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sorry this is coming later than sooner. i have been away on business which has kept me from responding to an earlier post. i came home from a week long business trip out of the country to find that "sterling" had come down with a cold while i was away. he had bubbles coming from his nose and was making weird sounds. i arrived home late that night and was not able to take him to the vet until the next morning. i am assuming that the night heat lamps were not enough with the huge temperature drop we had here while i was away. the person left in charge of him was left with a long list of do's and dont's. it never came across to them to turn the heat on in the house when the nights got so cold. anyway, i turned the heat on as soon as i arrived home and by the morning he had no bubbles and no sounds coming from him. despite this i immediately took him to the vet that morning. the vet weighed him and looked him over. he had lost one gram of weight which the vet was not too concerned about. he went from 65g to 64g. the vet said he would be concerned if he got down to 60 or 59. he said that he could not see anything wrong and to observe him for the next week and if i had any further concerns to bring him back. he said he does not want to do anything such as medicate him unless absolutely needed because it might do him more harm than good being that he is so small. "sterling" is eating but not as much. he doesn't seem to be pooping as much either. i made this known to the vet and he told me to get a dropping sample for him to test. i will be dropping that off tomorrow having my fingers crossed the entire time. i asked him about bladder stones and he said that it is not common in a tortoise his size. that this is a concern that comes with age. he also said that the tortoise would not be able to poop or have a hard time if there was a bladder stone. i also asked him about the humidity issue and he is insisting that there should be little to no humidity in the table box. he said that these tortoises come from a very dry region and the reason why they stay in the burrows when they are so small is more for protection than anything else. my hatchling seems to sleep alot and i am wondering if this is common? he will get up, eat, walk around and then nap. should he be more active? i will let you all know what happens at the vet tomorrow.

I'm so sorry the sitter didn't think to turn on the heat. We're skipping a trip to Las Vegas for a wedding partly because we can't find a good enough pet sitter..that's not the only reason but it's part of it.
Our big girl got a little sniffly once when the temperatures unexpectadly dropped 50 degrees one night. The weather forecasters apparently had no idea this was coming, it caught everyone off guard. Our big girl didn't eat a lot that week after this happened, she stayed in most of the time but by the time a week had passed she was her old self again.
Keep him warm, let us know what happens & good luck!
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PHRatz

the test of sterlings fecal exam came back negative. no parasites thankfully. the vet said to just observe him and if i think he is not eating to bring him back for a weigh in. he said that they sometimes go through dormant stages in the winter where they slow down for a couple of weeks. i hope that is all that's going on.

>>the test of sterlings fecal exam came back negative. no parasites thankfully. the vet said to just observe him and if i think he is not eating to bring him back for a weigh in. he said that they sometimes go through dormant stages in the winter where they slow down for a couple of weeks. i hope that is all that's going on.

Good news, no parasites!
I think the vet is right about the sort of dormant stages. Our big girl does that during the hottest part of the summer too. She won't graze when it's 100 or more outside.
I've found that her longest amount of time spent grazing happens on days when it's around 75-82 degrees outside. The hotter or colder it gets the less active she will be.
I hope everything is fine with your baby. It takes time to learn to read them & I can imagine it's even harder to do that with a little baby.
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PHRatz

If this helps any I was looking through some Reptiles magazines for something else when I ran across an article written by Margaret Wissman,DVM,DABVP, in the 2003 Annual which is the big yearly issue.
Her article is on tortoise diseases & she discussed different humidity levels for different species. She says the humidity level for a sulcata tortoise should be 30 to 50% & the temperature gradient should be 68-81 degrees to be healthy.
Just thought I'd post that in case it's of any use.
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PHRatz

thanks for that information. i have been playing with the temperatures trying to get a temp where i can see a difference in his behavior...more activity. i am having a hard time and think i might need to buy lower wattage bulbs for the table box. the humidity level is staying steady at 40% even with me misting inside with water from a spray bottle. i am doing a substrate change tonight and was wondering if more soil rather than sand should be used. right now i have the substate at 50/50. i was thinking by adding more soil it might cause the humidity level to rise. does your tort sleep alot? Also, any suggestions on lighting for a 4 x 2 foot table box that will give me the right temp range?

I am so sorry to hear about your little guys runny nose. It happened to me once with my little girl... but she HAD to have injectable antibiotics. I felt so sorry for her. It is actually pretty hard to give them shots with their thick skin so it seems so painful. She couldn't get far enough back in her shell. I remember having a discussion about humidity with you before, and sorta bowed out gracefully since it turned into the great humidity debate. I have still been looking into it. I have a degree in Geograhy, so I tend to look for more scientific information about my herps environments. I have learned that in the herp community everyone has a story and they are sticking to it. So sometimes it is helpful to go outside the realm of reptiles to find the information you seek. The link I am sending you to look over has nothing to do with tortoises!! BUT.... it has alot to do with the hummidity levels of desert burrows. This was a study done about desert dwelling small mamals and their use of burrows. The study took place here in the United States in the Sonoran desert, but can be applied to the Saharan desert since the climatology is so similar. In this study they actually capped borrows and measured humidity levels. It gets pretty technical, but you can get the gist of it.

http://www.public.asu.edu/~walsberg/bioscience_2000.pdf
(page 4 section Humidities experienced by small desert mamals)

There have been massive amounts of research done on soils in the sub saharan region, but these mostly concern the ability to raise crops instead of tortoise burrows. Most of the studies I scanned gave a soil water content of 17% in September when the rains becomes sporadic. This is usually when the mating season begins. Most hatchlings actually emerge during the dry season.

Another awsome link to get some insight about sulcatas in their natural habitat is http://www.rolexawards.com/journal/pdf/rae_ang_n14_art2.pdf

I don't want to confuse anyone, and do not claim to be an expert by any means, but I just wanted to share this information. It just seemed there was pretty substantial evidence to support both theories, so I wanted to get a better grasp of the matter for myself.

Thanks for posting those articles, very interesting stuff! I don't claim to be an expert either so anything that helps is always worthy of reading.
The second link to Africa, with the photos of sulcata tortoises that are NOT pyramided was wonderful to see.

Now I wish I had a way to measure the humidity of the soil underground in my own backyard. We've had a gopher problem the whole time we've lived here. going on 14 years now.
Our new neighbor keeps trying to kill the gophers, we don't bother because you can't get rid of them. He tries to kill them so they move here & we've seen a lot more of them lately.
When they dig up the ground & make big mounds on top of the ground I just wash them away with the garden hose...but the thing about it is, when they dig & make a fresh mound in the heat of summer I am always surprised by how damp that sandy soil that they've just dug up really is. Sulcata tortoises can dig so very deep into the ground, when we plant things here & dig, the deeper you go the more moist it is... but how moist I wonder?

We never planned to have a sulcata at all, I'm glad that when we took ours in that she was already way past being a baby. I think keeping a larger one has been easier than it is for those of you who have hatchlings even though she's big. Go figure..

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PHRatz