florette salad

[TortBabe]

I would continue to bath him in Reptoboost for another few days, twice a day, it could be helping. I do think baths help. I've a female hermanns doing the same as Eddie she ate today for the first time in 3 days She gets her hide at bedtime and I take it out in the morning or she will stay there all day. She has taken to going into the corner now but I keep putting her under her lamp and today she slept under it for ages then ate by herself! I too am waiting on a poo sample from her I'd keep trying him with the florette, its better than nothing, and when he is eating that well you can try with weeds. Little rascal sounds like he is sulking I would just keep interacting with him he'll not starve most of my torts are very slow at the minute the cold weather doesn't help. He'll be fine in his own time

[Alan1]

too cold night temps affect daytime behaviour - too cold at night for a few nights and they won't eat during the day or even be active. that is according to this which I posted elsewhere

In particular it is the continuous drop of night temperatures that causes them to reduce their food intake. Even though day temperatures may still be very high in the sun, the animals will not let themselves be influenced by them. The high temperatures during the days are very important for the metabolism of the animals, which is still in full swing. The tortoises now absorb the nutrients contained in the pulp filling the gut and do therefore not suffer hunger if they eat less and eventually stop feeding altogether, as we would imagine. The reduced temperatures may now prolong the lingering time of fibre-rich food to as long as four weeks

http://www.testudo-farm.de/html/life_in_the_wild.html

[pixie-egg]

Yeah I remember reading that in another thread. Our night temps have not gone below 18. Two of our storage heaters have packed up so are now using oil filled. It's on full blast and toasty warm during the day and about 18-19 over night. Not looking forward to the leki bill tho. I've read in a few places that down to 16 is ok so I wasn't too worried about the temps. Should I be?

[Alan1]

It says 20c at night though elsewhere on that site. I've had the heater on and it was still only 16c in there this morning. it was 15c yesterday morning so turned it up last night and got another 1 degree

[pixie-egg]

Oh dear. But I guess it's to be expected with all your snow! I read about the 20 but most other places just say not below 16 for long periods so wasn't too worried. It's not looking cos I don't think it's that cold here, yet. I did put a warm towel over him last night and the hide stayed at 19.

I love the fact a feeding thread has turned into a temp one. Goes to show how complex torts are eh? So if I can get his night time temps up a bit and keep trying with the pellets and nutrobal i've something to work with. Just don't want him to miss out on all the goodness when he's doing his major growing. I'm already dreading next winter too when the big H looms!

[Alan1]

yeah, I've always read around 16c too, that's the first time I've seen it said that 20c is best. In hindsight though, I remember cold nights in the past have always produced inactivity or reduced activity in daytime with mine so there could well be something in it

[pixie-egg]

People are always gonna say different things. If you think about it even during the summer months I don't think they always have 20 something night time temps in the wild. Anyway i've moved the hide closer to the heater to see if it helps him get some good food in him during the day. He's not had anything today as I tried pellets

[Alan1]

this guy is sayin they do mostly get 20c at nights in summer though. he claims that even though air temps drop to 16 or so, the ground has been heated up and is much warmer than the air temps and keeps the torts at 20c as they are in contact with the ground. that contradicts a lot of other people too who say torts should be heated from above and not below but they do get heat from the ground below them.

I remember Red Foot Marg last year took the temp of a stone at night time and it was still very warm from the daytime sun and that was in scotland

actually i think EJ uses heat mats below the substrate, not 100% sure though

[pixie-egg]

Yeah i'm pretty sure Ed uses mats. I was actually thinking of doing so just to warm the soil up more but didn't want to mention it before as everyone seems to attack folk that do. But I cant see a problem on a low heat to avoid burning and just have it warm up substrate overnight. It does seem to cool down so fast. And then when a dampen it it's even colder. Might be worth a try to get my Ed going. I don't fancy a over head night heater since i'm using readi grass. I'd deem it more of a risk.

[Alan1]

I have a storage heater in that room and just when you get the temps right, the weather changes, you suddenly get a mild day and the heater was set for yesterday's frosts