new baby Leo

[lovebugaphid]

hello all,
new tortoise owner here. my husband and I JUST received a 3 month old leopard tortoise yesterday. the little guy seems to sleep ALL THE TIME & I have not yet seen him/her eat. is this normal behavior or is the little one sick?

we have a large exo terra terrarium with cypress mulch & organic soil for substrate. we have a UV/heat bulb, a night time bulb and ceramic heater (none of the bulbs are coiled). we also have a reptifogger for humidity. the warmer side stays above 90F while the rest of the enclosure stays above 80F, humidity is around 80-90%. we have wheat grass, cat grass, dandelion greens, zoo med grassland tortoise pellets, water cress, and spring mix for the tort. but like I said, he hasn't eaten. it was being fed spring mix & mazuri from the place we bought him. we offered mostly the grasses & pellets yesterday, but the little one wasn't interested so we tried offering only spring mix today (I know, not the best) but we wanted to see if he'd eat something familiar, no luck. we did 2 warm water soaks yesterday & a soak today with baby food (carrot)

I will attach photos of the enclosure, all plants inside are artificial

are we doing okay? is the sleeping & no eating normal for new torts? thank you all for your help.

 

[lovebugaphid]

 

[lovebugaphid]

 

[mike taylor]

Your setup is good . You have to give them a little time to get adjusted to their new home . Just keep an eye out he will eat .

 

[milkandsam]

My baby greek took about 2 weeks to fully settle into his new home. Since he is a baby, he still sleeps a lot! For the first 2-3 weeks he wasn't too interested in food, but would nibble on it. Now, he eats quite a lot and stands in his food bowl I'd I don't feed him fast enough! Give him time to settle in! always keep watch on the temps and humidity though, just to make sure!

 

[Levi the Leopard]

Babies do sleep a lot.. But all of mine have always been eating machines from the start.

Give the baby a warm soak in the morning then offer a familiar food. You can improve the diet and increase variety as the baby settles in.

 

[kmartin]

Hi
if you live in an area where you can take your new baby outside to bask in the sun and graze on some weeds and grasses they occasionally come around a little fast. Just be careful about fertilizer/pesticide that may have been used pre tortoise!
Mine have a good diet that I monitor but they will always nibble, whether they are hungry or not.

 

[happyjoyjoy]

I have the same exact terrarium but the taller version and I use the same bulbs with watts much smaller than what your using..... I can't help but think you may be cooking your leo. My solarglo is 100 watt and my CHE is 75 watt and my tank is the larger one....... I see that your temps on your digital reader seem fine but it's just hard to believe those temps are correct. Your leo is very cute!

 

[mikeh]

Re: RE: new baby Leo

I have the same exact terrarium but the taller version and I use the same bulbs with watts much smaller than what your using..... I can't help but think you may be cooking your leo. My solarglo is 100 watt and my CHE is 75 watt and my tank is the larger one....... I see that your temps on your digital reader seem fine but it's just hard to believe those temps are correct. Your leo is very cute!

I second the concern. 160watt MVB +150watt CHE seems too much for the terrarium that size. I also don't see a thermostat probe connected to CHE. I would get another brand digital thermometer just to be sure of correct temps, or an infrared temp gun which will allow you to measure animals temperature.

Other then that your set up is comprehensive and correct, giving the animal lots of options and everything looks well placed. I would perhaps keep the food away from the heat lamp so it stays fresh longer. Some tortoises will not eat shriveled dried up greens. If the tortoise was fed strictly mazuri, it may not initially eat anything until it is starving.
I like how you tilted the water dish creating a puddle rather then a pool of water. Puddles encourage drinking more then deeper water. Good placement as well, away from direct heat. In case the tortoise flips in the water dish and is unable to correct itself it won't get cooked.

