2 year old Russian laying an egg?

I just came home to find my female tortoise who is only 2 years old like this
Could she be trying to push out an egg? Or could it be solid urates? Some liquid has come out and she really looks like she is straining.

No. That's hard urates. You need to pick at it to break it up and help it come out. The tortoise is dehydrated.

That is urates. How often do you soak her? What foods do you feed? Humidity? Humid hide?

I could be wrong but that doesn't really look like an egg to me and I was under the impression that torts couldn't reproduce at the age of 2. Could be wrong. Have you tried going her a warm soak to see if that helps?

Well, right after posting this I soaked her in some warm water and within minutes she was able to get it out. I don't think it's an egg based on how hard it is. Is it solid urates? How can I prevent it from happening again?

This hapoens when your tort is dehydrated. Get into the habit of soaking your tort daily for a good twenty minutes to get it rehydrated. Once things are better, you reduce the number of soaks, but will probanly need to continue to do 2-3 a week.

You're lucky it came out. Had it stayed inside it might have killed her.

When you feed the tortoise spray water on the food. Soak her every day for at least 15 minutes. For a couple weeks, feed her moist food to help hydrate her, like cucumber, aloe vera, etc.

I soak her once a week. Temp is 75 at the cold end and 92 under the lamp. Humidity is at about 40% the last few days.

Thank you everyone. I'm glad it came out too I was worried I was in for a vet trip. And I will soak her more often and get her some cucumber. Thanks again!

You need to re-examine how you are maintaining this tortoise. Your hot weather and climate can greatly contribute to this sort of dehydration. Everyone needs to make individual tweaks depending on their particular climate and enclosure.

How are you housing your tortoise?
What do you normally feed?
How does your tortoise escape the intense mid-day Phoenix heat? Does it have an underground retreat of some sort?


I agree you need so soak this tortoise for 20-30 minutes every day for at least two weeks, but given the heat and low humidity in your area, I would soak every other day until deep into fall.

Sure glad she was able to pass that. Make sure you are taking the advice above to ensure she stays hydrated in the future.
She has very pretty color.

Indeed a very pretty tortoise.