Worried about Alfie

[auby]

Hello.

I'm new here but I'm a bit worried about my Herman tortoise, Alfie. I have two tortoises, a male (so we think/were told) and a female, Ellie. Ellie's very active at the moment, going on little rampages quite a lot, and Alfie isn't really all that active. I let him go on wanders around my room and he marches about. At the minute they're on about 28C (recently moved down from 30C). They get a variety of foods, and are to be cleaned within the next few days...

I thought they were okay, but just a few minutes ago Ellie was going a bit wild and climbing on Alfie and going all crazy, so I went over to see them, and I noticed a little wheezing noise occasionally which I think is coming from Alfie. One of his eyes is also a bit watery, not massively but enough for me to be concerned. I'm worried in case he has a lung infection which I've read about, or something like that. He crawled under the heat thing, done some digging and seems to have gone to sleep now but I really don't want anything to happen to him and I'm not sure if there are any tortoise vets where I live or anything - is there a way to find out? Anyway is there anything I can do? He's also a bit flinchy when I approach him but Alfie's never been that sociable, especiously in comparison to Ellie who seems to love attention.

He's six and a half years old. I've had him a year on the 26th. The weather's been really bad recently and my room isn't the warmest in the house, so I'm a bit concerned with all the weather that he's poorly. And Ellie keeps pushing him about.

Do I have reason to worry?

Thanks for all your advice (hopefully).

Edit, after further inspection it seems to be Ellie who's doing the whoozing type thing, but Alfie with the watery eye and Ellie seems perfectly healthy - except for being overactive and loud. What's wrong with my torts?
Edit 2, I've read about and it seems to suggest they might be too cold? I'm not impressed with this so called 'expert' tortoise shop keeper. Anyway if this is the case, what would you suggest I put it on to, and should I change this during day/night?

 

[Yvonne G]

Some of the smaller variety of tortoise make a strange little "wheeze" sound during mating. You said "...wild and climbing on Alfie..."

But I don't know anything about Hermann's tortoises...I just wanted to:

you to the forum!!

 

[Stephanie Logan]

Welcome, Auby!

I don't have any advice for you either, but someone will certainly come on here soon to help you out.

I know some of the questions you will be asked, though. What kind of enclosure do you keep your tortoises in? What is the heat source, light source, substrate and temperature? What do you feed them and how often?

Also, like Yvonne, I'm curious if you're sure that Alfie is a boy and Ellie is a girl. You will probably be advised to separate them as Ellie is stressing poor Alfie out while he is ill.

Here's a thread on how to post photos: http://tortoiseforum.org/thread-5245.html

 

[GBtortoises]

Without seeing photos of their tail area (which would help) I'd say that Ellie could be a male. If they're both males Ellie sounds to be the dominant male based on "her" actions and the submissive actions of your other tortoise. There is also a possibility that Ellie has come into season or recently reached maturity and wants to be bred. But this is all speculation since we don't know for sure what genders you have for certain without seeing. Some of my adult female Hermann's will often mount another female when it's time for them to be bred. They will also sometimes do the same when getting ready to nest. The hissing sound from the tortoise on top is related to mating. It may even sound like a clucking noise. But dominant females as well as males will make this sound when mounting another tortoise.
28-30 degrees is definitely warm enough to encourage mating (or psuedo-mating) behavior. Those temperatures also shouldn't be too cold as long as the night time temperatures are not below 16 degrees. Assuming that there is a basking light on during the day that produces temperatures of at least 35 degrees (a few degrees more is even better). What about humidity within their enclosure and in the room that they are kept? This time of year with home heater running, air tends to be dry in a house. This often affects a tortoise before it becomes uncomfortable to humans.