While tortoises aren’t exactly known to be very active, they don’t spend their days running around, a healthy tortoise will react to stimulus, but if your pet seems unresponsive to any type of stimuli then you’d understandably become worried.
This article looks into why your tortoise is not responding.
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My tortoise is not responding:
A tortoise not reacting as it usually does will understandably worry you as an owner, if this is happening then you’d need to be proactive and figure out what is going on.
Here is why your tortoise may not be responding:
Hibernation:
One reason why your previously active tortoise may suddenly be nonactive and no responsive may be that the animal is hibernating
These animals are very sensitive to temperature changes in their environment and a change in the temperature, ie: a drop in temperature can cause the animal to go into a hibernation.
The low temperature causes their metabolism, to slow down, their heart rate to slow down and their activity levels to slow down leading to unresponsiveness
The animal in this case will still have control over its muscles so the head and limbs may be tucked into the animal’s shell
A hibernating tortoise will still breathe, you can check this by putting a feather in front of the animal’s face, if you see movement in the feather then the animal is likely still alive and just hibernating.
What to do:
Hibernation in tortoises is a natural state of rest for the animal so you don’t have to worry, if the animal is healthy it will come out of the hibernation after some weeks.
If you’re happy to let the animal hibernate then routinely give the animal a warm water soak during the hibernation to help it flush out its urates.
If you don’t want the animal to hibernate then move the animal to an area where the temperature is higher.
That being said, you would have to worry if the animal starts to give off a foul odor while it is “asleep”, a foul odor means that the animal is dead and decaying.
Death:
Another reason why your tortoise may not be responding may be because the animal is dead.
Once a tortoise, or any other animal, dies, rigor mortis kicks in, rigor mortis is the stiffening of the body after death. This is caused by chemical changes in the body after death.
This stiffening of the animal’s body will wear off and the tortoise’s body will become limp and lifeless after some time.
What to do:
You can do a few checks on your pet to see if it is actually dead. Do these checks: touch the animal’s eyelid and then touch the animal’s eye to see if they move, if they don’t then your pet may have passed.
If your pet is stone cold, if the animal is releasing a foul odor, if the animal has sunken and hollow eyes, if the animal’s body is shrinking, if the animal is bloating and floating in the water, and if there are flies accumulating around your pet’s body then your pet likely passed.
If you do these checks and the animal seems dead and it still does not move after 24 hours then you can safely bury or cremate your pet.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other turtle/tortoise related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Why Is My Turtle Restless While Sleeping, Why Do Turtles Put Their Feet Up, Why Is My Turtle Restless While Sleeping, Why Is My Tortoise Stiff, Why Is My Turtle Swimming Upside Down, Hit My Turtle With A Lawn Mower, What Happens When You Drop A Turtle On Its Back?, Can Turtles Survive A Fall?, Turtle Bleeding From The Bottom Of Shell