Reptile & Amphibian Forums

He's 7" straight line. I bought him 11 days ago and all he's eaten is a piece of papaya the size of a red seedles grape, half a button mushroom and some cat feces (no, I did not feed him the feces. He found them while roaming in the yard.) When I bought him he looked great. Active, eyes looked good, no labored breathing, shell looked fine. He's still looks great, but is not eating. The store I got him at didn't know if he was C.B or W.C. He does have a blue and white metallic sticker glued to his plastron. Maybe that'll help to determine where he's from.
I've been soaking him every other day and I make sure he has clean drinking water daily. I've tried feeding him. Papaya, banana, strawberries, guava, grapes, mango, pumpkin, zuchini, romane, kale, mazuri (dry and moist), hibiscus (flowers and leaves), potatoe, dog food, earth worms, and different pasture grasses.
I'm getting really worried. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading such a long post.

Oh yeah. He lives in Hawaii. Temp is 70-80 F, humidity is 70-80%.

You may want to take him to the vet to get de-wormed or de-parasited, which ever is necessary depending on what show up in the fecal test. I know that it is an added expense that you did not count on, but I think it would make all the difference and you will see a big change in yout torts behavior. Good luck!

Allegra

I agree. I appreciate your time and advice.

Where in Hawaii do you live? I live on Oahu and own a cherryhead redfoot that I have had for around 9 months now. I purchased him from a pet shop here. I was told that Tonka was bred locally here. Is your tortoise kept inside or outside? What sort of environment does he have? Tonka lives outside in pen and is quite the finicky eater. His main diet consists of butternut squash, papaya, mango, petunias and wild mushrooms that he finds in the yard. The only way I can get him to eat anything else is to cut it up into very small pieces and mix it with what he likes. For protein he gets twice a week, either earthworms or dry dog food which I break into small pieces for him. I notice he eats better if I hand feed him also. I feed him every other day and he gets soaked in warm water every other day. When I first got him he weighed 322 grams and was 4 3/4 inches and now he weighs 525 grams and is 5 1/2 inches SCL.

I took him to a vet after I bought him and they wormed him and gave him a clean bill of health. It did take Tonka a while to get used to his surroundings, he didn't eat that well either for a while after I got him. If you live on Oahu I could give you the name of the vet that I take Tonka to. You mentioned a tag on his shell, I have heard of those tags being used on tortoises that are exported.

Sorry for the rambling, hope it helps.

Tonka's mom

Wow! Cool, you bought a Cherry head R.F on Oahu. Flash and I live on Maui. Actually I got Flash from the big island. Not too many torts here on Maui. It's fairly easy to get a permit but you need to take the animal to the inspector on Oahu. Thats the headache part.
I'm glad to hear Tonka is doing great. I'm sorry to say but releived to hear that I'm not the only one that has a finicky eater. I hope Flash gets to the stage Tonka's at.
Flash lives outside. Right now his enclosure is 8'x4'. As he grows I'll expand his living quarters. I let him roam around the yard almost daily so he can browse.
I'm happy to report that Flash finally started eating. I've noticed that Flash needs to warm up alot before he starts eating. Leo and Dino my leopards and Spuds and Pebbles my sulcata don't need to warm up as much before they start eating.
Have you encountered the same thing with Tonka?
Well it's neat that there's a fellow tort lover in the islands that frequents this forum.

Thanks alot for the inspirtion.

Have fun and good luck!