sbwalker5
Member
Hi, I have a recent concern regarding my new Marginated Tortoise, Douglas.
We've had him for 2 and half weeks now, bought from a specialist reptile shop quite local (in the UK). He is around 7 months old now I believe.
As advised, we have been soaking him in warm water every day (and twice at the weekend), and have seen him drink on these occasions. His temperatures are fine (95 degrees basking spot, the rest about 75-80), and he seems ok generally (a little sleepy but I'm assuming babies are like this?). I'm trying to keep the humidity up by misting the substrate regularly, although after a day at work, this has dropped to around 40%.
He usually defecates during his daily soak, or immediately after, all of which look fine - quite firm, dark in colour, no smell etc.For the first week or so, he didn't urinate too much (that we saw anyway), but we did see it during most of his soaks after that. Initially this was quite clear, with no urates present.
However, for about a week now, there have been tiny amounts of visible urates in his urine each day. They seemed fine initially, only very small, with the consistency of egg yolk, which wasn't a concern. The last couple of days have seen slightly larger, with a bit more solid consistency, as my girlfriend describes them - like 'scrambled eggs'.
The concern came yesterday though.. Whilst soaking, he defecated and urinated a couple of times. Then after a while he deposited quite a large pile of urates, that were very gritty / powdery. I know urates are generally a normal thing, but this has panicked me slightly. He is only small (around 2 inches long), but the deposit seemed about a quarter the size of his shell!
I know there are other discussions on urates, but I have a few specific questions.
Could this have built up over the time before we had him (around 3 weeks ago), and now he is well hydrated he could expel them in his urine?
Or, could he be more dehydrated now, whch is why he has built these up recently?
We do a lot to try and hydrate him (including small amounts of cucumber occasionally to take in more water), so could this be more of a diet problem? We have fed him for nearly three weeks, mostly on a mix of
Romaine lettuce
Lambs lettuce
Rocket
Small amount of coriander
Some Kale in the last week (I know this can be quite high in oxalic acid!)
The diet isn't too varied at the minute, but I have recently ordered a tortoise see growing kit, to grow a wide variety of suitable weeds!
Also, initally to ensure he was getting enough calcium, we'd sprinkle his food with calcium carbonate every other day, and now he has a cuttlebone that we have seen him gnawing on. Could it also be an excess amount of calcium?
Sorry for the information overload, but hopefully it gives a picture that someone can offer advice from!
Much appreciated
We've had him for 2 and half weeks now, bought from a specialist reptile shop quite local (in the UK). He is around 7 months old now I believe.
As advised, we have been soaking him in warm water every day (and twice at the weekend), and have seen him drink on these occasions. His temperatures are fine (95 degrees basking spot, the rest about 75-80), and he seems ok generally (a little sleepy but I'm assuming babies are like this?). I'm trying to keep the humidity up by misting the substrate regularly, although after a day at work, this has dropped to around 40%.
He usually defecates during his daily soak, or immediately after, all of which look fine - quite firm, dark in colour, no smell etc.For the first week or so, he didn't urinate too much (that we saw anyway), but we did see it during most of his soaks after that. Initially this was quite clear, with no urates present.
However, for about a week now, there have been tiny amounts of visible urates in his urine each day. They seemed fine initially, only very small, with the consistency of egg yolk, which wasn't a concern. The last couple of days have seen slightly larger, with a bit more solid consistency, as my girlfriend describes them - like 'scrambled eggs'.
The concern came yesterday though.. Whilst soaking, he defecated and urinated a couple of times. Then after a while he deposited quite a large pile of urates, that were very gritty / powdery. I know urates are generally a normal thing, but this has panicked me slightly. He is only small (around 2 inches long), but the deposit seemed about a quarter the size of his shell!
I know there are other discussions on urates, but I have a few specific questions.
Could this have built up over the time before we had him (around 3 weeks ago), and now he is well hydrated he could expel them in his urine?
Or, could he be more dehydrated now, whch is why he has built these up recently?
We do a lot to try and hydrate him (including small amounts of cucumber occasionally to take in more water), so could this be more of a diet problem? We have fed him for nearly three weeks, mostly on a mix of
Romaine lettuce
Lambs lettuce
Rocket
Small amount of coriander
Some Kale in the last week (I know this can be quite high in oxalic acid!)
The diet isn't too varied at the minute, but I have recently ordered a tortoise see growing kit, to grow a wide variety of suitable weeds!
Also, initally to ensure he was getting enough calcium, we'd sprinkle his food with calcium carbonate every other day, and now he has a cuttlebone that we have seen him gnawing on. Could it also be an excess amount of calcium?
Sorry for the information overload, but hopefully it gives a picture that someone can offer advice from!
Much appreciated
