Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a 20 some year old sulcata that has begun acting very lethargic! I've been in charge of his care for 5 years and am feeding and housing him appropriately according to everything I have read on this forum and in several books.

Prior to my care, his diet was very poor and consisted mainly of fruit. He is outside most of the year and has supplemental lighting in the winter.

There are several other sulcatas of all ages in my group and no others are showing any signs of illness!

Any suggestions as to the problem?

if it were me i would take him to get him checked for parisites expecially if he was on a fruit diet. maybe it will turn over some good info. couldnt hurt....

Do you think the rest of the group would be showing a parasite load as well since they are all kept together?

Just because one tortoise in a group has parisites does not mean they all do. It is best to get them all checked if possible. Keep pleanty of food in there pen as they will eat....well you know what if they run out of food. Clean up after them every day and if you have standing water in there pen clean it EVERY day if you think there is an outbreak happening. I dont even recomend having standing drinking water in a sulcata pen ever. i just let the hose run for like 15 min and they will drink every other day or so. If the sulcata is big enough i will leave out one of thoes self filling type water bowls for them, the one with the 5 gal water jug on top. I do make mud holes for them though but let them dry up compleatly before reweting them. Then again i have had perfectly healthy proven adult sulcatas get lethargic, lose appitite and starve themselves with no justification. I had a proven female die on me this season like that with countless trips to the vet and no explination. Thats just how it goes sometimes.

I find that the most common cause of my Sulcata slowing down is when my UV bulb has gotten too old. I can't tell it's not working because it's still putting out light, but it's not putting out any uv light. My suggestion would be to try a new uv light source, or a secondary uv source if their first one is old or too small.