Orange Urates

[Jenncure]

My Russian's urates have been tinted orange for the last several weeks. Should I be concerned? She has had some orange-colored food like carrots and pumpkin, but it's been almost a month since she's eaten that.

 

[biochemnerd808]

Have you been feeding lots of dandelions? Those can cause the urates to become orange, pink, or brown (depending on the tortoise and the kind of dandelion). It's from the sap in the dandelions.

It's best to feed a widely varied diet, rather than feeding the same plant again and again. The Tortoise Table has a wonderful plant booklet that you can print off which has a collection of commonly found edible plants in it, along with awesome pictures.

 

[lisa127]

I often wonder what that means too. I have two leopard geckos who have urates that have started looking like that. And they only eat bugs! Though the bugs do eat carrots.

 

[Jenncure]

She hasn't been eating dandelions, but maybe there is something else she's eating that's triggering it. I feed as varied as I can, though somewhat limited by what I can find plus she's a picky eater and doesn't like half the things she's supposed to eat.

 

[JazMoore]

My tort has pinkish urates after eating green beans. Try giving her iceberg lettuce and water based food to hydrate her and flush her system

My Russian's urates have been tinted orange for the last several weeks. Should I be concerned? She has had some orange-colored food like carrots and pumpkin, but it's been almost a month since she's eaten that.

y tort