Sulcata Baby Keeping 1 Eye Closed

[kkrista123]

Hello!
I got my sulcata baby about 2 weeks ago. The diet was just lettuce and I am now growing organic wheat grass along with sprinkling mazuri tort food on top. Hard transition off the lettuce, he/she is addicted to it. He/she is eating great and we're trying to cut back on the lettuce to a much smaller amount. They also move around a decent amount for such a young one. We're doing a daily soak and keeping temp of enclosure at 80 degrees F along with humidity at 80%. We have a humid hide in the enclosure. I am scheduling a vet visit for the baby. In the mean time, I am wondering if there's anything I can do help him/her out. The first few days the eye was slightly opened and the past week that right eye has been completely shut. The first few days it looked like there was a tiny scratch on the eye lid from possibly another sulcata baby. It seems to have been noticed and healed within 2 nights. When I got him/her from the breeder, they were in a bin with a LOT of others. I have a pic of the one eye open with one shut. The next pics are of the right and left eye separately during a nap when they were both closed. The left eye is the one that is having issues.
Thanks for any help!

 

[Maro2Bear]

Greetings.

Make sure you read the sully care sheet - https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-raise-a-healthy-sulcata-or-leopard-version-2-0.79895/

Are you soaking daily?

What kind of enclosure, lighting, substrate?

Upload a few pix of your enclosure if you can.

How are your temps? Ambient, basking, etc.

Eyes are quickly effected by the wrong bulbs. What type are you using?

 

[kkrista123]

Greetings.

Make sure you read the sully care sheet - https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-raise-a-healthy-sulcata-or-leopard-version-2-0.79895/

Are you soaking daily?

What kind of enclosure, lighting, substrate?

Upload a few pix of your enclosure if you can.

How are your temps? Ambient, basking, etc.

Eyes are quickly effected by the wrong bulbs. What type are you using?

Thank you, I have been reading over as many posts as I can. I have been soaking daily 85-90 degree water. I have a cement mixing tub (I believe that's what it's made for) as the enclosure with reptisoil for substrate (no additives). For lighting I have a heat light that creates a basking spot and I have a mercury vapor uva/uvb bulb. I'm not sure if the bulb is what is causing my issue. Can you recommend a good uvb/uva bulb for me to switch to? The heat light I keep on a light further away from the enclosure to keep it at 80 degrees F. The uva/uvb bulb is on a light clamp so attached to enclosure. I keep humidity at 80% and I usually soak the log hide once a day. I have a humid hide but the baby seems to well prefer hanging out under the log. I will take pics of enclosure as soon as I get home. Thanks!

 

[kkrista123]

Greetings.

Make sure you read the sully care sheet - https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-raise-a-healthy-sulcata-or-leopard-version-2-0.79895/

Are you soaking daily?

What kind of enclosure, lighting, substrate?

Upload a few pix of your enclosure if you can.

How are your temps? Ambient, basking, etc.

Eyes are quickly effected by the wrong bulbs. What type are you using?

The uvb bulb is a reptiglo 5.0. Is this a suitable bulb? Is there a better uvb/uva bulb? I have a mercury vapor uvb bulb as well but we’ve had the reptiglo 5.0 running.

 

[kkrista123]

Greetings.

Make sure you read the sully care sheet - https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-raise-a-healthy-sulcata-or-leopard-version-2-0.79895/

Are you soaking daily?

What kind of enclosure, lighting, substrate?

Upload a few pix of your enclosure if you can.

How are your temps? Ambient, basking, etc.

Eyes are quickly effected by the wrong bulbs. What type are you using?

Sorry I keep responding separately, just trying to get the info off people that are home!! So the uvb is a reptiglo 5.0 and the heat light is an infrared reflector (the hue is a yellowish and it’s a dome type bulb). I’m wondering if the heat light could be the issue? Is my uvb bulb alright? Thanks!

