Baby Greek Tortoise Throwing Up Water?

lemonbrains

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I have one concern about my baby Greek tortoise and was wondering if anyone could give some insight.

My 6 month old baby Greek, Jem, throws up clear-watery-type fluid in the middle of eating her leafy greens. The quantity she throws up is like 3-4 drops, but enough to make her whole tiny face wet. She'll eat, throw up liquid, and then continue eating. This behavior started last week and happens like twice a day. Other than the throwing up, she seems healthy to me (she's active, eating, basking, peeing, defecating normally).

Maybe its because I wet her leafy greens with tap water before giving it to her and it overwhelms her with the water content? Idk. Please help
 

wellington

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Try to see if you can see in her mouth and down her throat. Maybe a deformity or something stuck in there that us bothering her just enough to make her throw up.
I use a wooden spoon handle or something similar and put it under the tip of her beak and lift slightly. When she opens her mouth slide it in cross way so it holds it open so you can use a flash light and look it
Otherwise if you can see anything I wouldn't worry too much and just keep a closer eye on it
 

lemonbrains

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Try to see if you can see in her mouth and down her throat. Maybe a deformity or something stuck in there that us bothering her just enough to make her throw up.
I use a wooden spoon handle or something similar and put it under the tip of her beak and lift slightly. When she opens her mouth slide it in cross way so it holds it open so you can use a flash light and look it
Otherwise if you can see anything I wouldn't worry too much and just keep a closer eye on it

Okay. Will try to do that when she wake up. thank you!
 

lemonbrains

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Try to see if you can see in her mouth and down her throat. Maybe a deformity or something stuck in there that us bothering her just enough to make her throw up.
I use a wooden spoon handle or something similar and put it under the tip of her beak and lift slightly. When she opens her mouth slide it in cross way so it holds it open so you can use a flash light and look it
Otherwise if you can see anything I wouldn't worry too much and just keep a closer eye on it

So I tried looking into her mouth and I do not see anything unusual :/ Its all clear down there. What do i do?!?! :(
 

wellington

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If she is acting fine otherwise I would just shake the greens so there isnt so much water on them and see if that helps. If not, maybe do a stool sample to see if there are any parasites bothering her gut. If that's all clear I wouldn't worry and just keep a closer eye on her for any new symptoms
@Yvonne G what do you think?
 

HermanniChris

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Definitely stop wetting the greens down. Even if you choose to rinse them first, dry them before offering. This species is supposed to eat fiber & calcium rich foods that naturally grow in poor soils. That makes them firm and on the dry side. Offering food too wet is causing the animal to regurgitate the water content. As long as it has access to drinking water daily and has a deep, moist substrate, there’s no reason to offer wet greens. Hope this helps.
 

lemonbrains

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Definitely stop wetting the greens down. Even if you choose to rinse them first, dry them before offering. This species is supposed to eat fiber & calcium rich foods that naturally grow in poor soils. That makes them firm and on the dry side. Offering food too wet is causing the animal to regurgitate the water content. As long as it has access to drinking water daily and has a deep, moist substrate, there’s no reason to offer wet greens. Hope this helps.


Hi @HermanniChris. So I stopped watering her greens like two weeks ago but the "throwing up water" behavior is still consistent. She still seems healthy (she's active, eating, peeing, pooping, sleeping, and basking normally) so I don't know what's wrong. There is no reptile vet where I live, I've tried searching. Do you know why she's doing this? :(
 

HermanniChris

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It’s odd but they fact that the rest of the behavior is fine and the fact that food is being kept down tells me it’s probably not serious. But I am not a vet. Can you actually take a video of this and post it on here? Actually seeing the behavior may help me to assess it better.
 

lemonbrains

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It’s odd but they fact that the rest of the behavior is fine and the fact that food is being kept down tells me it’s probably not serious. But I am not a vet. Can you actually take a video of this and post it on here? Actually seeing the behavior may help me to assess it better.

Hi @HermanniChris , I have finally caught it on video!

I've uploaded a video of my tort kinda throwing up water. The video contains two clips which are about 30 seconds apart from each other in real life.

Watch her throw up at 00:03 and then slightly again at 00:42 :(

Here's the Youtube link:
(Since I didn't know how to upload it here)

Let me know what you think!!
 

HermanniChris

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I don’t see anything that causes alarm here. It looks like the animal is simply revealing some saliva/water as it eats. Its feeding response is nice and enthusiastic while its jaw power is good and strong.
 
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