Do tortoises eat their poop?

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Ahernandez1990

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Today I went to a reptile store to get food for my bearded dragon and snakes and saw a tortoise eating its poop is that normal and ok?
 

Tom

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Yes. Yes they do... sometimes.

Was the tortoise housed alone I hope? Eating his buddies poop would just be gross...
 

MORTYtheTORTY

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I had to laugh!!! I've caught my hatchlings attempting to eat it and could tell by the look on their face but I always get it in time...well, most the time LOL I caught my rats eating their own poop hahaha it's so gross I know...I've seen other dogs do it but I haven't caught any of mine trying to do that.
 

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well that isnt as good.. but yes.. they do that.. another reason to NOT house different species together...
 

MORTYtheTORTY

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Do you know how old they were? My hatchlings accidentally mistaken food for other things LOL Sometimes the little one smells the big one and keeps trying to eat the shell or butt then slowly realizes that it's not food and when I soak them they try to eat the counter since it has grafitti like markings since it's granite (I believe) and they've also tried white wash cloth that was sitting on the counter and a plastic tan flower pot hahahaa weirdo's...maybe the sulcata smelled something yummy in the leo's diet jk
 

Neal

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Some more than others. But, it does seem to happen quite a bit more with sulcatas.
 

GeoTerraTestudo

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In the wild, tortoises do eat the droppings of other animals, like goats for example. This probably allows them to acquire some undigested nutrients. However, they probably eat their own waste only in captivity. Many animals that would not eat their own waste in the wild do so in captivity, perhaps due to starvation, boredom, or both.

If a tortoise is eating its own poop in captivity, it might not be getting a nutritious enough diet, or it might need more activity. Although coprophagy is not unusual among captive tortoises, it is probably not truly normal, in the sense that if the tortoise were getting what it needed, it probably wouldn't feel the need to eat its own poop.
 

Ahernandez1990

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GeoTerraTestudo said:
In the wild, tortoises do eat the droppings of other animals, like goats for example. This probably allows them to acquire some undigested nutrients. However, they probably eat their own waste only in captivity. Many animals that would not eat their own waste in the wild do so in captivity, perhaps due to starvation, boredom, or both.

If a tortoise is eating its own poop in captivity, it might not be getting a nutritious enough diet, or it might need more activity. Although coprophagy is not unusual among captive tortoises, it is probably not truly normal, in the sense that if the tortoise were getting what it needed, it probably wouldn't feel the need to eat its own poop.

That all makes sense to me they were yearlings housed in a small tank they had a lot of room to walk around but who would just want to sit in a tank all day
 

GeoTerraTestudo

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Ahernandez1990 said:
That all makes sense to me they were yearlings housed in a small tank they had a lot of room to walk around but who would just want to sit in a tank all day

As someone mentioned above, it does seem like the young of many species (including our own) do like to explore their world by tasting everything they can find. I had a baby redfoot tortoise who tried her own poop a couple times, even though she had a spacious enclosure and a good diet. I stopped her from doing it, though, and the behavior soon stopped.

However, if a tortoise is regularly eating its own waste, it might be trying to recover some of the nutrients, or as you observed, it might be crowded or need time out of its enclosure for some mental stimulation.

As I said, wild tortoises of most species have been known to scavenge the droppings of other animals - usually mammalian herbivores, like ungulates, monkeys, or rodents, depending on the species and the environment. This is a food for them, but it can also give them parasites, which is why captive torts should not be allowed to eat the poop of any creature, including their own. Captive torts have been known to eat dog poop, but again, they could get parasites, so they should not be allowed to do so.
 

Baoh

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Yep, they do. For nutrient recycling and also to reacquire mutualistic symbiotes. When they eat scat of other animals, they are creating the potential for diversification of their intestinal microbiome. This can be bad if a parasite that is especially bad takes hold, but can be good in terms of feed efficiency if there are beneficials.
 

GeoTerraTestudo

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Baoh said:
Yep, they do. For nutrient recycling and also to reacquire mutualistic symbiotes. When they eat scat of other animals, they are creating the potential for diversification of their intestinal microbiome. This can be bad if a parasite that is especially bad takes hold, but can be good in terms of feed efficiency if there are beneficials.

Tortoises (especially young ones) may eat the dung of other tortoises to acquire symbiotic gut bacteria. However, eating their own dung would not help them in this area, because there is no need to reacquire the bacteria they already have. I don't think a healthy tortoise under normal conditions would eat its own dung, unless it was young and curious about it.
 

MORTYtheTORTY

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GeoTerraTestudo said:
Baoh said:
Yep, they do. For nutrient recycling and also to reacquire mutualistic symbiotes. When they eat scat of other animals, they are creating the potential for diversification of their intestinal microbiome. This can be bad if a parasite that is especially bad takes hold, but can be good in terms of feed efficiency if there are beneficials.

Tortoises (especially young ones) may eat the dung of other tortoises to acquire symbiotic gut bacteria. However, eating their own dung would not help them in this area, because there is no need to reacquire the bacteria they already have. I don't think a healthy tortoise under normal conditions would eat its own dung, unless it was young and curious about it.

the sulcata and leo were housed together so we don't know if it was eating it's own dung or the leo's dung...Possibly the leo's. My sulcatas do not eat their own or each others dung but when they were 1 month and during soaking time they would mistaken it for food I'm assuming but they have stopped that at 2 months. I have never caught them in the act but it looked like they were going to eat it while soaking so I never gave them the chance but they don't go near it in their enclosure and they poop in their water dish and food dish all the time so it's always cleansed right away.
 
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