Bathroom & Boredom?

[Jillian Fricke]

Two questions:
My primary concern is that I just placed my Russian Tort in his bathtub, and he seemed to be struggling to go to the bathroom. His urate is usually a liquidy substance, but this time it was released in semi-solid chunks. What could be the cause?
My other concern is that he constantly attempts to climb the side of his habitat. He stands up against the wall and just scrapes at it for long periods of time. Could this be a sign of boredom?

 

[Pearly]

Could you first tell us what are the enclosure temps? Humidity? How often do you soak him and what do you feed your tort? I'll look at your prior posts and see if anything stands out. Typically consistency of urates is indicative of your tort's hydration status. My torts don't make the urates so no first hand experience there but from being active on this forum for almost 2 yrs and reading many thoughts of some most brilliant minds on tort keeping I understand that healthy well hydrated tort will produce creamy urates. Gritty or solid consistency calls for extra soaking and perhaps some other changes in your husbandry. I'll let you know if I run across something obvious about yours from your threads. Meanwhile increase the soaking frequency and wait just another bit for some of our greatest Russian tort keepers

 

[JoesMum]

Hi Jillian

If urate is not liquid/mucus like then then it does indicate dehydration.

Your Russian needs soaking for at least 30 minutes every day to encourage it to drink

Use warm water (think baby bath) in a high sided bowl with a flat bottom that your tort cannot see over or through. A washing up bowl is ideal.

The water needs to be deep enough to come just up over the join between the shell and the plastron (undershell)

I find soaking to be most successful when done first thing in the morning before the tort has warmed up properly.

As for trying to get out: Russians are very active little torts that need lots of space. The usual problem is that they are kept in an enclosure that is far too small.

What size floor area does the enclosure have? Anything bigger than a baby needs 4'x8' minimum (1.5 x 2.2 metres)

Have you read the TFO guides to caring for Russians? They're written by species experts working hard to correct the outdated information widely available on the internet and from pet stores and, sadly, from some breeders and vets too.

Beginner Mistakes
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/

Russian Tortoise Care
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/russian-tortoise-care-sheet.80698/