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Tortoise not eating

Posted: 09 May 2019, 16:15
by Paula
I Have a horse field tortoise, a year and a half old I’ve had him just over a year last year he had a vitamin a deficiency which resulted in vitamin injections, he fully recovered this year he has since stopped eating doesn’t really do a lot and I’ve changed his UV light he has a varied diet and I’m not too sure is a vitamin a deficiency again his eyes look fine any advice

Re: Tortoise not eating

Posted: 09 May 2019, 16:43
by Nina
Hi Paula,

So sorry to hear that your little Horsfield is not eating. It can be difficult to diagnose the reason for a lack of appetite, but vitamin deficiency is very uncommon in tortoises, so I doubt that is it. There are a couple of common causes of lack of appetite, so let's rule those out first.

1. Usually a lack of appetite is due to the temperature or other factor that is easy to correct. If temperatures are too low or too high a tortoise will often stop eating. Can you tell me how he is kept (in a vivarium or an open tortoise table), and what the temperature is directly below the heat source at the height of his shell? A temperature from a thermometer mounted on a nearby wall will not be at all accurate, so you might need to hold the thermometer directly under the lamp at the right height to get a good reading, and it will help to have the temperature from the hot end and well as the cool end of his enclosure. If you can send a photo of your set-up it might only take a slight tweak to get it right.

2. The second thing is diet/ What sort of food are you offering him? Does he have any favourite foods?

I'm think we can bring him round, but it's a process of eliminating stuff that could possibly cause the problem to arrive at the solution.

Nina