Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My baby Russian tort has always been a very strong eater (he's usually up and in his dish before I get a chance to wake up and feed him). Suddenly, over the past couple of days, he has slowed and even stopped eating, and begun hiding more. I boosted his temperatures because they were a little low (the basking spot was only reaching around 80-85 degrees F), and the weather has been a little bit funky since it's spring one day and winter the next here in Rochester NY, so right now I'm assuming that I've accidently put him in a hibernation cycle. So I already boosted his temperatures, and I'm thinking I'll give him a nice warm soak (to try to rule out constipation). Anything else I might want to try?

My russians always go through slow periods in early spring. I don't think a basking spot in the low 80s is going to put him into hibernation mode. But boosting the temps and giving him a soak will probably help. Just realize they don't follow a set pattern every day - they are still responding to environmental cues and will change with the indoor and outdoor conditions.

Thanks for the input! So even if he hasn't hibernated or anything, he will still respond to the coming of spring with a fluctuating appetite?

I've only had the little guy maybe 5 monthes, and he has eaten almost every day of those 5 monthes, and ferociously, so when he went a couple of days without eating, obviously it's started to worry me.

Thanks again.

A couple days is nothing to worry about.

Two weeks of fasting - then I'd begin to worry unless it's late fall and close to hibernation time.

Below I posted a photo of my almost 4 yr old "hatchling". I've noticed that his appetite and weight stall out every spring, improves in the summer, and flattens out in the fall. Even in the first year when I didn't hibernate him, he didn't eat much in the spring.

omg small world I live 30 min from rochester (newark) I hate this spring one day snow the next weather its such a tease! I am not going to try and tell you what to do other than what you are doing and possibly a vet visit... I am new to russians my self and dsont want to tell you the wrong thjing my baby was sick last month as well who are you using for a vet if you dont mind my asking I am having the worst time with mine she is never avaiable...
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~~*Erica*~~
1 puppy-cocoa
1 cat-Livvie
1 chinchilla-Lilo
3 Russian tortoises-baby,Calvin & Hobbs
1 Home's hingeback-Elephant
5 lil monkeys Jake,Matt,Amber rose,Zach,Kaitlin Grace
oh yeah and my husband Dave :0)
and 3 fish aquariums

was typing with one hand all 5 of the kids are home with strep and pnumonia joy....
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~~*Erica*~~
1 puppy-cocoa
1 cat-Livvie
1 chinchilla-Lilo
3 Russian tortoises-baby,Calvin & Hobbs
1 Home's hingeback-Elephant
5 lil monkeys Jake,Matt,Amber rose,Zach,Kaitlin Grace
oh yeah and my husband Dave :0)
and 3 fish aquariums

Currently I use Dr. Balonek at East Ridge animal hospital. He seems to know what he's doing...at least more so than any other vets I've tried. STEER CLEAR OF FAIRPORT ANIMAL HOSPITAL! They almost killed my bearded dragon with ivermectin, and they overcharge.

I don't like Dr. Balonek at all. I use Dr. Wiley at Wiley's ark in Holly.

Any specific reasons why? I've found that when it comes to treating reptiles, he seems to know what to do. Just don't go to him for husbandry advice.

He seemed to busy talking about his trips to really look at my pet. One of my friends took his sick, 7 year old iguana to him because it wasn't eating. He told him it was fine and was old (btw iguanas live to 15 years with proper care). My friend then took Spike to Dr. Wiley and she found an abcessed tooth in his mouth. Took care of it and now Spike is doing well again.

He's a very talkative guy. I always just steer him in the right direction (you have to really ask him what he thinks is wrong). He gets a lot of cases of poor husbandry (being around here, where husbandry seems to run rampant for some reason). I think he's used to people bringing in iguanas, leopard geckos, bearded dragons, that haven't been taken care of, and actually are reaching the end of their life at an early time. He told me he gets a lot of cases of kidney/liver problems from poor nutrition.

He catches things that I don't catch, and that's why I still go to him. I took my rescue uromastyx to him because she had injured her nose, and upon inspection, he found very tiny amounts of mouth rot (caused from the same thing as the nose injury...bumping her face up against the inside of a rock hide trying to dig). I've been treating it, and it's been healing nicely, and I'm glad that he was able to catch it when it wasn't yet a problem.

But, if anything does happen, I would never hesitate to switch.

You said your baby russian tort was sick last month. Can you describe how it was sick, and what you did to remedy the situation?

well i tried for almost 2 weeks to get ahold of my vet, finally got a appt then they called me to cancel it! so I had to do it myself so to speak.Her eyes( I call her she but we dont know her sex just yet) were swollen shut and she wasnt eating so I bought some turtle eye drops and upped her temps a little, changed her substrate to white paper towels and added a humid hide to her tank..I wasnt using a tank until she got sick but I needed a way to keep the humidity up just enough and her temps right- I plan on putting her in with my older russians when she gets a bit bigger, they have a huge walk in closet as thier "room" the advice you got from bradtort sounds right- he is good he knows his stuff. you should try and up the temps a little and maybe even try somthing bright yellow like squash or carrots to maybe get him a little more interested in eating ...I have heard a occasional fruit snack is ok but some pple say no fruit at all ..but if it gets them to eat maybe try it mixed with thier greens?
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~~*Erica*~~
1 puppy-cocoa
1 cat-Livvie
1 chinchilla-Lilo
3 Russian tortoises-baby,Calvin & Hobbs
1 Home's hingeback-Elephant
5 lil monkeys Jake,Matt,Amber rose,Zach,Kaitlin Grace
oh yeah and my husband Dave :0)
and 3 fish aquariums

Hey I live in Rochester NY as well. My Hermanni has slowed down a lot the last week or so. He is still eating, but not nearly as much nor is he as eager to eat. He also seems to be sleeping more. My box turtle gets like this every year around this time as well so I wouldn't worry to much.

how cool is that..2 in roch.in one day :0)do you have #rs for the vets? how far is Holley from Newark any clue? thanks alot I was reading on a few sites that it is normal for torts to slow from one season to the next as they adapt..whatdo you think of the occasional fruit treat ? a strawberry here appleslice there? etc?
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~~*Erica*~~
1 puppy-cocoa
1 cat-Livvie
1 chinchilla-Lilo
3 Russian tortoises-baby,Calvin & Hobbs
1 Home's hingeback-Elephant
5 lil monkeys Jake,Matt,Amber rose,Zach,Kaitlin Grace
oh yeah and my husband Dave :0)
and 3 fish aquariums

According to yahoo driving directions Holley is about an hour and a half from Newark. I drive almost an hour to get there.