haroldthehermann
Member
I have decided to document my journey with my little baby sulcata, who we are currently calling Pip. (by currently I mean we are using it as a place holder name until we know "his" gender)
I ordered him from Backwater Reptiles (mistake number 1) and he arrived on Febuary 12th. It has been three days since his arrival and already I feel like my life is now revolving around him. He arrived in horrible condition. He had poop all over his shell, not from his shipping container since there was no poop present, and he was dry and dehyrated with obvious signs of pyrimiding. He is at most 2 weeks old. He is my first tortoise so I didnt think much of it at first.
On day two I noticed he was lethargic and slept all day, as well as wouldnt eat unless the food was dangled over his head. He didnt struggle when I lifted him up, he made many vocal noises (which is a bad sign in sulcatas from what I've read), and his eyes kept swelling shut. I was soaking him, his temps were 80, his humidity a little low but still there, and I was attempting to feed him a grass based diet. By that I mean I kept offering grasses but he would only eat store bought greens.
I came to tortoise forum and based off of his symptoms and the history of Backwater Reptiles people diagnosed him with Hatching Failure Syndrome. I freaked out and immidiatly went out to buy him a better basking bulb, a heat mat, and more thermometers to measure his temps. I brought his basking temp up to around 100 and raised the humidity to 80%. I also gave him more soaks and love.
Today he is active and seems completly healthy. He is wandering around his cage and has almost stopped squeaking and such. So that brings me to my question. Does he really have hatching failure syndrome or did he have "keeper failure syndrome". Does anyone really know?
I ordered him from Backwater Reptiles (mistake number 1) and he arrived on Febuary 12th. It has been three days since his arrival and already I feel like my life is now revolving around him. He arrived in horrible condition. He had poop all over his shell, not from his shipping container since there was no poop present, and he was dry and dehyrated with obvious signs of pyrimiding. He is at most 2 weeks old. He is my first tortoise so I didnt think much of it at first.
On day two I noticed he was lethargic and slept all day, as well as wouldnt eat unless the food was dangled over his head. He didnt struggle when I lifted him up, he made many vocal noises (which is a bad sign in sulcatas from what I've read), and his eyes kept swelling shut. I was soaking him, his temps were 80, his humidity a little low but still there, and I was attempting to feed him a grass based diet. By that I mean I kept offering grasses but he would only eat store bought greens.
I came to tortoise forum and based off of his symptoms and the history of Backwater Reptiles people diagnosed him with Hatching Failure Syndrome. I freaked out and immidiatly went out to buy him a better basking bulb, a heat mat, and more thermometers to measure his temps. I brought his basking temp up to around 100 and raised the humidity to 80%. I also gave him more soaks and love.
Today he is active and seems completly healthy. He is wandering around his cage and has almost stopped squeaking and such. So that brings me to my question. Does he really have hatching failure syndrome or did he have "keeper failure syndrome". Does anyone really know?
