Poo frequency? Making full use of nutrients?

[ISTortoiseLover]

Hi everyone, got a question here.

I know that there are people here who's torts that poo everyday. And there are some just a few times each week. I do not soak my tort at all, as I leave a water dish for him to get in and out of.

My 5" radiated tort seems to hold it in. Fed mainly of soaked Mazuri and he loves that stuff, waits by the feeding tile every morning for food.
I find it odd though at times as he can hold it in for up to a WEEK. By then, I could wait no longer, I would just scare or stress him a little, and he poops out everything (firm and moist, greyish colored poop). So i doubt he is impacted or constipated. He did retract his head to push out the poop though, but no "Jacked up" hind legs.

So, for how long can a tort hold its poop in before it is considered "bad" for Health?

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Oops! sorry, meant to post in General Tortoise Discussion!

 

[Yvonne G]

I think it must be an individual tortoise thing. Some of mine poop every day and others every other day.

 

[ISTortoiseLover]

I think it must be an individual tortoise thing. Some of mine poop every day and others every other day.

Ah I see, though I've been told that before but never quite understood the situation my tort seems to be in. But is it unhealthy for a tort to hold the poo in for a week, maybe even longer than that? Naturally one would think that mazuri is high enough in fibre to make it wanna poop more often than once a week++. I would of course leave him alone to go naturally but it just makes me worried in a way seeing that most people here have torts that poo daily or every other day.

 

[ChiKat]

Hmm it doesn't sound like a good idea to scare/stress your tortoise to make him poop...

 

[ISTortoiseLover]

I was afraid that it might get some internal damage if it held the poo in for more than a week. Which is also why I came here in hopes of finding the answer.. And hopefully someone who knows abt such a topic would shed some light. )

 

[Kristina]

How do you know it is only going once a week? Tortoises quite often eat their own feces, and unless you are watching every second of every day, you can't know that for sure.

I also think that scaring or stressing your tortoise is a very, very bad idea. Considering tortoises have been around for millions of years, as long as it isn't ingesting something to cause it to become impacted, I think it probably knows when it has to go poop.

 

[ISTortoiseLover]

How do you know it is only going once a week? Tortoises quite often eat their own feces, and unless you are watching every second of every day, you can't know that for sure.

I also think that scaring or stressing your tortoise is a very, very bad idea. Considering tortoises have been around for millions of years, as long as it isn't ingesting something to cause it to become impacted, I think it probably knows when it has to go poop.

I see your point, Kristina.

But, I do watch my tort everyday, I got a video cam just to observe its routine (I need to be sure that its active and eats/drinks well.) hahah.. Andrew you sick tort voyeur you.. Well, one thing for sure is that, my tort doesn't eat his own poo. Don't get me wrong, I do not scare my tort everyday or every week, it was just once. He does go poopoo whenever he likes at times and its pretty irregular. Longest I could bare to wait was a week, so i had to test if he actually poos when stressed. At least he pooed. I checked its poop thoroughly too for stones/sand etc, found nothing..all fibre.

Will they develope like stones or intestinal blockage/damage/cancer etc etc if they don't poo after more than a week?