Hi

Troublesome uly back again..

* 4 year old russian - last weighed at vets september time i think and was 378 and this was vast improvement on his prior weight.

We have had a few issues with him not eating or eating only when it is shoved in front of his face...

On the vets advise we are not hybernating as he has had a few occasions of not being well / calcium deficiency..

His day time temp is 30 and eve temp is 23

He gets a bath once a day and we have started giving him reptoboost to see if that will perk him up..but he just wants to sleep to the point of now he has burrowed under his slate and quite happily fallen asleep .

Do we leave him..or keep waking him up and putting under the lamp ...he did the same yesterday and we put him back under his heat lamp..but when straight back under the slate...

Or should we take back to Vets?

Regards

Ray

Hi Ray, I am not here with any answers just interesed in your post as I am in the same boat!! My two have just been sick and had two weeks of Baytril, the large male just wants to stay under a rock and sleep, I feel like such a pest always lifting him. The vet here in Egypt also told me to leave them outside day and night and but I have ( not done what he has told me as I am worried about the temps at night here, last night it was 13 c so I am very very confused . I will wait for a reply from this website from someone in the know. It all seems really simple but when it comes to your own it can be very scary.  They have both stoped eating but I hear this is normal when they are having certain medications. Good luck I hope yours perks up a little!   Kind Regards Tara

H Ray, enclosed a picture, the small tort is happy to bask in the strong sun but this tinker takes himself along our garden and cuts threw a gap in the wall and then charges along a very long hedge area until he finds this spot!! he knows where to go I can't believe it! In the photo you can see him in his cold spot, he just wants to stay there the whole day ( and night if I let him )  no interest in sitting in the sun and warming up , Oh what to do !!

Kind Regards Tara

Hello Ray,

It is tricky at this time of year to differenciate between inactivity and a potential problem but I'm finding with Horsfields in particular it take very minimal changes in environment (light and temperature)  for them to show this kind of behaviour. Best thing I can suggest is to up the basking spot temperature to around 34-35 degrees and have the lamp on for at least 14 hours a day. The nightime temperature sounds good, it could even go down a few degrees. I think light is very important, its very gloomy at this time of year and may I suggest the addition of a "daylight" tube such as the reptisun 2.0. This floods the tortoise table with UVA and can stimulate activity. Keep up the baths.

Is the tortoise feeding at all?

If you still dont see any change after making the alterations it may be worth considering a precautionary chat with your vet.

Dave.

Hi Dave,

Cheers for the response

At the mo we have a ceramic basking lamp and an arcadia d3 12% Uv Bulb, it comes on at 7:30 am and goes off at 9 pm . The basking lamp is controlled by a thermostat. (during the summer we use a reptisun 2..and he has a run in the garden for when we at work and gets free range when we are at home..)

Aware that the 12% is maybe a lil high, discussed with Vet and this was done to try and make him more active...it is about 6 inches away from the soil.

Maybe eats about once to twice week at the mo

He has woken up and going to bathe him and see if I can put him in one of the rooms that has the heating on and closed for a walk around..

He did have issues in the summer with not eating and vet put down to being horny...but then he just picked up and was fine..

Regards

Ray

Hi Tara,

Uly is the same ..not a big fan of the sun..he prefers to be in the shade..so we keep having to fish him out..when it gets sunny ( it does in britain) we built a run which does have a shady spot but overall he is in the sun for most of it..

Ray

Hi Ray,

All sounds good, the Arcadia 12 UVB tube is great as its the sole UVB source. I normally say add a reptisun 2.0 in addition to things like Mercury Vapour combi bulbs just to really brighten things up and add UVA which is sometimes lacking with the combi bulbs. 

Letting him have a stroll round might be good but the temperatures at floor level are often a few degrees colder than your central heating temperaures (its never ending isn't it!) .

I'm in my first year of keeping Horsfields, I'm more used to Hermanns, but I have found the Horfields are very finely attuned to their environment, it may well be that he's just doing what he feels is right.

Cheers Dave,

Will add the reptisun and see how that goes.

Yea found that they will pretty much do what they want regardless of what the advise is..

Ray