Hibernating diversions!!

[lillieflower]

i thought it would be her just settling in but i cant help worrying !!! i am sure she will be fine, im gonna change her substrate tomorrow though so its not irritating her face x

[purplepixie]

It can take a week or more for a tortoise to settle into a new home.
Keep bathing and offering food, if he/she does not eat dont panic. Water is more important than food at this time. Its only you that thinks he/she should eat
If your tortoise is very young, like any baby it will sleep 90% of the time, basking for a while warming up, then eat (once settled in) then sleep for most of the day. All quite normal.
Laboured breathing (mouth keep opening) a runny nose, big losses in weight and gunky eyes, then you can start to worry

[lillieflower]

so from what yoiu just said she seems perfectly normal im still gonna change her substrate today to bark i think i will ask at my reptile store thanks everyone xx

[purplepixie]

Dont change to bark, that is not a good substrate for med/horsfield tortoises. Once it get damp of any sort it can harbour mould spores, which can be fatel.
Soil or soil/sand mix is the substrate to use.

[lillieflower]

i used the soil/sand and it sticks to her she spends a lot of time when she is awake trying to get the substrate off her face.

[lillieflower]

what about using something like aspen? i see a lot of people on the indoor set up thread use that?

[den_bish]

I just use soil on it's own for the same reason, the sand used to irritate his eyes, so now I use just soil down one end and readigrass in the other

[AnythingWithAShell]

Mine spend some time getting it off their faces to. I also just use soil, no sand. They are quite mucky beasties, and this will obviously seem worse when something as 'dirty' as soil is used, but they really will be happy with it

[lillieflower]

ok i have been to see a breeder friend of my parents her set up is amazing !!!!! she has converted her under stairs cupboard for her torte s in winter it has glass walls but the bottom foot is wood pannelled so the torte dont panick about not being able to get out, she uses beech chips as she said when they get damp you can see and take them out. she also reccomended using the chips for a month or so until she settles in and then add only soil in a month or so. i also got some aspen for her bedding

so after worrying about my torte not waking on her own i left her sleeping this morning while i went to see a friend and when i come back she is up and basking on her rock

worrying over thanks for all the reassurance xxxx

[lillieflower]

after having a good look at her this morning after leaving her to get up on her own she isnt covered in anything it seems only when she is falsely woken she maybe dosnt dig out properly so i will leave an area of soil in there