No urates and little poop

Maryalice

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Jul 26, 2021
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Pasig City, Metro Manila, Philippinex
Hello again co-tort carers. Since my 5-month old sulcata, Frankie, survived a bout of RI a month ago, i have been making some changes to my 2 torts' enclosures, i.e., adding 2 humid hides (one each on the cool and warm side), replacing all my uv and uvb bulbs with incandescent bulbs, and bringing their enclosures into the house, among others. I still keep my 2 torts in separate glass enclosures with 24/7 drinking water, soak them daily for 30 minutes, keep temps to 28C - 33C and humidity to 45%-80%, give them daily morning one-and-a-half hours of yard time to graze and walk around, and feed them 50% grasses and 50% mixed greens.

My concern now is that Frankie has much less poops -only 1 poop a day and sometimes none, and no urates for about 3 weeks now. My other sulcata hatchling, Harriet, who must be well started and well-hydrated and 4 grams heavier than Frankie even though she is 2 months younger, has an average of 2-3 poops per day, and releases urates once a week. While in separate enclosures, they have identical set-ups, diets, and routines. I notice a little decrease in both their food intake, perhaps due to their grazing during their morning yard time. Given their identical care, I expect them to have similar pooping and peeing behaviors. I am concerned that Frankie is keeping urates in which might later become stones. Is their any special food or drink or soak that i can give Frankie to encourage expulsion of urates and more poop? Or should I just stop worrying? Thanks for your advices.
 

wellington

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I would set them up in enclosed enclosures. Humid hides alone is not enough and the humidity should be 80% with basking temps 95-100F and day and night temps always 80F.
How big are the glass enclosures? Are you feeding them inside also not just while they are outside?
They need food available all day to graze on throughout the day.
Do you give any calcium supplements? Give a small pinch on their food 3 times a week.
Keep doing 30 minute long warm soaks daily.
 

Maryalice

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Jul 26, 2021
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64
Location (City and/or State)
Pasig City, Metro Manila, Philippinex
They are in separate 50 gallon glass tanks. And yes, i feed them the whole day - adding food at least 3 times a day or whenever they are out of their hides. In a day, they consume 2 to 2.5 cups of cut up greens and grasses, sprinkled with either calcium supplement (3x per week) or multivitamin supplement (2x per week). This feeding is in addition to their daily hour-long yard grazing. The only thing am not doing is keeping them in closed enclosures. (I can try covering the top of their enclosures. Humidity is low on the warm and basking side - around 40%-50%. But on the cool side it could easily go up to 80%, depending on how many windows are open in their room. I discovered that by opening more windows, i am able to increase humidity in their enclosures. I live in manila where humidity is naturally high, except in the months of March April, May, and June which are the hottest months. Sometimes, i just roll their enclosures out into the lanai on a cloudy day, and humidity will creep up into the 80s. If I measure inside their humid hides, these would be between 75%-85%. Am cautious about getting humidity too high as there was a time when i left Frankie outside in the lanai during the monsoons, but he was protected from the rains and kept his temps in the lower 30C (about 30C-32C). Humidity then would be in the 90%-100%, and he caught a cold. Maybe it wasn't the situation that caused his colds, and he could have already been sick, as this was about the first month i got him wherein he wasn't adding any weight.

Anyway, given the above description of my torts' living conditions, should I worry about Frankie's limited poop and no urates in the past 3 weeks? What to do?
 

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