Hi all,
It's our favorite subject! I have 2 adult Russians (male and female not kept together!) both are kept in large open tort tables, indoors, and under the same exact conditions. They eat the same meals, soak the same amount of times, under the same temps, etc. This has been their life for the last 3 years, they have grown tremendously and if I had to guess they are 10-15 years old. (impulse pet store purchase, wild caught, initially both had heavy worm loads which prohibited their growth) Since I have had them they have nearly doubled in size and weight. My female is about 900 grams and just hit another growth spurt. My male is actually a bit larger and just came off of a growth spurt this past winter, at that time he was 1020 grams. I slowed down with my weight monitoring as they seem to be thriving and after about a month I felt like my male felt a little lighter, I weighed him and in a month he went from 1020 grams to 812 grams. I started weighing regularly again and he is slowly creeping back up within 2 weeks he has gained 76 grams. I chalked it up to perhaps the change in season, they are back to getting some outside time and I have noticed his appetite has increased and he is drinking daily if not every other day which is new for him. His pee is clear and the urates are the right consistency. My concern is the size of his poop is really small now and is dark brown and mushy. It use to be large and very well formed, like it would amaze me something so large could come out of him. About 3 months ago started feeding them on pieces of slate to help with filing down their beaks and I am concerned that maybe he ate some of his substrate and is suffering from a partial blockage or something. (cypress mulch) I use to feed on paper plates because it was easiest to clean up, now with the change to the slate they tend to drag pieces of substrate into their food. I feed both of them a mix of spring mix, dandelion greens and flowers, safe weeds from the yard, Zoo Med pellets daily. I occasionally mix in cucumber, rose petals and hosta flowers depending on the season. They also get Miner All 2-3 times a week and have access to cuttlebones all the time. My female is still pooping the same which makes me think its not worms or a dietary issue. He is passing small amounts of poop daily and I gave him some aloe this morning in hopes he leaves me a big surprise today.
I am a compulsive worrier, is there anything else I can do to maybe give his system a "cleanse", I'd feel better if he just gave me one big turd. ( when else would some ever say this?! )
Thanks in advance and sorry for the wordy post just wanted to spew out all the details as fast as I could.
It's our favorite subject! I have 2 adult Russians (male and female not kept together!) both are kept in large open tort tables, indoors, and under the same exact conditions. They eat the same meals, soak the same amount of times, under the same temps, etc. This has been their life for the last 3 years, they have grown tremendously and if I had to guess they are 10-15 years old. (impulse pet store purchase, wild caught, initially both had heavy worm loads which prohibited their growth) Since I have had them they have nearly doubled in size and weight. My female is about 900 grams and just hit another growth spurt. My male is actually a bit larger and just came off of a growth spurt this past winter, at that time he was 1020 grams. I slowed down with my weight monitoring as they seem to be thriving and after about a month I felt like my male felt a little lighter, I weighed him and in a month he went from 1020 grams to 812 grams. I started weighing regularly again and he is slowly creeping back up within 2 weeks he has gained 76 grams. I chalked it up to perhaps the change in season, they are back to getting some outside time and I have noticed his appetite has increased and he is drinking daily if not every other day which is new for him. His pee is clear and the urates are the right consistency. My concern is the size of his poop is really small now and is dark brown and mushy. It use to be large and very well formed, like it would amaze me something so large could come out of him. About 3 months ago started feeding them on pieces of slate to help with filing down their beaks and I am concerned that maybe he ate some of his substrate and is suffering from a partial blockage or something. (cypress mulch) I use to feed on paper plates because it was easiest to clean up, now with the change to the slate they tend to drag pieces of substrate into their food. I feed both of them a mix of spring mix, dandelion greens and flowers, safe weeds from the yard, Zoo Med pellets daily. I occasionally mix in cucumber, rose petals and hosta flowers depending on the season. They also get Miner All 2-3 times a week and have access to cuttlebones all the time. My female is still pooping the same which makes me think its not worms or a dietary issue. He is passing small amounts of poop daily and I gave him some aloe this morning in hopes he leaves me a big surprise today.
I am a compulsive worrier, is there anything else I can do to maybe give his system a "cleanse", I'd feel better if he just gave me one big turd. ( when else would some ever say this?! )
Thanks in advance and sorry for the wordy post just wanted to spew out all the details as fast as I could.
