Hi all (Help)

[16 shells]

Originally Posted by PaulPhillips

This morning I have given them cucumber flavour komodo complete in water, Lola has tucked in and eaten quite abit but Charlie has gone to the back of the enclosure with his back to everyone.

Thanks for your advice, we will leave him alone and see how he comes along, we're just worried he will become ill through lack of eating.

Try a few more day's with Charlie.

[EJ]

Just make sure it is well hydrated.

Originally Posted by PaulPhillips

This morning I have given them cucumber flavour komodo complete in water, Lola has tucked in and eaten quite abit but Charlie has gone to the back of the enclosure with his back to everyone.

Thanks for your advice, we will leave him alone and see how he comes along, we're just worried he will become ill through lack of eating.

[PaulPhillips]

Thankyou for all of your advice, last night I saw Charlie tucking into a lettuce leaf, not much at the moment but its a start. We're leaving him alone, only handling him when he has a bath. It was so exciting to see him eat

[Steph37]

Ah that's good! I cant add anything to what others have said except to say that I have three hermanns hatchlings and their personalities are very different. One likes to be alone when she eats and wont eat with the other two. I made sure their table and set up was as similar as possible to the one they had come from (as my mum was the breeder!) but even then they noticed. I was lucky they pecked at food from day one, but not enough to keep them going for 4 days. They do love romaine and little gem letuce and also lambs lettuce is almost as good as weeds if you can buy some of that unwashed in a supermarket. The dandelions, stickybud, Mallow and chicory are growing well now in the south UK, and this sprinkled with nutrabel and a bath beforehand (I bath them after the daytime lights have been on for an hour) and then they soon tuck in. Having said that some go back to bed immediately after a small meal (like a baby!) and then get up again an hour later and feed for a couple of hours! Good Luck! It sounds like its all going in the right direction. steph

[Petrus]

Originally Posted by PaulPhillips

We took Charlie and Lola to a very good vet last Sunday, he kept tortoises himself so knew what he was talking about. He said they were both a very good weight and gave them both a vitamin injection. Since then Lola has been eating quite abit but we still haven't seen Charlie eat hardly anything. He seems to ignore all of his food. They are still given a warm bath every day and are both very active, Lola more than Charlie. They seem to be more active late afternoon/early evening. Any advice would be gratefully received.

Surprised a vet with experience of tortoises gave a vitamin injection. I know a lot of general vets do this, but my vet says that vitamin injections for tortoises are of limited value.

[Petrus]

Originally Posted by Beverley

Your temperatures sound fine, I would use a normal household bulb instead of a ceramic heat emitter, it gives off more light. The heat mat is not really needed, Its perfectly normal and good for hermann tortoises temperature to drop overnight, down to 10C, Check out the foods others feed their tortoises, hermanns do well on garden weeds, I know at the moment its difficult to get these, so bagged salad such as florette crispy is not a bad alternative. Tortoises take time to get used to change, so if they are active and bright eyed then just give them time.

IMHO 10C at night is far too low. This could cause the tortoise to sit under the basking light all day trying to warm up. I try not to let my night time temperature drop below 20C.

[Beverley]

What I meant was it won't do any harm if temps drop to around 10C but its ok to keep them a bit higher. I let the temps drop to about 13c and have no trouble with mine eating the next day. Temps fall in the wild as well and in my opinion keeping them too warm at night can be as bad as too cold.

[EJ]

you are correct in that it won't do any harm but it sets the stage for being too cool to get up for the next days activities.

That kind of forces the animal into hibernation mode.

Ideally... they need warm. These are reptiles that depend on warm temperatures to survive and thrive.

Originally Posted by Beverley

What I meant was it won't do any harm if temps drop to around 10C but its ok to keep them a bit higher. I let the temps drop to about 13c and have no trouble with mine eating the next day. Temps fall in the wild as well and in my opinion keeping them too warm at night can be as bad as too cold.

[Alan1]

if they dig down into the soil they will be a little bit warmer than the air temps in the room (or in wild).

remember to soak the pellets a bit if using pellets

[kkenny]

I have been reading with great interest, I have a 2yr old Hermann - George, who is not eating but I have only had him a few days.

How warm should the water be for his bath?

Thanks, this thread has really helped me.