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Q: Leopard Tort poop?
Posted By:

ImBooBy

Hey, I recently got a Leopard Tort at a reptile show.  It looks very healthy and is gaining weight very fast.  I am feeding it grass/weeds mixed with formula food i bought from a herp shop.  I use a Reptiglo bulb and a UTH to keep a warm area of about 90-95 and the cooler side is about 75 and drops to 70 at night.  My question is if his poop suppose to come out in small pellets or is it more watery?  I also had one poop inside his water bowl that looks like the grass didnt digest good enough.  The rest of its poop has been in long strings that are a big runny but then dries up pretty well.  Sorry if this is a stupid question, just wanted to make sure its healthy.  This is my first tort....I saw it at the show, went home, looked up some info and bought it the next day so I was really as prepared as I should be....
Points: 100
Topics: General Health , Digestive
Tags: Defecation
Species: Turtles and Tortoises > Tortoises > Geochelone pardalis
Administrative: Show/Hide
Assisted Answer 4/18/2009 6:38:22 AM

OccleReptics
is that forumlar food like pellets? if it is then please get rid of that, that stuff is not very good.

Depending on his age and size...his poop should be rather solid-ish.

Hatchlings, Juveniles and small tortoises tend to poop abit sludgey and sometime slightly runny but it should dry up very quick - if it is like water then that i am assuming his is urine. If he poops grass or any food, then thats fine lol my hermanns poops out some of his food, its nothing major to get worried about.

I suggest a reptile veterinary specialist check up, always a good idea.

If he is eating good, drinking fine then he should be alright. Don't feed more than once a day, and no more than he can eat within 30 minutes.

A good site to check out is www.africantortoise.com
 
Member Comment 4/22/2009 9:33:11 AM

JohnJohn
I wish I hadn't read this RIGHT WHEN I WAS EATING BREAKFAST!

(just kidding.....good luck with your poop issues)
 
Author Comment 4/22/2009 10:25:28 AM

ImBooBy
haha thanks guys.  The poop seems to become pretty solid after a bit.  So the reptical pellet food is no good?  He ate about 5-6 pellets a day but I guess I ll keep it on grass/weeds and other greens.  Is there any good daily diets I can feed him?  I want something that I can feed him incase I have to leave town for a few days like a dry food of some kind?
 
Accepted Answer 4/22/2009 11:04:23 AM

OccleReptics
The pellets are very bad mate, i would definitely get rid of them. Daily diet should consist of grasses, dandelions, clovers, sow thistles, global thistles, and if you go to a store you can get pansy, rose (only feed feed petals) sun flower petals too.

Unfortunately, no tinned or dry food is good for any tortoise, many places such as Komodo and even T-rex have had tortoise dry foods onsale, and they are just bad completely, they usually contain either to much protein or they don't contain anything at all its just a fatty biscuit basically. If your leaving town for a few days, then maybe get a friend to keep him for a few days. If your only going to be gone for 2 days only, then he should be fine to be left a dish full of grasses and weeds, once thats gone (one day lol) he should be fine lasting one or two days without food :) do not panic this is safe - my ex-reptile vet suggested this when i went away for 3 days break - first day i knew the food would be gone, second and third day he was fine without food.

But please, dont feed pellet food, dry food or tinned food.
 
Assisted Answer 4/28/2009 11:58:10 AM

shellboa
I tend to use the pellets as a sort of garnish. Think of them as croutons for your salad. Some times it may help to soak them and crumble them up as well. To true that they aren't good as a main diet though. It can be difficult to get a good variety of fresh greens especially when they are out of season. I tend to send the kids out to pick every dandelion in a 5 block radius and freeze them, they turn a little mushy but on top of someother greens they are still appealing.

As to the poop, my sulcatta tends to have poops that look a lot like horse clumps as I call them. A bit of undigested grassy stuff and a bit of goo. The goo part dries up and unless he has had some fruit, its generally solid. The stringy part happens when he gets into the flower bed. I would say that unless you see funny colors, really runny poo or it smell awful, that he/she is fine and healthy.
 
Member Comment 5/8/2009 6:12:24 PM

EricIvins
I use Mazuri exclusively for all My Tortoises and Turtles. No store bought nutritional salad guesswork going on over here.........But, if you do grass, it will usually come out like a halfway processed ball of grass. Usually the grazers will eat their poo to re-process that ball of grass and extrapolate any nutritional content there. It's a survival strategy used by most Tortoises, as their digestion process isn't the best at breaking down alot of the tough grasses and plants the first time. Tortoise poo tends to resemble what they've eaten, so if they're feeding on long pieces of hay, their poo is going to tend to be more elongated. If you chop it up, it'll tend to come out in smaller more typical turd like peices.
 
Member Comment 5/9/2009 9:27:37 AM

OccleReptics
EricIvins, the usual idea is if a tortoise eats their own poo/poo in general is because they don't get enough food, now sometimes its not enough vits, calcium, minerals or something else not to re-process the digesting of the grass ball so to speak. If thats the case most tortoises would eat their poo every time it comes out because all tortoises leave something that has not been processed as you say completely.

I feed my tortoises grass, and the never eat it when it goes through their stomach, into their bladder and out their rear end... If they do then they got some serious issues.
 
Member Comment 1/17/2011 1:02:01 AM

abi21491

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