Worried about baby tort

[Pee-Wee]

Hi everyone.

I have had peewee since August last year. He was 1 year old when I got him and I weighed him at 35g.

I have kept him in a table, fed weeds, some pellets and bathed. Supplied uv bulb, been outside on sunny days and had supplements.


Weighed him this morning and he's 32 grams!

Where am I going wrong?!?

Thank you

Alice

[burnt toast]

Hello Alice. First question: Are you using the same scales & are they accurate? Have you weighed him at any other time? What species is PeeWee? What temperatures do you keep him at? cool end/warm end/ overnight?

[Pee-Wee]

Hello! Thank you for getting back to me.

I think my scales are accurate, they are my kitchen scales and fairly new.

I've weighed him every few months and he's stayed at 35-36 grams ish now hes 32.

He's a horsefield and he's outsife in the sunny days. In our spare room at night which is never below 15c. He's also got a uv bulb combined heat with a temp of 30 ish c

Thought he may have stopped eating so much as he went quiet in winter but he's very active at the moment and eating a lot of weeds. I had expected him to gain

[Pussygalore]

if you didn't weigh him through the winter and aren't sure whether he stopped eating then he may have lost quite a bit and is now starting to gain, sorry but the whole point of hibernating is to stop the loss when a tort slows down and doesn't eat in the winter. If you have to keep them awake then you also have to make sure they are eating, pooing, drinking etc otherwise they will be using their body fat stores to keep alive. Hopefully now your tort will start to gain weight but you must keep a record of its weight exspecially through the winter but at least monthly or more frequently if there's a problem, little ones can only afford to loose so much before they get into difficulties. Next winter either plan to hibernate or else you must try harder to keep him awake and eating ie up the temps and lengthen the light time and start doing that before the tort starts to slow down, Horsfields are one of the hardest to keep awake as they have one of the longest hibernations in the wild. Its been known for a tort that stops eating to never properly start again and some have even died or have to be tube fed.

[burnt toast]

I missed any mention of hibernation? A couple of things spring to mind: Is he actually eating his weeds? If so maybe a check for parasites would be in order. Also his temperatures, maybe he's a bit cool? (but I don't know a great deal about Horsfield's so wait for confirmation, mine like it a bit hotter than all of those temperatures)

Finally if all of above have been considered/ amended your tort might be a "failure to thrive tort". No one knows for sure why this occurs (although dehydration is high on the suspected list) What might be helpful is to get some Abidec (orange box) liquid from Sainsbury's/Boot's & add about half an inch to a daily shallow warm bath. I had a tort like this who never grew despite seeming normal in everyway & eating plenty & this is the only thing that helped

[Pee-Wee]

Hello, thank you again for your replies.

I didn't hibernate him this winter. I had only had him a few months and he's very small! I also didn't know if he was healthy enough.

So I made sure he was warm, bathed him daily and fed weeds & pellets. The central heating came on in my spare room dropped below 15c and i kept his bulb on for roughly 11 hours per day. He did eat during this time but very small amounts.

Weighing him every few weeks over the winter he just stayed the same.

I weighed him about 5 weeks ago and he was 35g and then weighing him yesterday he had dropped.

If anything he's eaten more in the last 5 weeks as he's now very active outside with plenty of weeds.

I'm wondering about worms.... Not sure how I'd go about working/checking for that?


Thank you

[emma_mcraf]

You can get a worm kit from Wormcount http://wormcount.com/exotic-animals/
Usually with worms they lose their appetite and become lethargic, but it's certainly worth ruling it out.