Tortoise not eating
Tortoise not eating
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
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
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
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