special bacteria to grow?

[MasterOogway]

Is this true. This is copied from this website. http://www.reptiles1.com/healthy_gpp.html

To determine healthy tortoise babies always look for:
•Good shell growth

â—¦Never buy a baby tortoise that does not show good growth lines. Tortoises require special bacteria to be preset in their digestive tract to enable them to properly digest and abosrb food. Without these bacteria the tortoises will eat but not grow or thrive. These growth lines are an indication that the baby has this good bacteria established in its system.

 

[Yvonne G]

In the wild baby tortoises may eat the feces of larger tortoises and this establishes the good bacteria in their intestinal tract that they need to be healthy.

 

[MasterOogway]

In the wild baby tortoises may eat the feces of larger tortoises and this establishes the flora in their intestinal tract that they need to be healthy.

This is interesting! So do captive breeders somehow insure this bacteria is introduced to the babies? I don't know anything about breeding.

 

[Spn785]

Yes. This is actually true for people and most if not all animals to my knowledge (the needing bacteria in their intestines, not good growth lines on their shell. ).

 

[Cowboy_Ken]

Yes. This is actually true for people and most if not all animals to my knowledge (the needing bacteria in their intestines, not good growth lines on their shell. ).

What the feces eating? I didn't do that with my daughter and she has made it to 24. Ok. Sorry for that.

 

[Spn785]

Yes. This is actually true for people and most if not all animals to my knowledge (the needing bacteria in their intestines, not good growth lines on their shell. ).

What the feces eating? I didn't do that with my daughter and she has made it to 24. Ok. Sorry for that.

LOL Thanks for that!

 

[MasterOogway]

Lol maybe that is what went wrong with me I am only 5'3

 

[Cowboy_Ken]

And your search field to try to discover why you are 5'3" led you to that?

Adds an entirely different meaning to the phrase, “crappy restaurant"!

 

[Spn785]

And your search field to try to discover why you are 5'3" led you to that?

Adds an entirely different meaning to the phrase, “crappy restaurant"!

REALLY?! Wow, you just keep on going with that! LOL

 

[DesertGrandma]

LOL, now you are grossing me out...

 

[tortadise]

Its true but there really Is more than the way they phrased it. Gut flora is what it is. These are bacterium in the gut that helps digest foods and allocated into the animals processing for mineral, fiber, and nutrient levels to be utilized. Some species like manouria will die without good gut flora. This is why pro biotics are a good regime for establishing a good healthy wild caught specimen. Impressa are notorious for dying after being dewormed with otc suppliments used for deworming. Same goes with any animal really. There is good and bad bacteria in all the guts that help digest. In humans saliva is the first stage of the digestion process. So if you dont chew well to mix it up or drink lots of water when you eat the stomach has a harder time processing it and digestion is a slower uncomfortable process.

 

[MasterOogway]

Its true but there really Is more than the way they phrased it. Gut flora is what it is. These are bacterium in the gut that helps digest foods and allocated into the animals processing for mineral, fiber, and nutrient levels to be utilized. Some species like manouria will die without good gut flora. This is why pro biotics are a good regime for establishing a good healthy wild caught specimen. Impressa are notorious for dying after being dewormed with otc suppliments used for deworming. Same goes with any animal really. There is good and bad bacteria in all the guts that help digest. In humans saliva is the first stage of the digestion process. So if you dont chew well to mix it up or drink lots of water when you eat the stomach has a harder time processing it and digestion is a slower uncomfortable process.

Thanks. So is this why torts eat thier own feces? Can it be harmful to them if enclosure kept clean without a chance to eat its own feces? Also I know Carolina Pet supply sells pro biotics in their tnt is there any other way to add the good flora to a tortoises digestive tract? Thanks again!!

 

[tortadise]

Good added microbes to gut flora would be natural growing grasses, and plants. However grasses and plants here arent same as what they are used to eating in the wild. If the waste has bad parasites in it then consumption will reinfect and expedite a parasite issue. Eric Ivans knows a bunch about this topic. Maybe he will chime in.

 

[Redari]

Human babies get their gut flora through the process of childbirth - they travel through a lot of messiness. Just to gross you all out further