Shell rot and poop question

[tiffew]

Hi,
My 6 month old Eastern Box Turtle is finally eating!!!! I spoke to the woman at boxturtlefacts website and she suggested a much smaller habitat, fake greenery and soggy moss. As soon as we made those changes he started eating a red wiggler a day. But, I have two questions....his poops have only ever been white mucous-y. Is this ok? And, can he get shell rot from a bog-like soppy moss substrate?
Thanks

 

[GingerLove]

I don't know a whole lot about turtles... but I can tell you that the white mucous-y stuff is the urates in the pee. Poop will be a big brownish/green blob. Is the mucous stuff grainy or more like a stringy thing? Grainy means something in the diet needs to be changed. I'll let someone else answer the shell rot question as I have no clue!

 

[tiffew]

It's mucous-y like human mucous from a chest cold if you get what I mean. So it sounds like the turtle isn't pooping then, it's just white pee. Don't the worms he eats need to come out!!!?

 

[SarahChelonoidis]

Unless I am mistaken, box turtles are not a urate producing species - I also don't consider urates to be mucous like in consistency. Mucous in the stools is usually associated with internal parasites.

 

[GingerLove]

Unless I am mistaken, box turtles are not a urate producing species - I also don't consider urates to be mucous like in consistency. Mucous in the stools is usually associated with internal parasites.

Oh dear. That was my bad. I thought it would the pee would be the same as a tortoise. I apologize @tiffew !!!!

 

[SarahChelonoidis]

Oh dear. That was my bad. I thought it would the pee would be the same as a tortoise. I apologize @tiffew !!!!

Not all tortoise species excrete urates either (the footed species are not urate producers, for example). The Tortoise Trust has a nice explanation: http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/feeding_redfoots.html

 

[Pearly]

If your turtie was on hunger strike for a while he may take few days to start pooping. Do you soak him? How about plant material in his diet? He needs fiber to form nice poopies

 

[tiffew]

He doesn't seem interested in fiber yet, but we are offering it. The woman at boxturtlefacts website said to stop soaking, just keep his moss soggy.

 

[Pearly]

He doesn't seem interested in fiber yet, but we are offering it. The woman at boxturtlefacts website said to stop soaking, just keep his moss soggy.

Really??? I know NOTHING about turtles, thought boxie babies would be kinda in line with baby torts... i do know they love their earthworms so it's good that yous is eating. Oh i heard another thing about them, to have a pile of moist leaf litter for them to hide in, guess it's kinda this same as moss...

 

[Oogway the russian tort]

maybe you might want to try feeding them succulents if thats ok with turtles (as I don't know a lot about box turtles) succulents have a natural laxative them will make ur turtle want to go poop

 

[Pearly]

How about mushrooms? Not the white ones or portabellos, I'm talking about the forest kinds like chanterelles