Advice about Pickle

[NATURALIS]

Originally Posted by Rae

They both get bathed everyday in warm water for 15-20 mins.

Room temp is 20c cool end of temp is 20c and warm end is 28c.

Substrate is topsoil and playsand mix 70:40 and i've not long put some sticks and moss in there a few days ago for extra surace texture as Cheese always ends up on her back and struggles to right herself!

Fed on mix of weeds and plants although i have just bought some pellets for them to try as i'm finding it difficult to find enough variety of weeds!

Rae x

Hi, Rae, your warm end seems to low try uping it to 35c, whilst your cool end seems fine , if your finding it hard to get weeds try mixing what weeds you can find with a small amount of florette mixed salad adding some chopped grass to add fibre , to avoid fast growth i wouldn't use pellets if avoidable .

[Alan1]

BTW, are you taking the warm end temperature directly below the bulb on the substrate and not just in the general area of the warm end? if so then as RFM says it's not warm enough and if not then 28c just in the general warm end area may mean the basking spot could be way too hot

[yuna1971]

Not sure whether it would be too hot though.. I have a probe in Lilys warm end and also I spot check with the point n click infrared. That sort of temp (28degrees) should be around the 34degree mark, maybe 35?
If her cool end has a 20/22degree reading, then that does give the torts somewhere to retreat to for thermoregulating.

[Rae]

Ok the temp directly below the lamp is 32. I did up it to 35 the yesterday but this seemed to make Pickle (who normally sleeps directly underneath it) move to the side of the table and dig herself under as if she was trying to get away from the heat so it was back at 32 today.

Today they both actually searched round for their weeds but did go back to sleep afterwards but at least there was movement today!

I've been told that the torts are underweight and small for their age (especially seeing as they have recently lost weight) and need fattening up so i think maybe the pellets are a good idea just need to introduce them slower next time!

Still waiting for results to come back from the vets! I phoned them today and apparently they were so busy they didnt get round to it! So they now arent going to do the test until Monday!

So i get to continue stressing over the weekend and then if they have got worms still have to get medication etc! Eurgh! And if not still have to work out if its neccesarry for them to see a vet etc!

More waiting!

Will update again when i know whats going on! x

[Gem]

any news on the worm testing?
also maybe all the changes you have made to the set up may have stressed your tortoise out as they really do not like change. Also if you have been picking them up more to get them to do what you want them to do that will also increase to their stress,so you run the risk of making them ill.
Also just a word of warning I know everyone will just be trying to help give advice but some of these members may have only had their tortoise for a short while and so may not really be qualified to give out advice,so be careful what advice you take, and no I am not pointing the finger at anyone,just merely stating that I have seen on here and other forums people offering advice when they have only had tortoise for maybe a few short months them selves and have already run into trouble with their own tortoise yet still feel qualified to give out advice to others.
The more information you give in your original post will help people to give you proper advice suitable to you.
you should give them....species of tortoise,age of tortoise,husbandry details,food details,weight and size,uv lighting used,temps in enclosures,oudoor set up info,stool and urate info,uk bred or imported etc.
saves others having to ask loads of questions and gets you a more complete reply.

[Rae]

Update on Cheese and Pickle

Over the weekend the little monsters have certainly perked up! They have been lively in the morning eating their brekkie but then snoozing most of the afternoon!

I finally got the results from the vets and ............ they have indeed got worms!

They are booked in to have their first worm treatment on tomorrow (Wed) as thats the first appointment they had!

I think it has been a combination of changes to weather, enclosure and eating pellets that has made them sleep for so many days as well as the worms.

So i shant be feeding the pellets anymore as i dont want them sleeping all the time. They shall just have their weeds and if i struggle for variety i shall pad it out with posh lettuce.

Thanks to everyone for help and advice and concerns!

I think i was stressing more unneccesarily than was needed but i felt like i had done something bad especially as i had fed the pellets.

Hopefully i can get their weight gain back up once the worms have been sorted!

Rae x

[yuna1971]

Well done Rae, you will be fine. And so will they after treatment. A nice bit of TLC in the meantime. Get well soon Cheese & Pickle..xx

[Rae]

Thanks Rach! I'll tell them you send your love! :P x

[Evie]

That is good news Rae at least you can relax now.

When I had my first leopard he came to me underweight and with worms - he was a different tortoise once he had been treated.

Good luck with them.