 

[lovebugaphid]

I have the same exact terrarium but the taller version and I use the same bulbs with watts much smaller than what your using..... I can't help but think you may be cooking your leo. My solarglo is 100 watt and my CHE is 75 watt and my tank is the larger one....... I see that your temps on your digital reader seem fine but it's just hard to believe those temps are correct. Your leo is very cute!

thanks for your reply. we live in toronto, canada so it's still pretty cold here, even in the house. it even snowed a bit the other day! I was worried that we wouldn't be able to keep the little guy warm enough, but I guess I may have gone overboard. :/ we'll look into the 100 watt & 75 watt versions of what we currently have. thanks for your help

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I have the same exact terrarium but the taller version and I use the same bulbs with watts much smaller than what your using..... I can't help but think you may be cooking your leo. My solarglo is 100 watt and my CHE is 75 watt and my tank is the larger one....... I see that your temps on your digital reader seem fine but it's just hard to believe those temps are correct. Your leo is very cute!

I second the concern. 160watt MVB +150watt CHE seems too much for the terrarium that size. I also don't see a thermostat probe connected to CHE. I would get another brand digital thermometer just to be sure of correct temps, or an infrared temp gun which will allow you to measure animals temperature.

Other then that your set up is comprehensive and correct, giving the animal lots of options and everything looks well placed. I would perhaps keep the food away from the heat lamp so it stays fresh longer. Some tortoises will not eat shriveled dried up greens. If the tortoise was fed strictly mazuri, it may not initially eat anything until it is starving.
I like how you tilted the water dish creating a puddle rather then a pool of water. Puddles encourage drinking more then deeper water. Good placement as well, away from direct heat. In case the tortoise flips in the water dish and is unable to correct itself it won't get cooked.

thanks for your reply. is there a certain kind of thermostat probe & digital thermometer you would suggest? we were planning on getting a temp gun tomorrow as well. thanks so much for your helpful suggestions

---

My baby greek took about 2 weeks to fully settle into his new home. Since he is a baby, he still sleeps a lot! For the first 2-3 weeks he wasn't too interested in food, but would nibble on it. Now, he eats quite a lot and stands in his food bowl I'd I don't feed him fast enough! Give him time to settle in! always keep watch on the temps and humidity though, just to make sure!

thanks for your reply. that's so cute your tort stands waiting for his food! but 2-3 weeks without eating at first? weren't you worried? I'm already worried & it's only been 2 days haha. but it's good to hear that our little one's behavior isn't out of the ordinary. hopefully he'll be eating soon. thanks for your help!

---

Hi
if you live in an area where you can take your new baby outside to bask in the sun and graze on some weeds and grasses they occasionally come around a little fast. Just be careful about fertilizer/pesticide that may have been used pre tortoise!
Mine have a good diet that I monitor but they will always nibble, whether they are hungry or not.

thanks for your reply. we live in canada & unfortunately it isn't warm enough yet to let the little guy outside. I can't wait until it is though! we'll keep an eye out for fertilizers & pesticide when we finally do get to take him out. thanks for your help

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Babies do sleep a lot.. But all of mine have always been eating machines from the start.

Give the baby a warm soak in the morning then offer a familiar food. You can improve the diet and increase variety as the baby settles in.

whew! what a relief. I'm glad the little guy's behavior isn't out of the ordinary. I do hope he starts eating soon. thank you for your helpful suggestions

---

Your setup is good . You have to give them a little time to get adjusted to their new home . Just keep an eye out he will eat .

thanks for your reply. hopefully the little one will start eating soon. thanks for your help

 

[milkandsam]

He did he eat a little... I was just so used to hearing about torts who were little eating machines... and Thor wasn't completely not eating... He was just nibbling on food. He did eat some though! I worried so much! I would just give him a little more time. I actually had a lot of luck hand feeding him greens which made me feel better because I'd be like... yay he took a bite! Woo! Haha

 

[lovebugaphid]

my apologies, turns out the 160 watt was just a backup bulb & was still in the box! we are using the 100 watt zoo med power sum UVA/UVB bulb