 

[kkrista123]

So I’m using thrive coconut soil for bedding (the knock off of eco earth), my heat lamp is strong so that’s the dangling bulb up high. I only turn that on when I need the temp raised because otherwise the enclosure will sit around 90°F. So keeping the room at temp and turning the heat light on only as needed, I keep the enclosure at 80°F with a heat mat under one section but The heat nat isn’t strong enough to warm up through the bin. I have the humid hide and I keep the soil much damper under there. He/she prefers the log hide so I try to make that humid by soaking it every other day. We’re doing a daily soak of 85-90° water daily for 20-60 mins. I have 2 cuttle bones laying lose in the enclosure just in case. Also the slate rock for food/basking. The uvb bulb is a reptiglo 5.0 and I leave that on for about 12 hours a day. The uvb bulb is clamped much closer to the enclosure.

FYI- I use a TERRA COTTA pot base as my WATER BOWL. I have it running through the dishwasher with no soaps along with dog and bird bowls currently. Since I fed him/her while the water bowl was being cleaned, I filled this reptile water bowl up. I’m sitting here watching him/her very closely, it’s not deep enough to drown either. I will remove this water bowl and put the terra cotta one back in as soon as it’s out of the dishwasher, until then, no worries because I’m supervising eating time! He/she did need a few sips of water while eating anyways, so it’s worth it to sit here supervising this bowl rather than to not have offered water!!!

 

[Maro2Bear]

Greetings

Part of your problem might be that you are raising your lil guy in an open top tub vs a fully enclosed enclosure. Your open top is letting all the heat & humidity escape. I also see some temp/humidity gauges in your tub that are known to be very inaccurate.
(Info down below on Closed Enclosure/Chambers)

Do you have a temp gun? I’m thinking your ambient temps are too cold, substrate too dry, & not humid enough.

Take a read of these bits from the care sheet. I’m sure @Tom can provide a lot of tips.

Indoor housing:
It must be noted that we now know sulcatas babies hatch during the start of the rainy season in Africa. It is hot, humid, rainy, and marshy in some areas. Yes the area is dry for 8-9 months out of the year, but it is a swamp during hatching season. During the dry season, sulcatas spend the vast majority of their time underground in warm, humid burrows. Keeping your hatchling in a dry, desert-like enclosure, is a big mistake and an invitation to disaster. It is also very un-natural for these animals. Imagine what would happen to an earthworm in a hot, dry enclosure with dry substrate. The same thing happens to the INSIDE of a baby tortoise. Your enclosure should be maintained such that an earthworm could live in it just as well as a hatchling tortoise. A damp substrate, a water bowl, and a humid hide should all be pre-requisites. Along with this, warm temps day and night are necessary. Sulcatas and leopards are NOT prone to shell rot at all, and they do not get respiratory infections in these damp conditions as long as temps are kept up. I shoot for no lower than 80 degrees day or night year round. Adults can tolerate colder temps in some circumstances, but this care sheet is for hatchlings and babies and is aimed at helping them thrive, not just survive.

Heating and Lighting:
I use a 65 watt incandescent flood bulb on a 12 hour timer and adjust the height of the fixture to get a hot spot of around 100 directly under the bulb. Then I use a ceramic heating element set to 80 degrees on a reptile thermostat to maintain my ambient temperature in the enclosure. Sometimes the basking lamp raises the day time ambient into the low 90s. "Ambient should be no lower than 80, but drifting up to 90 during the heat of the day is good…" This is fine and the thermostat will keep your CHE off during these times, but ready to click on after the basking lamp clicks off and the ambient temperature starts to drop at night. I use long florescent tubes when I want to brighten up the whole enclosure and I run these on the same timer as the basking bulb. The above are just what works for me and are suggestions for what might work for you. Every enclosure and home is different, and some customization will usually be necessary to get things "just right".

