Drslothington
New Member
Hello! I've been reading for quite a while on this forum but have reached a point where I haven't found any information that would apply directly to my situation. I bought our russian tortoise Terry from a local pet shop chain two or three months ago. They told me that Terry was captive bred, but i'm not sure if this was true or not. Anyway, when we first got Terry she was in a small enclosure until i could build her a table. She was fairly shy, although she ate regularly. I built the largest table that we could fit in our room for her out of melamine board, it is about 4ftx4ft. Terry herself is pretty small, at maybe 3.5 or 4 inches.
Her lighting setup and temps: One basking bulb next to an 18inch UVB tube in the corner, temp under basking bulb 100F
One 125W mercury vapor bulb over the middle of the enclosure, temp under it about 75-80F. Cool side about 70-75 in daytime, night time 65-70F. She has a half log hide and enough substrate to completely bury herself which she does sometimes in the corners. There are also several live plants in the enclosure she likes to get underneath.
I bathe her once a week in warm water treated with reptisafe. Aside from that, she has constant access to water in the form of a plate in her enclosure that I keep full of water. It is shallow, but easily deep enough for her to drink from.
Substrate used was coco coir with Reptibark on top, and I generally moisten it fairly regularly so it's not completely dry, but I do not keep it wet. We feed her collard greens, dandelion greens, turnip and mustard greens, wheatgrass, an occasional carrot, radicchio, rapini, just a general mix of leafy greens.
We did have a coiled CF light bulb (not the UV kind, just a normal household lightbulb) pointed in her general direction to provide more overall light to the area, until I read that these bulbs are harmful and i immediately got rid of it. I don't know if the normal household kind of CF bulbs are also dangerous, but if they are, I am not sure if her eyes were hurt. From what i can tell she can still see fine, she reacts to things around her normally and looks at me disapprovingly when i give her a bath.
My problem, really, is just her behavior. When we first put her in the new enclosure she was rambunctious, waking us up early in the morning crashing into stuff and climbing around. Lately, she just doesn't move. She will bury herself and stay there for days, until I eventually bring her out and put her under her lamp and then in front of her food. Two days ago she seemed to eat fairly well, but I have not seen her poop in weeks. She used to poop during her bath, but I have not seen anything. It's possible she pooped somewhere in her substrate that I just don't see, but I don't think so. She has peed with healthy looking urate, but that is it. She generally just seems to dislike being put in the heat lamp and will immediately try to go hide. Is she just scared of me to the point of hiding for days, am I worrying too much? I tend to overthink problems with my pets because I want them to be healthy and happy, but she just does not seem to be in good shape compared to how she was just a month or so ago. She also seems to be walking differently, with almost a hitch in her step. In the past couple days she seems to be rubbing her head against her arm as if there is something there bothering her, but I do not see anything at all and have bathed her twice in the past couple days to try to help if there was dirt bothering her.
I'm open to any suggestions to improve her situation. I'm really worried about her and want to make sure I'm doing everything i can here.
Her lighting setup and temps: One basking bulb next to an 18inch UVB tube in the corner, temp under basking bulb 100F
One 125W mercury vapor bulb over the middle of the enclosure, temp under it about 75-80F. Cool side about 70-75 in daytime, night time 65-70F. She has a half log hide and enough substrate to completely bury herself which she does sometimes in the corners. There are also several live plants in the enclosure she likes to get underneath.
I bathe her once a week in warm water treated with reptisafe. Aside from that, she has constant access to water in the form of a plate in her enclosure that I keep full of water. It is shallow, but easily deep enough for her to drink from.
Substrate used was coco coir with Reptibark on top, and I generally moisten it fairly regularly so it's not completely dry, but I do not keep it wet. We feed her collard greens, dandelion greens, turnip and mustard greens, wheatgrass, an occasional carrot, radicchio, rapini, just a general mix of leafy greens.
We did have a coiled CF light bulb (not the UV kind, just a normal household lightbulb) pointed in her general direction to provide more overall light to the area, until I read that these bulbs are harmful and i immediately got rid of it. I don't know if the normal household kind of CF bulbs are also dangerous, but if they are, I am not sure if her eyes were hurt. From what i can tell she can still see fine, she reacts to things around her normally and looks at me disapprovingly when i give her a bath.
My problem, really, is just her behavior. When we first put her in the new enclosure she was rambunctious, waking us up early in the morning crashing into stuff and climbing around. Lately, she just doesn't move. She will bury herself and stay there for days, until I eventually bring her out and put her under her lamp and then in front of her food. Two days ago she seemed to eat fairly well, but I have not seen her poop in weeks. She used to poop during her bath, but I have not seen anything. It's possible she pooped somewhere in her substrate that I just don't see, but I don't think so. She has peed with healthy looking urate, but that is it. She generally just seems to dislike being put in the heat lamp and will immediately try to go hide. Is she just scared of me to the point of hiding for days, am I worrying too much? I tend to overthink problems with my pets because I want them to be healthy and happy, but she just does not seem to be in good shape compared to how she was just a month or so ago. She also seems to be walking differently, with almost a hitch in her step. In the past couple days she seems to be rubbing her head against her arm as if there is something there bothering her, but I do not see anything at all and have bathed her twice in the past couple days to try to help if there was dirt bothering her.
I'm open to any suggestions to improve her situation. I'm really worried about her and want to make sure I'm doing everything i can here.