a good diet. 60's at night is way too cold. This forum is here to help. Read the care sheets and follow them so your tort can thrive and live the long life it's suppose to. If you don't, she won't.

 

[Lyn W]

This is the caresheet you need to follow to help you provide a better diet with more variety and living conditions for your tort - it has worked wonders for my leopard and helped him thrive.

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

As Wellington has said MVBs aren't recommended anymore, they are convenient but they can dry and damage shells and possibly affect eyes, (coiled and cfl type bulbs should also be avoided because they have been found to damage eyes). Many of us now use T5 HO tube kits for UVB with a separate flood basking bulb (spots are too intense) and a CHE for night heat and extra heat when needed. The CHE should be run through a thermostat so that it doesn't over heat your tort which can be fatal.
If you post pics of his enclosure members can help you ensure your tort has everything he needs. There is a lot of old and incorrect information still being passed around but you'll only get up to date advice here from very experienced keepers who only have the best interest of torts at heart.

 

[Tom]

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My Leopard tortoise of ~5 years old has recently been biting into the air while trying to eat.
She would try a few times before giving up. Please see the video. She was soaked for 10 mins or so in warm water before being fed.

More info: She is kept indoor with a mercury bulb that turns on for 6 hours per day and kept warm by a heater overnight. She is typically very voracious and love crunching vegetables down.

Would appreciate for any inputs on this.

Thank you!

This tortoise is surviving, barely, not thriving. You need to change some things if you want it to recover and thrive.

First and foremost, when housed indoors they need basking heat at least 12 hours a day, not 6.

Mid 60s is far too cold. What you are seeing is lack of appetite and lack of vigor. Incorrect temps are a likely contributor.

Where is this tortoise housed? I don't see substrate and it appears to be on the floor. The floor is not safe, its too slick, and its too cold.

MVBs should not be used over tortoises. Some of them make no UV and others make way too much UV. This can cause photokeratitis. They also cause the pyramiding that you see on your tortoise.

Please read this. All of this and more is explained in this thread:

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

 

[TammyJ]

Great advice from experienced and very caring people! Follow it and you will soon see the improvement in your tortoise. Looks like you care, and that he is worth the time and effort!

 

[DreamenderCA]

This is the caresheet you need to follow to help you provide a better diet with more variety and living conditions for your tort - it has worked wonders for my leopard and helped him thrive.

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

As Wellington has said MVBs aren't recommended anymore, they are convenient but they can dry and damage shells and possibly affect eyes, (coiled and cfl type bulbs should also be avoided because they have been found to damage eyes). Many of us now use T5 HO tube kits for UVB with a separate flood basking bulb (spots are too intense) and a CHE for night heat and extra heat when needed. The CHE should be run through a thermostat so that it doesn't over heat your tort which can be fatal.
If you post pics of his enclosure members can help you ensure your tort has everything he needs. There is a lot of old and incorrect information still being passed around but you'll only get up to date advice here from very experienced keepers who only have the best interest of torts at heart.

Thanks for all the helpful advices. We are now switching to T5 HO tubes now and supplementing heat with flood basking light and CHE instead. It does appear that the tortoise has difficulties seeing.
This is strange as we have been using MVB for lighting for all our tortoises. All of them have been doing well and some liked to bask underneath more than the others. Our leopard especially love basking and we didn't suspect anything since she has been doing well all these years, until this winter. We were using 100w Mega Ray MVB and have it hanged about ~2.5' above ground. After scourging through the forum and re-examine how our leopard act (i.e. scratching eye when the light turns on, walking away from light), it's likely that the MVB plays a big part in it.

We almost brought our leopard tortoise to vet, but always errr on the side-- had a vet that misdiagnosed our then-baby russian tortoise to be sick and administered a dose of baytril to an otherwise healthy tortoise.

Sounds like we will be spending the rest of the year working on changing up our tortoises' environment.

 

[Tom]

It does appear that the tortoise has difficulties seeing.
This is strange as we have been using MVB for lighting for all our tortoises. All of them have been doing well and some liked to bask underneath more than the others. Our leopard especially love basking and we didn't suspect anything since she has been doing well all these years, until this winter. We were using 100w Mega Ray MVB and have it hanged about ~2.5' above ground. After scourging through the forum and re-examine how our leopard act (i.e. scratching eye when the light turns on, walking away from light), it's likely that the MVB plays a big part in it.

That is one of the many problems with MVBs. They are inconsistent. Some produce no UV at all. Some produce adequate UV at first, but stop producing any UV at all within 2-3 months. I've had some that produced WAY too much UV. Without a meter under those bulbs, its anybody's guess what it is producing.

Also at 30 inches, it is unlikely that the tortoise is getting any heat or UV benefit from a 100 watt mega ray. Those bulbs are usually designed to be effective at around 18 inches.

When you replace your basking bulb with an incandescent flood, be sure to check the temperature at tortoise shell height by laying a digital thermometer on its back on top of an object that is around as tall as your tortoise, and letting it bake there for an hour or more. Adjust the fixture height as needed to get the correct temperature.