The Actual Enclosure:
I have not been able to make any open topped enclosure work to my satisfaction. Low sided open topped enclosures like tortoise tables and sweater boxes are the worst. No amount of covering, or attempts to slow heat and humidity loss have worked well for me. There is just no way to keep the warm humid air where you want it. For about the last year and a half, I have only been using closed chambers for any tropical species of tortoise, and I couldn't be happier with them. Temperate species of tortoises that require drier conditions or a bigger night time temperature drop might fare better in the typical tortoise table set up. I will leave that for someone more experienced with those species to tell you in THEIR care sheet. Maintaining whatever temperature and humidity you want is easy and efficient in a closed chamber. They use a lot less electricity because all of your heat and humidity is trapped with nowhere to go. It also makes maintaining warm night temps a snap. Open tops allow all your warm humid air to escape up and into the room where your enclosure sits. Even if you cover most of the top, the heat lamps create a chimney effect and draw your heat and humidity up and out. Having the heat lamps outside, or on top of, the enclosure also lets the majority of the electricity you are using to produce heat float up up and away... A closed chamber can be made by covering the top of a tub or tank and minimizing ventilation, but its not easy and you burn more electricity. It works best if all the heating and lighting equipment is INSIDE the enclosure with the tortoise. Maintaining a small open topped box at 80 degrees with 80% humidity in a regular sized room that is 70 degrees and 20% humidity is VERY difficult, if not impossible in a practical sense. A closed chamber makes it easy.
Here is an older thread I did on closed chambers:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-32333.html

You need to know, and periodically adjust your temperatures. You need to regularly check warm side, cool side, basking spot and night temps, and adjust as needed. Every enclosure is different and they even change with the seasons in most households. It is not enough to plop a bulb on top and walk away. Check those temps, and make adjustments, preferably BEFORE the baby even comes home. I like to use an infrared temp gun AND remote probed thermometers for this purpose. Check your temps early and often.

Enclosure size:
Simply put: The bigger the better. I start babies in a 4x8' closed chamber. As a minimum, I would suggest no smaller than 48"x18" for a tiny hatchling. They need room to roam around. Once you put in the food and water bowls, the humid hide, and any decorations or potted plants, there is hardly any room left over to walk. Tortoises do not tend to do as well when stuffed into small enclosures. For a sulcata, even 4x8' is only going to last a year or two. You might get three years with it for a leopard or slower growing sulcata.

 

[kkrista123]

Greetings

Part of your problem might be that you are raising your lil guy in an open top tub vs a fully enclosed enclosure. Your open top is letting all the heat & humidity escape. I also see some temp/humidity gauges in your tub that are known to be very inaccurate.
(Info down below on Closed Enclosure/Chambers)

Do you have a temp gun? I’m thinking your ambient temps are too cold, substrate too dry, & not humid enough.

Take a read of these bits from the care sheet. I’m sure @Tom can provide a lot of tips.

Indoor housing:
It must be noted that we now know sulcatas babies hatch during the start of the rainy season in Africa. It is hot, humid, rainy, and marshy in some areas. Yes the area is dry for 8-9 months out of the year, but it is a swamp during hatching season. During the dry season, sulcatas spend the vast majority of their time underground in warm, humid burrows. Keeping your hatchling in a dry, desert-like enclosure, is a big mistake and an invitation to disaster. It is also very un-natural for these animals. Imagine what would happen to an earthworm in a hot, dry enclosure with dry substrate. The same thing happens to the INSIDE of a baby tortoise. Your enclosure should be maintained such that an earthworm could live in it just as well as a hatchling tortoise. A damp substrate, a water bowl, and a humid hide should all be pre-requisites. Along with this, warm temps day and night are necessary. Sulcatas and leopards are NOT prone to shell rot at all, and they do not get respiratory infections in these damp conditions as long as temps are kept up. I shoot for no lower than 80 degrees day or night year round. Adults can tolerate colder temps in some circumstances, but this care sheet is for hatchlings and babies and is aimed at helping them thrive, not just survive.

Heating and Lighting:
I use a 65 watt incandescent flood bulb on a 12 hour timer and adjust the height of the fixture to get a hot spot of around 100 directly under the bulb. Then I use a ceramic heating element set to 80 degrees on a reptile thermostat to maintain my ambient temperature in the enclosure. Sometimes the basking lamp raises the day time ambient into the low 90s. "Ambient should be no lower than 80, but drifting up to 90 during the heat of the day is good…" This is fine and the thermostat will keep your CHE off during these times, but ready to click on after the basking lamp clicks off and the ambient temperature starts to drop at night. I use long florescent tubes when I want to brighten up the whole enclosure and I run these on the same timer as the basking bulb. The above are just what works for me and are suggestions for what might work for you. Every enclosure and home is different, and some customization will usually be necessary to get things "just right".

