New Member

[Sally Franklin Christie]

Hello Everyone and Well Met.

I am Sally.

I live in Montana.

I have an Ibera Hatchling and I am afraid I may kill it. I sound pretty unsure of myself.

This is my first Tort. My experience is with box turtles.

I have the little guy or gal set up, plenty warm, 80-87 ish, humidified.

Feeding spring greens daily and soaking every morning.

I got him, her, in July at about 6-8 weeks of age.

This one has never been the life of the party but has been holding his own.

I weigh the fellow each Friday. His or her weight is steady, even up a gram or two.

During the past week our local temps have dropped and our days are shorter. I have stabilized the temps and put in a brand new 'sun light.'

The little dude or dudette seems sluggish and isn't going after the greens as much. Eyes are clear. Tomorrow is weigh day. When he sleeps he SLEEPS.

Will he or she come back around to his or her old self? Is it the change in our days, is it just one of those things?

Shell looks good, skin looks excellent.

Any help or reassurance is very welcome.

Thanks and don't touch anything sharp!

Sally

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

Welcome!

 

[Tom]

Hello and welcome.

A few questions...
Is the whole enclosure 80-87? Or is there a basking spot?
Are you allowing a night time cool down?
Are you saying he/she has only gained a gram in all the time you had him/her, or a gram each week?
What type of "sun light" did you add? MVB, fluorescent tube, cfl type coil bulb?

 

[Yvonne G]

Welcome, Sally!!

 

[sibi]

Welcome Sally. Send pics if you can. I'm sure you're doing everything right. Is he/she defecating and urinating daily? Where did you get your tort? Sibi

Hello Everyone and Well Met.

I am Sally.

I live in Montana.

I have an Ibera Hatchling and I am afraid I may kill it. I sound pretty unsure of myself.

This is my first Tort. My experience is with box turtles.

I have the little guy or gal set up, plenty warm, 80-87 ish, humidified.

Feeding spring greens daily and soaking every morning.

I got him, her, in July at about 6-8 weeks of age.

This one has never been the life of the party but has been holding his own.

I weigh the fellow each Friday. His or her weight is steady, even up a gram or two.

During the past week our local temps have dropped and our days are shorter. I have stabilized the temps and put in a brand new 'sun light.'

The little dude or dudette seems sluggish and isn't going after the greens as much. Eyes are clear. Tomorrow is weigh day. When he sleeps he SLEEPS.

Will he or she come back around to his or her old self? Is it the change in our days, is it just one of those things?

Shell looks good, skin looks excellent.

Any help or reassurance is very welcome.

Thanks and don't touch anything sharp!

Sally

 

[mainey34]

Welcome....

 

[DrewsLife727]

welcome! get all u can in this form

 

[kanalomele]

Welcome to TFO

 

[pam]

Welcome

 

[mattgrizzlybear]

Wellcome!

 

[Sally Franklin Christie]

Thank you.

You all either stay up later than I do or you are very morning people. Either way, thank you for your replies and questions.

Let me start by addressing the tank.

Settle in. I am not sure how to post photos and I have some pretty cool ones...

Working from the tank size then to what is inside, temps, etc.

18 x 36 long and 17 deep. Coconut substrate. Spade to turn it. Humidity/temp gauge center back. Porta digital temp that I spot check areas. 69 cool end this morning 79.7 warm end.

15 watt reptiglo (new) replaced the old one.. 5.0 UVB

60 watt ceramic heat and 75 watt red basking. Separated but at the warm end.

Slate, quartz, (home decore) a wooden hide thing that looks like a tree bark thing at the cool end, hardly used, he prefers a little hang out ledge made by a rock.

Food additives to spring greens are Flukers calcium D3 and once in a blue moon a bit of herptivite multi.

For Montana, we are keeping the humitity in the green level for the tort.

This morning, yes, I have been reading some posts, I think I shall pay closer attention to how quickly is soaking water becomes cold water. I may also sneak off with a bit of my granddaughter's carrots.

If I figure out how to take a photo I will put some up.

Oh, right someone said poop.

A few times a week he poops and we sing whose a poopy tort... urine? That I am not so sure about. I do see fluidy stuff that seems encased in a white membrane that will sort of pop and sometimes clings to his little leg when I take him out of the soak.

Our temps in Montana have gone from 90s even in the mornings to what out here at the keyboard this morning feels like 65. I will try to keep that soak water warm.

Thank you.

I'm going to get another cup of coffee and linger over my messages.

Sally

 

[Sally Franklin Christie]

I do not really know what I am doing, for the person who asked about photos, I created an album on here somewhere called My Ibera Hatchling. Photos show heat sources, home decore, hide hut, slate, top view and front view as well.

Sally the Worry Wart.. should have a toad for that....

 

[l0velesly]

It sounds like your tortoise is too cold. The hot end of the enclosure should be around 90s. Maybe you should lower the basking light to help with that.

 

[Sally Franklin Christie]

It sounds like your tortoise is too cold. The hot end of the enclosure should be around 90s. Maybe you should lower the basking light to help with that.

I cannot find a happy medium. I thought a Ibera liked it between 80-90.

The new light brought it up to 117 way to hot and I am glad I was there to see that temp rise like that. Right now it is around 87 and out here in people world it was a very warm day for us.

With both the ceramic 60 watt and the 75 watt red basking the temperature goes up and I am reluctant to cook the poor guy.

Today, he or she was alert for a bit, not interested in food. On Friday Weigh Day he was not loosing weight.

He or she is very hard to bring around to activity but when he is alert his eyes are clear. Skin and shell appear fine.

Help?

Sally