Oreo's Strange Behavior

[Himitsu]

Noticed something odd today, Oreo, my super mack snow was not in his hide.

It's not too odd to see this as he has various warm spots of 80-95 he likes to rest on.

But he was way off on the edge where it's cold, I went to pick him up and he started to do the defensive/aggressive tail wag... I thought it was me, but he didn't turn to my hands or act aggressively after I picked him up.

He seemed fine outside the tank, warmed up on my hand, did his normal thing and ate some crickets.

I go to put him back... He goes right to d/a tail wag again... I coxed him into his stone warm hide and he continued to wag with his tail outside.

Then suddenly rushed out to the corner, I never seen him run so fast.


Caught him hiding outside the rock again in the corner where it was too cold for my liking. (he felt so cold to the touch)

I held him, warmed him up again, he seemed chipper and wanted to crawl all over me. He even got overly excited at times slipping down my arm onto my stomach.

I checked everything, changed his paper towel bedding, checked his rock, even washed it.

I placed him back in the now cleaned out tank, and this time he SLOWLY edged into the warm rock hide wagging his tail...

Eventually he ended up in his cool moist hide.

I thought it might be his UTH but I held my hand on it, checked all the hot spots, 70 at coolest 90 at hottest (it's cold tonight).

So now I'm coming to you guys for any suggestions or experiences that might be similar.

Thanks in advance for any tips or suggestions.

 

[jbs81890]

your saying his rock.....do you have a heating rock in there??? if so that is a no no they need and under tank heating pad it may be be getting to the proper temperature.....and from the behavior is just sounds like hes stressed for some reason.......if you can give all your info like tank size, temps on hot side, supplements, etc

 

[Himitsu]

It's a rock hide, not a heat rock. There's only a UTH = Under Tank Heating Pad.

He's in a 20 inch long, 13 inch wide 10 inch tall tub. The under tank heater is 1/3 of that as recommended. The temp gradient is 79-96 on warmer days, 70-90 on cooler days.

As mentioned above I use paper towel bedding, no sand.

Also mention I feed him outside the tank, so no random crickets pestering him.

He's about 6 inches long and 4-6 months old.

He eats crickets and meal worms. He tends to favor one over the other for a time and switch. He just got off a meal worm kick and is eating crickets again.

I use Calcium without D3 and vitamin supplement powder with calcium D3 in it.