The Actual Enclosure:
I have not been able to make any open topped enclosure work to my satisfaction. Low sided open topped enclosures like tortoise tables and sweater boxes are the worst. No amount of covering, or attempts to slow heat and humidity loss have worked well for me. There is just no way to keep the warm humid air where you want it. For about the last year and a half, I have only been using closed chambers for any tropical species of tortoise, and I couldn't be happier with them. Temperate species of tortoises that require drier conditions or a bigger night time temperature drop might fare better in the typical tortoise table set up. I will leave that for someone more experienced with those species to tell you in THEIR care sheet. Maintaining whatever temperature and humidity you want is easy and efficient in a closed chamber. They use a lot less electricity because all of your heat and humidity is trapped with nowhere to go. It also makes maintaining warm night temps a snap. Open tops allow all your warm humid air to escape up and into the room where your enclosure sits. Even if you cover most of the top, the heat lamps create a chimney effect and draw your heat and humidity up and out. Having the heat lamps outside, or on top of, the enclosure also lets the majority of the electricity you are using to produce heat float up up and away... A closed chamber can be made by covering the top of a tub or tank and minimizing ventilation, but its not easy and you burn more electricity. It works best if all the heating and lighting equipment is INSIDE the enclosure with the tortoise. Maintaining a small open topped box at 80 degrees with 80% humidity in a regular sized room that is 70 degrees and 20% humidity is VERY difficult, if not impossible in a practical sense. A closed chamber makes it easy.
Here is an older thread I did on closed chambers:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-32333.html

You need to know, and periodically adjust your temperatures. You need to regularly check warm side, cool side, basking spot and night temps, and adjust as needed. Every enclosure is different and they even change with the seasons in most households. It is not enough to plop a bulb on top and walk away. Check those temps, and make adjustments, preferably BEFORE the baby even comes home. I like to use an infrared temp gun AND remote probed thermometers for this purpose. Check your temps early and often.

Enclosure size:
Simply put: The bigger the better. I start babies in a 4x8' closed chamber. As a minimum, I would suggest no smaller than 48"x18" for a tiny hatchling. They need room to roam around. Once you put in the food and water bowls, the humid hide, and any decorations or potted plants, there is hardly any room left over to walk. Tortoises do not tend to do as well when stuffed into small enclosures. For a sulcata, even 4x8' is only going to last a year or two. You might get three years with it for a leopard or slower growing sulcata.

Thank you for all the great info. I usually leave the top half covered with a long plastic sheet that resembles a piece of cardboard. I had the little guy in a tank originally to help control humidity but he kept walking into the walls so I immediately switched to this. Any recommendation on what I can use as a safe enclosure? Everything closed is all glass and Im confused!! I do keep my substrate humid by spraying it daily. I will certainly get a more trusted thermometer/hydrometer. Can you recommend one?

 

[Maro2Bear]

For a temp/humidity gauge, AcuRite seem to work well w/o breaking the bank

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0013BKDO8/?tag=exoticpetnetw-20

There’s lots of info regarding building an enclosed chamber. This time of year, those large plastic Christmas tree boxes work well.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/IRIS-Tre...mDv11IoIi1u5qzkohL-h94MGgQS-QIFUaAmXDEALw_wcB

 

[kkrista123]

For a temp/humidity gauge, AcuRite seem to work well w/o breaking the bank

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0013BKDO8/?tag=exoticpetnetw-20

There’s lots of info regarding building an enclosed chamber. This time of year, those large plastic Christmas tree boxes work well.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/IRIS-Tre...mDv11IoIi1u5qzkohL-h94MGgQS-QIFUaAmXDEALw_wcB

Thanks again for all the info, I will switch over to a container today.
Last question I could think of, (it’s fall/winter in PA) how do I keep him/her warm on the way to the vet?

 

[Maro2Bear]

Thanks again for all the info, I will switch over to a container today.
Last question I could think of, (it’s fall/winter in PA) how do I keep him/her warm on the way to the vet?

Start your car up and get the heater on and car warmed up, put your tort in a small Tupperware container. Maybe tupperware inside a cooler. You won’t be traveling too far. When you return, a nice warm water soaking.