My Tort Has Diarrhea-Please Help!

[Gillian M]

Good advice already given by many members, but if I could add that if you offer your tortoise a bit of romaine and then when it opens its mouth pop in a morsel of something more suitable or some mazuri, this will help with the transition to a different diet. I've tried this and it works, though sometimes the food has to be placed deep in the mouth or the tortoise may spit it out.
Good luck

Thanks a lot your alert and your help.

Believe it or not I've tried "your" method, but my tort refused to eat! There's an exception to each and every rule: what works with one tort may not work with another.

 

[Gillian M]

Know what you mean, Morocco is the same. No care for animals at all. Horrifying sometimes. Luckily I often go to Spain for my supplies, but not so easy for you I guess.

Most Arab countries are like that I think. And this is why it took me SO LONG to buy a pet: a dislike (if so I may put it) for animals, little or no care for them and consequently no pet stores, no or few vets, no no, no. Too bad isn't it?

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Most Arab countries are like that I think. And this is why it took me SO LONG to buy a pet: a dislike (if so I may put it) for animals, little or no care for them and consequently no pet stores, no or few vets, no no, no. Too bad isn't it?

Yeah, I didn't buy Tidgy, I rescued her from a family who were torturing her and had actually cut out one of her scutes to use as jewellry. The kids used her as a toy car, the adults kicked her around and they were feeding her on lamb.
She nearly didn't make it, but she's a tough girl and wanted to live. Now, over 3 years later, she's a happy little girl.

 

[Gillian M]

Yeah, I didn't buy Tidgy, I rescued her from a family who were torturing her and had actually cut out one of her scutes to use as jewellry. The kids used her as a toy car, the adults kicked her around and they were feeding her on lamb.
She nearly didn't make it, but she's a tough girl and wanted to live. Now, over 3 years later, she's a happy little girl.

I too have seen people bullying animals, such as: torts cats and even birds here. It's heart-breaking. They wouldn't dream of bullying a dog. Know why? I've noticed that most Arabs are scared of them. I know a Jordanian lady living in a villa. One day she found torts outside and such a sight angered her. Know what she did? She gave many of them away and fed the remaining ones her leftover food! Here I mean: rice, meat, bread and so on. How do you like that? What a shock I got!

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

I too have seen people bullying animals, such as: torts cats and even birds here. It's heart-breaking. They wouldn't dream of bullying a dog. Know why? I've noticed that most Arabs are scared of them. I know a Jordanian lady living in a villa. One day she found torts outside and such a sight angered her. Know what she did? She gave many of them away and fed the remaining ones her leftover food! Here I mean: rice, meat, bread and so on. How do you like that? What a shock I got!

Yeah, I've seen grown men scream and run away from the dogs at night. Very funny.
The dogs are harmless and just go through the bins. Every couple of years the police go round and shoot a few strays and some loose owned dogs.

 

[Lyn W]

My tort is a picky eater and won't eat dried grass so over the winter while I have had to use crispy salad mix I have followed the advice from here and blended it to a fine powder so that when I sprayed it all with water it would stick to the wet salad leaves - a nifty trick to get some fibre in - maybe that would work for your tort too.

 

[[email protected]]

My tort has had diarrhea for the past two days. The strange is that its diet has not changed: It's been eating Roman lettuce and only Roman lettuce since I bought it. It ate tomatoes for a while but when I was adviced not to feed it tomatoes, I stopped. Therefore, it went back to Roman lettuce, but in the past my tort used to "suffer" constipation, and never had diarrhea.

What am I to do to stop this diarrhea? Anyone's quick help/advice would be highly appreciated.

Thank you.

check for parasites, common parasites as amoeba, flagellates induce diarrhea, I would not believe the romaine muth, because google the nutritional value of romaine you will see how wonderful romaine is. it is low in protein and it offers great hydration which the tort needs when it has diarrhea, I offer all my trots romaine, spider, egypt, westerns and going close to aestivation time and hot summer it beside a variety of other greens very much recommended.

 

[[email protected]]

Romain has almost not nutritional value. Your torts going to need a diet change to get better. What kind of tort?

not true, google nutritional value of romaine.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Romaine is high in water and therefore good for rehydrating a tortoise. It is arguable whether it's nutritional value makes up for the fact that a tortoise can fill its tummy on romaine and not get enough of the nutrients. Romaine is low in fibre and this will be necessary to make your tortoise better. You should try to vary the diet, even if the tortoise is stubborn. It will eat when hungry enough. (probably)

 

[Randi]

check for parasites, common parasites as amoeba, flagellates induce diarrhea, I would not believe the romaine muth, because google the nutritional value of romaine you will see how wonderful romaine is. it is low in protein and it offers great hydration which the tort needs when it has diarrhea, I offer all my trots romaine, spider, egypt, westerns and going close to aestivation time and hot summer it beside a variety of other greens very much recommended.

The problem is that the tortoise has diarrhea and more then likely the diet (being fed only romaine) is the problem. Romaine wouldn't be a problem if it was offered with a variety of greens, but it is the only thing being offered. We can suspect worms but it seems more important to fix the dietary concerns first before assuming that.

And Gillian Moore, just go to a grocery store and visit your produce section. Most things can be obtained there. I purchase my seeds, herbal salad mix and powders at Carolina Pet Supply.com

 

[lismar79]

not true, google nutritional value of romaine.

Just going off this, and what other on here have told me.
http://m.thetortoisetable.org.uk/m/plants_19.asp?st=true&mode=main&catID=85

 

[[email protected]]

The problem is that the tortoise has diarrhea and more then likely the diet (being fed only romaine) is the problem. Romaine wouldn't be a problem if it was offered with a variety of greens, but it is the only thing being offered. We can suspect worms but it seems more important to fix the dietary concerns first before assuming that.

And Gillian Moore, just go to a grocery store and visit your produce section. Most things can be obtained there. I purchase my seeds, herbal salad mix and powders at Carolina Pet Supply.com

I feed my russians since 10 years mostly romaine and hey, that's it, no diarrhea, I started to change their food by adding more variety, now they have loose stool. And parasites will kill your tort specially with loosing hydration over runny stool.

 

[Gillian M]

I feed my russians since 10 years mostly romaine and hey, that's it, no diarrhea, I started to change their food by adding more variety, now they have loose stool. And parasites will kill your tort specially with loosing hydration over runny stool.

Personally, I don't think it's the Roman lettuce causing loose stool, due to the fact that my tort has been eating it since I've had my tort: almost four years now. Moreover, my tort used to have constipation. Only a few days ago diarrhea began.

 

[HLogic]

not true, google nutritional value of romaine.

http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/3036?manu=&fgcd=
http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=9444

95% water, 1:1 Ca : P, 2% fiber, relatively high Vit A (as would be expected in a leafy green vegetable), 0.33g oxalates/100g (16.5x that of kale but less than collards @ 0.45g/100g).

Is that good? Not particularly, in my estimation, but better than iceberg lettuce.