Fair warning: This is going to be kinda long but we are very new to tortoise-keeping so I want to give as much information as possible so those more knowledgeable can tell me if there is something to change?
We are fostering Sam for a friend, he is about 25 pounds and 5-7 years old we think? We got him in the summer and he seemed to be adjusting to his new environment just fine. We live in the Pacific NW US. When it started to get colder we built him a little house with an oil radiator maintaining the temp at 70-75 (at the coldest, usually more like 80-85) and a 180 watt MV UVB lamp hanging about 3 ft up over a basking spot that we turn on for about 8 hours a day.
Substrate is timothy hay.
For the last couple weeks he pretty much has not left his hut though he will move toward the front where his basking spot is. We do open up the door for him every day just in case he wants to venture out but close him in at night.
When he was spending more time in his hut than out, we got Mazuri pellets and gave him those (soaked in water) with whatever dandelion greens we could find in the yard. We also got some prickly pear pads so he got some of those for a while too with the pellets. He seemed to really like the Mazuri and ate it well after we started soaking it.
I'm a bit worried though because he doesn't really seem to be eating the pellets now and it's been cold enough that I doubt that he is going outside during the day to graze. It's probably been close to 2 weeks since I can say for sure that he has eaten.
We thought maybe a bath would help so we brought his tub and him inside yesterday for several hours. He sat in the bath until it got cold so we took him out and he wandering around the kitchen for a bit but wouldn't eat. I must confess that it had been probably 2-3 weeks since he had had a soak due to our crazy busy schedules.
We also found out that a mouse has been sharing his nice warm house with him so it is possible that he could have eaten some mouse poop? I wouldn't think that would be an issue but thought I'd mention it just in case.
Should we worry? Take him to the vet?
We are fostering Sam for a friend, he is about 25 pounds and 5-7 years old we think? We got him in the summer and he seemed to be adjusting to his new environment just fine. We live in the Pacific NW US. When it started to get colder we built him a little house with an oil radiator maintaining the temp at 70-75 (at the coldest, usually more like 80-85) and a 180 watt MV UVB lamp hanging about 3 ft up over a basking spot that we turn on for about 8 hours a day.
Substrate is timothy hay.
For the last couple weeks he pretty much has not left his hut though he will move toward the front where his basking spot is. We do open up the door for him every day just in case he wants to venture out but close him in at night.
When he was spending more time in his hut than out, we got Mazuri pellets and gave him those (soaked in water) with whatever dandelion greens we could find in the yard. We also got some prickly pear pads so he got some of those for a while too with the pellets. He seemed to really like the Mazuri and ate it well after we started soaking it.
I'm a bit worried though because he doesn't really seem to be eating the pellets now and it's been cold enough that I doubt that he is going outside during the day to graze. It's probably been close to 2 weeks since I can say for sure that he has eaten.
We thought maybe a bath would help so we brought his tub and him inside yesterday for several hours. He sat in the bath until it got cold so we took him out and he wandering around the kitchen for a bit but wouldn't eat. I must confess that it had been probably 2-3 weeks since he had had a soak due to our crazy busy schedules.
We also found out that a mouse has been sharing his nice warm house with him so it is possible that he could have eaten some mouse poop? I wouldn't think that would be an issue but thought I'd mention it just in case.
Should we worry? Take him to the vet?