our 5 year old sully ate some mulch..now acting weird

[AslInterpreter]

Hello all, our 5 year old sully lives outside during the summer, some neighbors came over and took him our of his normal habitat and let him walk around the backyard, he had only been out for 2 or 3 minutes and was already in the flower bed and we saw him eat a piece of mulch before we could get down there to stop him. He now seems to have slowed down his eating and today was just laying in the middle of his enclouse with his neck all the way streched out, his head almost on the ground and his eyes closed with lots of grass and hay around his mouth. I picked him up and he imediaetly woke up and pulled inside his shell. We gave him a warm bath and within 5 minutes of putting him back outside he pooped, and it looked normal.

My main concern is that we tried to give him a banana, which he sledom gets but LOVES and will almost run to get, but today he ignored it I do know that yesterday he ate more thatn normal because both my wife and I fed him without the other one knowing, usually i do all the feeding, but Mrs ASlinterpreter was trying to surprise me by doing it.

Is there anything we should be looking for ar could be doing???

also, we just this week started him on the Mazuri, he had never had it before but really seems to like it. Maybe the move to that had something to do with it???

We have never seen him turn down a meal and got a little concerned. He is back in his tortoise house tonight and made it back there on his own.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Jeffrey

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Jeffrey:

There's probably nothing to worry about. But just in case, it might be helpful if you soak him every day for about a half hour. This helps move things along inside. It might just be that he's not hungry.

And the position you saw him sleeping in is what we call the dead position. They lay their heads down on the ground, neck all stretched out, with a front foot forward and the opposite back foot out in back. Its amazing to me that all tortoises, no matter what species or from what continent, will sleep occasionally in this position.

 

[AslInterpreter]

Whew! The dead position is scary to see!! And you described it to a T! We will continue to soak him and hopefully it will move things along I had never seen him sleeping during the day outside of his house and was for SURE he was dead!!!

Thanks!

 

[SnakeyeZ]

You need to kick your neighbours in the pants! Why would they take him out of his enclosure?

Hope all is well.

 

[Laura]

what kind of mulch?
try to get him to eat to help move along whatever he ate.
good soaks too.
Canned pumpkin.. not the pie filling type.. the color might entice him to eat and the fiber will help him pass what he ate.

 

[ascott]

Dead tortoise is a scary position your first time walking up on and a hundred lashes to the ones who thought it a grand idea to let him out of his area....tiss tiss...

 

[AslInterpreter]

Thanks for the feedback! We will try the pumpkin today.

It was cedar mulch that we ate btw.

 

[dmarcus]

I hope he passes what he ate.

 

[RV's mom]

Hope for the best. no one needs to take an animal - not theirs - out of the enclosure for ANY reason.

Once you get accustomed to it, the 'dead position' is kinda endearing. RV loves to do this on the patio. wish I could get good camera shots from inside...


teri

 

[DixieParadise]

The first time Gypsy did the "Dead Position" he was under the heat lamp. I thought, "oh great....you've killed him". I turned the light off and picked him up and he gave me that, "what...look". Very scary to see, but after reading about it hear..it is now amusing to me.

 

[Missy]

I don't want to scare you but Cedar can be toxic. I would push the pumpkin and squash. If he wont drink then give him watermellon because its mostly water and hopefully flush it out of his system. If he only ate one piece then hopefully it will all come out in the end.

 

[Mao Senpai]

The dead position is definetly weird to see at first but now it just amuses me.. along with the superman sleep with both arms forward and head tucked in

 

[AslInterpreter]

We gave him another warm soak this afternoon and he had another stool. He has not eaten yet but will go by the store today and pick up some pumpkin.

The neighbor family came over to swim, they used to have an open invite, and one of them took Thomas out of his area....I'm still not sure why....his space is really large and he weighs a lot, it's not like he was sitting there with pouty eyes just begging to walk around the backyard!