I was just checking on my chondros and noticed my recent acquisition was grounded in a somewhat unusual looking position. Upon further inspection I noticed she had a decent amount of substrate (eco earth) in her mouth. I quickly took her out of the tub and rinsed her mouth out as well as I could in as short an amount of time as possible to reduce stress. I believe I got all the substrate out (her mouth looks fully closed and symmetrical on both sides) but am left wondering what could've caused this?
She's currently housed in a 20qt tub and temps are within accepted parameters. I received her Sept 2nd and she has yet to feed while in my care (her last feeding being 8/15.) I did leave a hopper in the tub overnight Saturday, but it was placed on a small piece of plastic to keep it off the substrate. She's back up on her perch and looks alert so that makes me feel a bit better but it was quite a scary situation for both of us.
Any ideas as to what may have prompted this? I'm also going to switch to paper towels now to avoid something like this happening again.
Thanks for any input.
