Worried about baby red footed tortoises

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viixie

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In the summer, i purchased two red footed baby tortoises. They are both enclosed in a vivarium with a UVB light and a light and cold end etc. They have bark substrate, a hide, fresh food everyday and access to water. I also regularly spray the substrate for humidity.
In the last week, one of the tortoises has slept and not come out of the hide at all. She has not had anything to eat. I took her out yesterday and tried to give her some food but she did not really want any, she had one bite of banana as that is all i could get her to eat. When i put her back she went straight back into the hide and has not come out again since. When i took her out, she had one eye shut and one eye open so i wiped the shut eye with some cotton wool and warm water, eventually she managed to open her eye but some white weep came out.. What do you think could be wrong? I was not sure if she had just slowed down for winter but as she is not really eating or even moving I'm not quite sure?
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated,
Thanks very much,
Vicky
 

Yvonne G

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Hi Vicky:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

May we know where you are?

I've heard it said that you really don't need to have a cool end/warm end with redfoots and that an overall temp of about 80 is just fine for them. Maybe your little guy has been sleeping on the cool end?? I really don't believe that there is such a thing as a winter cool down for redfoots.
 

viixie

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I live in the UK and their vivarium is kept at around 30 degrees celcius, she has been sleeping at the cool end but hasn't eaten or moved all week.
 

Madkins007

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Lessee... 30c is (I swear I prefer metric, but I cannot do it in my head) 86f, so the temps should be OK. What is the temp in the hottest and coolest area?

Got them in the summer, so shyness should not be an issue. 'Sticky eye' could be humidity. misting alone does not help a lot, especially if it is a dry location. Do you do anything else to increase humidity? Do the eyes appear sunken or tearing up at all?

Might just be full. How much are they fed and how big are they exactly? Full torts tend to sleep it off.

I'd give it a warm water soak for 15-30 minutes to see if that helps. If it takes care of it, great. If it helps but does not solve things, repeat daily. You can also consider mixing some squash, carrot, or pumpkin organic baby food in the soak water as well.
 

StudentoftheReptile

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I recently acquired a pair of baby RFs a couple months ago and I experienced my share of grief from trying to care for them properly. I even lost one :(

However, after perusing what seemed a million pages of care information and taking the advice of some of the members here, I believe I've gotten the other one on the right path and he is doing much better. So I will now share with you how I keep my little Toby.\

First let me say (and I'm sure many will pop on here and concur!) that baby RFs are very, very secretive; they hide A LOT and do not come out in the open very often. This was a shock to me, especially in contrast to my rather personable juvenile sulcata, as well as keeping aquatic turtles in the past.

I keep Toby in a plastic tub roughly the size of a 30-40 gal Long tank. I use about 2" of cypress mulch for substrate. I provide two huge artificial ferns for foliage cover as well as two small half-logs that fit him well (on opposite ends of the tub). I cut the lid of the tub in half and one half of that over the cooler end (averages about 79-81'F). I have a wire panel (I think it was a separater from a dog kennel?) that I lay over the other end of the tub. On top of this, I have a ceramic heat emitter which provides a basking spot of (at its apex) 100'F. I leave this on 24/7. I also have a 5.0 Repti-Glo tube-style florescent that lays across the middle of the tub. This light is on for 12 hrs a day.

Every morning, I mist the tub heavily. I try to soak him in warm water every day, but some days it doesn't happen (life, what can you do?). As far as feeding, I alternate greens/veggies/fruits with Mazuri diet. At this point, I still have to find him and place him in front of his food just to ensure he eats it before it dries up. I also mist again in the evenings when I get home.

This routine seems to work pretty well. Part of it may not fit some peoples' textbook careguide for baby redfoots, but as some will tell you, there is no clear-cut method that works. I can only tell you what works for my tortoises.
 

viixie

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Thankyou for all of the advice and information everyone, the other tortoise has been out and eating, however; yesterday he did come out and move around but he did not choose to eat anything.
The other tortoise is still asleep in the hide in the same spot so i really do not know.. normally she is more active than the other one and does tend to eat quite alot. She is still quite small, I bought her from my local pet store, i will post a picture...
Thanks
 

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