Please Help-Baby Redfoot Wont Eat!!!!!!

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Posted by Katie on October 26, 2001 at 01:29:47:

I have a baby redfoot tort born in June of this year-he is about 3 inches long. He was kept in an enclosure with cypress mulch in it-I have changed it to newspapers for the time being.

He has always been healthy and eating. I feed him a very good variety of fruits and veggies, and commercial mix and vitamin powder sprinkled on every other day-every food item is different every day, and serveral items are offered mixed together.

A couple of days ago, I saw that he was not eating at all. He was hiding a lot, and hissing when I picked him up, and not wanting to come out of his shell like usual, usually he is all over the place when food time comes. He usually feeds very well, and he does still look healthy and normal, just acts weird. Everything is right in the enclosure, no resp or anything like that-he does not appear sick at all, I have seen sick torts, and he is not showing any signs of anything. Maybe I am starting to worry too soon, maybe he is just going through some kind of change or something as he is growing?????

I figured that maybe the cypress mulch was at fault, maybe he swallowed too much of it while eating or something. His food is kept on a seperate dish to avoid this, but somethimes he likes to look for food in the mulch when it falls. I have given him a lot of warm water soaks, he has not went to the bathroom, but does drink water and pee. I have even massaged his tail area to see if that might help. He doesnt even seem to want to recognize the food anymore, he just walks right on over it really fast. I am hoping that he does not have gut impactation or something like that, but I have been told time and time again that cypress mulch is fine for redfoots, and have never heard of any cases like this.

The only other thing I can think of is that maybe something freaked him out that I do not know about, and he is stressed. I have other reptiles, but they are far away from his enclosure, but maybe he saw them or something and was scared. This has never happened to any of my other torts, so I do not know.

There is no vet nearby anywhere here, I have checked, but somehow I doubt they would know the problem, being that he looks healthy. If someone could please help me out, I would be grateful, any information at all would be greatly appreiciated. Thank you very much!!!

Follow Ups:

Here's a thought... EJ 10/26/01 (0)
Re: Please Help-Baby Redfoot Wont Eat!!!!!! Justin 10/26/01 (2)
- He misses his mulch! DaviDC. 10/26/01 (1)
  - Good call... EJ 10/26/01 (0)

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: I have a baby redfoot tort born in June of this year-he is about 3 inches long. He was kept in an enclosure with cypress mulch in it-I have changed it to newspapers for the time being. : He has always been healthy and eating. I feed him a very good variety of fruits and veggies, and commercial mix and vitamin powder sprinkled on every other day-every food item is different every day, and serveral items are offered mixed together. : A couple of days ago, I saw that he was not eating at all. He was hiding a lot, and hissing when I picked him up, and not wanting to come out of his shell like usual, usually he is all over the place when food time comes. He usually feeds very well, and he does still look healthy and normal, just acts weird. Everything is right in the enclosure, no resp or anything like that-he does not appear sick at all, I have seen sick torts, and he is not showing any signs of anything. Maybe I am starting to worry too soon, maybe he is just going through some kind of change or something as he is growing????? : I figured that maybe the cypress mulch was at fault, maybe he swallowed too much of it while eating or something. His food is kept on a seperate dish to avoid this, but somethimes he likes to look for food in the mulch when it falls. I have given him a lot of warm water soaks, he has not went to the bathroom, but does drink water and pee. I have even massaged his tail area to see if that might help. He doesnt even seem to want to recognize the food anymore, he just walks right on over it really fast. I am hoping that he does not have gut impactation or something like that, but I have been told time and time again that cypress mulch is fine for redfoots, and have never heard of any cases like this. : The only other thing I can think of is that maybe something freaked him out that I do not know about, and he is stressed. I have other reptiles, but they are far away from his enclosure, but maybe he saw them or something and was scared. This has never happened to any of my other torts, so I do not know. : There is no vet nearby anywhere here, I have checked, but somehow I doubt they would know the problem, being that he looks healthy. If someone could please help me out, I would be grateful, any information at all would be greatly appreiciated. Thank you very much!!!

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