lots or urate...bad?

[hollymc]

we were out at the park today...and he did his normal, pee on me while i hold him. but today was a little different from what ive seen before. it was quite a bit of urate...pee following. he has a shallow water dish in his cage...i soak him every morning...i feed him mainly hay and a mixture of greens. but its about a 70% hay to green mix. i dust his food with calcium 2-3x a week (is this too much or too little..i read alot of different things on this) and hes kept in soil/sand mix. and i mist his cage daily and we made him a house with one of those sea sponge things suction cupped inside. he loves that btw which we were surprised to find him in there!!...here are the pics....



close up


thanks for youre help!!

from what i read...this is ok...but i just want to make sure...

 

[Stazz]

That doesn't look very good Holly I hope he will be okay, but don't stress, there is always a solution!! I dnt know too much about it, but there sure are loads of people on here who will help!

 

[egyptiandan]

Hi Holly,
The amount is fine, it's the consistency you want to watch out for. You want the urates smooth and creamy like tooth paste.
If at all possible I'd switch from hay to fresh grass. The hay is taking a lot of water to process and can make a tortoise dehydrate faster.

Danny

 

[tortoisenerd]

My little guy has done that. I think awhile back he had a little blockage, so for a few days in a row there was a lot! Yes, I agree to watch moreso the consistency than the amount.

For young torts, daily or near daily calcium is usually recommended in addition to having a Cuttlebone available. For older torts this could be cut back a little, but some still do daily.

Calcium is important; the tort can't really OD on it unless it is way way too much: "Too much calcium results in secondary deficiencies of zinc, copper and iodine, malabsorption of essential fatty acids, and formation of calcium-containing bladder stones. Lack of calcium results in soft shells that often accompany pyramiding."

You could however OD the D3 that some Calcium supplements have in it. Supplementing D3 vs. not is an entirely different discussion though. I personally don't supplement this to my tort who gets UVB, but some do. I believe since it is fat soluble, and produced by the tort with access to UVB, he doesn't need it and too much could hurt him. Some will disagree though.

 

[Stazz]

Wow ok - I'm just gonna keep quiet now lol. No more advice unless I really really know! I'm glad to still be learning everyday.
And I am glad your tort seems to be A-OK

 

[hollymc]

well thank you all!! Kobe didnt have as much today. He did pee while i was holding him this morning. haha!! has anyone ever had a problem with hair in their poop? today while we were at the park, he ate grass the whole time we were there... literally... and he pooped a few times....and i notice that one of his poops was kind of dragging along with him, so i picked him up and there it was... a piece of my hair!! so I gently pulled it out of him.... he didnt seem to notice. ....
He is pretty active. He walks all over the place, eats like a pig, and he sure does poop alot... the hour and a half we were at the park, he probably pooped 4 times. there didnt seem to be anything wrong with the texture.
so i will pick up some fresh grass tomorrow, a couple cuttle bones, and see how that works for him. and ill start using calcium without d3 every day or every other day....probably every day just to be safe.
thank for all the advice!!

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heres a picture of him from earlier today!! soo cute!!! i love his little tongue!!