My sulcata eats dog poop

[DAC8671]

Um, is this normal? Will it hurt him? He was out and about on the grass, I went in to get a bag to clean up the poop and by the time I got back outside Ralph was munching on poop. (very messy by the way).

How can I clean it off him? He does NOT like his face touched and it's all up on his face, under his neck, in the crevices on his legs.

Yes, it smells just divine.

 

[janiedough]

Ok so Percy does this ALL the time - so I have been told a lot about this.

If the dog who has pooped was taking heart worm medicine, then the chemical in the poop won't be good for him. Also, the dog probably eats animal protein which is in turn in its poop. Which means your sulcata is getting animal protein when he eats the poop - this isn't good for him and can cause pyramiding of the shell.

However, he could be eating it to build up bacteria in his stomach. I was told this, but I am sure if that is why Percy was eating it, then he would have stopped by now - and he hasn't.

So not good for your sulcata, but it is common.

 

[janiedough]

oh yeah and I clean percy with a good soak, but even then his face stays full of it - so then I feed him something like a flower or cactus which is thick and will sofetn/scrape the poop off his mouth.

VERY occasionally I feed him a treat like fruit with calcium powder on it - just to make sure he is getting enough calcium, and that usually gets the poop off, but you can't feed your sulcata fruit that often - or at all according to most sources.

I have given up on his butt being nasty. The crap doesn't come off in the soak and if you try to lightly brush his butt, he urates or poops all over me - therefore his butt stays black now.

I kind of would just settle on the fact that your sulcata is going to be big and stinky - the sooner you can embrace this quality the better because I can't imagine trying to clean Percy when he weighs 30lbs. +

 

[floridajake]

That is nasty. I hope you don't want to breed him. Poop around the mouth is a total turn off. Don't mean to sound like captain obvious, but the soulution is to not give your sully access to poo doo.

 

[Laura]

They eat thier OWN poop too.
Best to have seperate yards for dogs and torts. Especially since torts look like big Chew toys to dogs!!
I dont know why dirty poopy torts have anything to do with breeding..

 

[DAC8671]

The dogs are actually afraid of him. hehehe. Ralph comes walking up to them and they run away. Kinda funny to see two 90 pound dogs afaid of a 15 pound tort.

He's only gotten to the poop a few times in the 4 yrs he's been alive. I am pretty anal about picking up the poop right when they do it (especially since I have little kids running around). He just happens to get it if I'm getting another pile or in the house getting a bag.

He did let me wipe some of the poop off. He got mad and pee'd on me, but that's my own fault. hehehe.

I don't plan on breeding him. I don't know enough about the species to do that, plus, with moving with the military....we can't.

Thanks for all the input. I've learned A LOT in the few days since I've found this site.

 

[Yvonne G]

Thanks for all the input. I've learned A LOT in the few days since I've found this site.

And the MOST IMPORTANT thing you should have learned from this particular thread is that there MIGHT be poison in your dog's poop that could kill your tortoise. Tortoises die from ingesting Ivermectin or heart worm medication.

Yvonne

 

[DAC8671]

I will keep that in mind for the future. Currently they are not on HW meds.

 

[Laura]

Where do you live? We have our dogs on HW preventative Year round here in Calif. Especially this time of year when Mosquitos are the worst!

 

[DAC8671]

I'm in San Diego

 

[drgnfly2265]

My sulcata tries to eat poopy also. Everytime I let him out to play I have to hover over him to see what he is trying to eat.

The first time that he found a pile I pulled him away from it, but after that he kept trying to go back to it. Eventually I had to put him on the other side of the yard. He still was trying to find a poopy the whole time after that.

Someone suggested that he was doing that because he was trying to get more protein, so they told me to buy monkey biscuits. And he seems to like them.

___________________________________________________

Jamie

1 Sulcata (Bowser)

www.myspace.com/bowsertortoise

 

[hondamx]

Both of mine do it too.




Um, is this normal? Will it hurt him? He was out and about on the grass, I went in to get a bag to clean up the poop and by the time I got back outside Ralph was munching on poop. (very messy by the way).

How can I clean it off him? He does NOT like his face touched and it's all up on his face, under his neck, in the crevices on his legs.

Yes, it smells just divine.
[/quote]

 

[chelonologist]

Eating canid feces is probably something that is very adaptive and important for wild tortoises. I've seen wild desert tortoises eat coyote feces, and it's likely an important source of calcium for many species of wild tortoises. Most canids eat small mammals whole - bones and all. The small bones pass through the dog's digestive tract, and are still 'available' in the feces. Everyone's probably seen coyote feces with bits of bone in them (among other not easily digestible items). Tortoises 'know' this, too, and eat the feces to ingest the bones.

Of course, we don't normally feed our domestic dogs small, whole mammals, so they're not passing little bits of bone. And so the feces of domestic dogs probably do not contain a good source of calcium. Captive tortoises don't know this, so it's up to us to keep them away from the 'poopy,' especially considering what others have mentioned about dog medications passing with the feces.

 

[terryo]

My Cherry Head has never been near any other poop but his own, but he does eat his all the time.