Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just got my sulcatta from a buddy of mine, seems in good shape... He seems not to eat that much or be drinking. Enviromental stress from the move possibly?

Yeah, In the past I had experienced the same thing with both my babies (2) and my subadult 12" male. It seemed to take the babies about 2 days to readjust, and about 3 or 4 days for the adult.

I feel the best thing you can do is make sure that you tightly maintain the soaking schedule, or increase it. This will ensure that they don't dehydrate which will lead to more stress and much larger problems. And keep the temps and humidity appropriate for their size.

In addition, don't radically change their environment. i.e. maintain the same or similar substrate, lighting, heating, and exterior constraints until they adjust, and then slowly introduce them into whatever you have planed. (provided they were well taken care of before
This goes for the feeding as well, maintain the schedule and diet, be sensitive and ease them into any other changes.

Basically I like to think of them as human babies with a bowls on their backs. Consistency is important; they are creatures of habit like humans. (Actually I like my tortoises better than people, they're not nearly as obnoxious, and frankly I think they are more interesting and better looking than most people too!)

Good luck and congratulations, you should have a friend for life.
p.s. let me know how it turns out.

Hey, He started to eat after two days... ate alot of some grasses and he seems to love grapes(I gave him half of one and he took it right away) I made a 4"4" tortoise table and its alot bigger than his old 10 gallon tank... Thanks for the info!