The Tortoise Table

Hi there, I've just rehomed a blind spur thighed tortoise this week (hatched without any eyes) and am wondering if anyone has any advice or tips for caring for him (he's only 56g so may not be male, too small to tell!) I have a 4 year old Hermanns, housed separately, so I have some experience with torts, but this is my first special needs tortoise. He's almost 2 years old but absolutely tiny, his shell looks good and he's trying to eat but keeps missing his food and I saw him eating his coir substrate in desperation today. He also has a very pronounced undershot jaw/lower beak which is also hampering his attempts to eat, I have a vet appointment next week to see if it can be trimmed or improved. Tried hand feeding him but as he couldn't see the food in front of him he ignored it. The only way I could get him to eat was by mixing soaked Mazuri with finely chopped safe weeds and a tiny bit of cucumber and actually putting him on the plate with it. It worked very well but I'm not sure how healthy or sustainable this is. Can anyone offer any advice or tips? Housed in a table, 1.4m by 60cm, hot end 31, cool end 25. T5 UV & 150w basking spot. Coir substrate, he's drinking well and pooping so he has been able to eat recently. Many thanks

Hi and welcome to The Tortoise Table. First of all, well done for rehoming this little tortoise, and it sounds to me like he will have a good life with you.

Regarding feeding, I think because of his blindness, you do want to try and incorporate a scent with his food, and cucumber is a good one. You don't actually have to feed lots of the cucumber itself, because you can squeeze some of the juice from the cucumber onto the food and that should be enough -- but it won't hurt him to have some cucumber as well, as it will help to keep him hydrated (but you obviously don't want too much cucumber because it doesn't have much nourishment).

When you tried to hand feed him, did you brush the food you were holding against his mouth to show him there was food there? I've had a look on some forums and several people with blind tortoises either hand fed at the beginning, or had a special dish where they sat the tortoise right next to a pile of food that they had sort of semi-liquidised (so he doesn't have to aim for a thin leaf at the start, but has a mass of food he can go for). You are already sort of doing that by putting him on the plate with the food, and I think that as he gets older and used to walking around, he will find the plate of food himself (probably good to keep it in the same place as tortoises have very good memories and once he has found it he will remember where it is).

I think the undershot beak could be more of a problem than the blindness, so a trip to a vet is a good idea (do make sure that it is a qualified reptile/exotics vet, and not an ordinary vet). In case you don't have one already, here's a link to our list of recommended vets in the UK https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/tor ... s-by-area/ , and if you can't find one near you, let us know and we'll have a look.

It's not essential, but personally I think I would change the coir to another type of substrate, as coir can get very dusty and isn't the best texture for tortoises to live on. We recommend a sandy soil substrate, mixing ordinary screened or sterilised topsoil that you can buyin bags with children's play sand (about 60% or 70% soil to 30% or 40% play sand usually works well, and you can spray it every day or two to keep it from getting dusty). The other disadvantage of coir is that if you have a bulb blow, and hot pieces of glass fall on the substrate (rare, but it does happen), then the coir can catch fire, and we know of at least one case where that happened.

Hopefully others will come on with some ideas for encouraging him to eat, but good luck and please let us know how you get on (and if you have a photo of him we'd love to see it, as we never get tired of looking at photos of tortoises.

Nina

Thank you for your help, our vet practice are nearly all reptile vets, with some specialising in tortoises. I'll try the changes you suggested and see if he can manage to feed himself, hopefully he'll get used to the idea. I watched him earlier and I think he's developed a strategy of just searching every inch of his enclosure until he finds something edible but it's very hit and miss. If he can't cope then I'm happy to hand feed him. He's such a lovely little chap, I just want to give him the best chance

Hi, and welcome from me too.
What a little diamond he and such a shame he can’t see.
I learnt from someone many years ago was that to encourage him to eat you can try using a narrow neck jar with some water in the bottom and pick his diet leaves and flowers with long stems so they drape above the rim by about 3 inches. He will have to look up to eat but this will make it easier for him to eat. It may also help if you just snip a slither off the top of the leaves to allow a scent to give him something to follow.
It’s worth a try and thank you for taking him on.
I use the word ‘him’ loosely seeing we have no idea of his gender.

Lin