Hello guys, need your help again, Mrs Brown has stopped basking under her light for about the last week or so, if i put her under it she will stay there for about five mins at the most then takes herself off in to the dark part of her house, she looks ok, eyes bright and walking ok, she is weeing ok but hasn't had a poo for a while, she isn't getting warm at all, the temp under the light was 33 degrees, and our house temp is around 20, i'm worried that she might not be digesting her food properly if she dosn't get warm enough, she has had plenty of time out side over the last few months but i have kept her in doors over the last couple of days, even when she is outside and its warm she goes straight to cover and goes to sleep, she has eaten less then normal  over the last two days. I have bathed her every couple of days in warm water, she has then wee'd but there has been no white urates, is that ok, sorry to hassle you all again, but should i be worried that all she seems to want to do is sleep.

Thanks

Debs 

Hi Debs,

I have to say this summer has been an odd one for tortoise behaviour. I don't know if the early heat wave threw them but mine have been spending a fair bit of time hidden away both when it was really hot and now its been a fair bit cooler.In fact I had one big female Hermanns that buried herself for 8 weeks and finally decided todays the day to surface when its been cloudy and muggy all day! A wild tortoise isn't at its most active in high summer and will also spend a lot of time buried out of the heat so maybe were seeing a bit of natural instinct this year.

It may be the move back indoors has thrown her off a bit, I have tortoises that hate coming indoors and others that take full advantage of it. If the forecast says better stuff is on the way, I tend to leave mine out through the rough stuff now.

I wouldn't be too worried at this point, might just be a bit of readjustment. As for the clear urine with no white urates, not a problem at all. Good in fact. A well hydrated tortoise doesn't feel the need to store urates as solids and will wee them out as urine.

many thanks Dave, as always your help is very much appreciated