Iv just found a urate in my tortoises pee and need advice.

[Zezima]

Iv just soaked my two stars and one of them has passed a white grainy rock when it was doing its business, I don’t know how to prevent this but my humidity is always at 80% and my temps are 35• degrees in the day and 26• degrees at night, It’s the first time Iv ever seen it Happen and it’s only 9 months old!

 

[Yvonne G]

How often do you soak them?

 

[Zezima]

How often do you soak them?

Every 5 days but I now realise that is not enough

 

[Yvonne G]

Yes, hard urates is an indication of dehydration.

 

[Zezima]

Yes, hard urates is an indication of dehydration.

There diets consist of kale and supermarket Italian style mix such as rocket, baby leaf, butter lettuce, red chard, red Batavia lettuce mizuna leaf and baby spinach, I give them courgette twice a week to and cats ear when I can see it growing!

Would it be a good idea to give them dry pellets for more fibre and if so what’s the best pellet diet?

 

[Yvonne G]

It's my understanding that kale is high in goiterigens and should only be fed sparingly. Too much kale MIGHT contribute to kidney/bladder stones. More fiber won't soften the urates. Only hydration can do that.

 

[Zezima]

so 5 days later after writing this post and Giving a daily soak of 30 minutes each day since then one of my stars has just passed more gritty urates and there was more of it this time than iv seen before so I don’t know if this is a good thing as it’s being flushed out of the system now?

 

[Lyn W]

Keep soaking them, it's good they are passing them and hopefully with regular soaking and a good diet the urates will become more like a floaty white substance.
This is the caresheet that will help you with diet and to make sure their temps etc are OK

The Best Way To Raise A Sulcata, Leopard, Or Star Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. Babies hatch during the...

tortoiseforum.org

Are you housing then separately?

 

[Zezima]

I am still having issues with urates it’s only one of them that’s doing it sometimes it’s coming out and it’s almost like a floaty substance but today it passed what looked like a grain of cat litter out when it was having a soak.

I don’t know what I’m doing wrong but i don’t see it drinking as much as I’d like it to in fact I think iv only ever seen it drink once where as my other one iv seen it drink quite often.

My temperature directly under the basking light is 35 degrees and the humidity in the enclosure is 80% and sometimes hits 85+ when sprayed.

There diets consist mainly of leafy greens such as cats ear, Dandelion, sow thistle and once a week I give them pre alpen Tesudo pellets.

Iv been putting calcium on there food every day aswell but not ridiculous amounts of it it’s just dusted over lightly.

I’m using two small terra cotta saucers for there water bowls but maybe it’s not big enough and it’s not doing the job, I’m getting really concerned because I thought I was doing enough to enable them to thrive.

 

[Lyn W]

They don't need calcium every day - just a small pinch a couple of times a week is enough.
Too much can do more harm than good.
I always soak my torts food to rehydrate it so that he gets moisture from that too.

What substrate are you using?

Are they housed separately?

 

[Zezima]

They don't need calcium every day - just a small pinch a couple of times a week is enough.
Too much can do more harm than good.
I always soak my torts food to rehydrate it so that he gets moisture from that too.

What substrate are you using?

Are they housed separately?

I’m using coco coir and orchard bark, And they live together.