SAND

[Tom]

It does make sense! So healthy or not, any large amount of ingested sand will NOT pass through a tortoise or turtle? The biggest mind boggle to me was that they said a healthy tortoise will not become impacted.

This is not so absolute. Some sand MIGHT pass through any tortoise, healthy or not. Conversely sand can get stuck in the gut of any tortoise, healthy or not, and build up over time.

No one knows why it sometimes can be passed through and why it sometimes gets stuck. No one can say that a tortoise who passed some sand in the past, will still pass it today.

I find in these situations it sometimes helps to consider the source of info. What have they experienced? How many tortoises have they raised and kept? What sort of experience do they have to base their assertions on?

 

[Yvonne G]

If a tortoise is really well-hydrated the sand tends to stay in flux. But if he's dehydrated, the heavy sand goes to the bottom of the stomach and sits there. It can't make it up and out the opening to the intestines. It's not always possible to know the value of your tortoises' hydration.

 

[Jacqui]

If a tortoise is really well-hydrated the sand tends to stay in flux. But if he's dehydrated, the heavy sand goes to the bottom of the stomach and sits there. It can't make it up and out the opening to the intestines. It's not always possible to know the value of your tortoises' hydration.

Agreed!

 

[Jacqui]

In my top soil there is sand in the ingredients but there's almost none in there. I've had no problem, so with small amounts I would assume okay, but these people are saying all sand will cause no problems with a healthy animal.

All sand is something I would never do, but you see it done with softshell turtles a lot. There is sand in dirt, it's part of what makes good dirt good, which is what you have noticed.

 

[Tactical Tort]

Ok here's how I've been looking at this sand issue when I look at bedding for our tort.
I've been around livestock my entire life. Horses consume sand when they graze. More in some areas than others. We run sand fecals on them to check for sand when we do parasite checks.
Horses (otherwise healthy) come "down" with what is called sand colic. A build up of sand in the gut. (Gut looks just like the above tort xray). This sand irritates the gut to the point of colic. Usually fatal if not caught soon enough and a lot of the time leads to very expensive surgery needed to save them.
They DO pass some sand in their feces normally. Hence the ability to check for sand in their feces. Not all sand passes however and sits in the gut. This causes a great deal of irritation.
A tort can regularly be seen "grazing" on its bedding. If there is sand it's being consumed.
My brain wonders if some of it's being passed like a horse does. In our torts case a grass grazer's gut.
I know it probably sounds crazy. Lol!
I chose to stop buying a mix (made by our "local" reptile museum) because it had a light sand mix.
To me it's not worth chancing it for a small tort vs a 1000# horse. For my tort it's in my control.
If I run into someone who uses a sand or sand mix I'm going to ask for a fecal sample and run it or have them run it. Would be interesting to see if they pass sand like a horse.
To me I'm not chancing it.
Remember that there are A LOT of know it alls on the forum. I want to look at facts for myself. Like Tom has proved for his raising methods.
Just my opinion/thoughts.