PLEASE HELP: Upon the recomendations of nearly everyone, Let me start off by saying I have split up my sulcata and leopard.
While the sulcata was looking healthy and perfect, what was happening is the leopard wasn't growing much, if at all, and over the course of the last few months, his bottom shell has gotten "less white" and darker and more kinda "see through"... this isn't to say that you can look through my tortoise! However it is very safe to say that his bottom shell has gotten a bit softer too. In addition he seems less energetic, and is eating less. He opens both eyes, however for whatever reason, he takes longer to open his right eye than his left (I have NOT seen any discharge from eyes, nor mouth- no weird beathing, not that I can see anywy...)
I have brought the leopard back to the reptile specialist where I got him, a few times -- every few weeks over the last couple of months. He insists he is OK- however, while he is the guy who initially told me it would be ok to house the sulcata and leopard together, in light of my leopard's condition, he believes the sulcata's sheer size was stressing the leopard- they started life together in the cage the same size - about 1.5" long - the sulcata grew to 4-5" inches in the last 6 months and the leopard MAYBE put on 1/4" or so... Accordingly, we split them up as of this past thursday- it's now sunday, and I'm writing this post...
Anyhow- the leopard is now alone and has the cage to himself- hopefully no stresses. BUT: where is he at now, and here's why I'm concerned:
1) He does walk around cage- however he seems to definitely move more slowly than he did originally. Also, he doesn't "pick himself up" as much, to move, as he used to.
2) He's more lethargic now than when I first got him, as stated above. I have been soaking him either every day, or every other- in luke warm water. He likes to soak, and once he's back in his cage, he walks around a bit, and then goes to sleep...
3) He's eating very little, but at least he IS eating a bit... I feed him a mix of chickory, some lettuce - but I'll vbe switching to more collard greens, as I understand they're just better for him than romaine and lettuce etc. I also mix in "Grasslands tortoise food" my zoo med- again, on the recomendation of my reptile guy- he got it in recently and apparently everyone's tortoise loves it! As it happens, my sulcata dug right into it- I don't know if the leopard is eating any of the grasslands food yet..
4) I know babies love their sleep- but it seems like this guy's always sleeping- until he hears my voice or my stepping into the room, and then he kinda comes to- he takes a long time to come to on his own- meanwhile, if I start talking to the tortoise, he/she becomes active sooner.
I really do not want to lose this guy. The thing I'm most worried about, again, is the change in color of his lower plastron -
