Any thoughts on ZooMed's electrolyte soak product? I might consider buying it so that my tort becomes more hydrated since she barely to never drinks in her soaks so I was wondering if anyone on the forum has ever used this product
Understood will do thx for the advice ?Proper temps will do much more than antibiotics. Reptiles have not spent enough generations in captivity to adjust to different climates from the ones they live in naturally. Husbandry must by 100% certain.
Instead of RO + bottled mineral water, use plain bottled drinking water from a food store. It will be very hard to replicate the chemistry of plain clean drinking water, and errors in trying may be interfering with your pet's kidney functions. If your mix is too "heavy" in salts and minerals, the kidneys will start sending water molecules back into the blood, and generating more urate clumps from metabolized proteins.
Most people in the entire world do not start this species correctly, and most buyers have the wrong ideas about housing them. I find that people in tropical countries especially think they don't need indoor chambers with heat lamps and such. They do. Housing this species in open topped enclosures or outside all day just does not work well any where in the world. The urates you've seen are just one indication of this fact, and the lack of growth is another.Thanks for the info guys really appreciate it! I'll most likely just use it once in a month or so since the water I have is RO water but i usualky mix a bit of mineral water in it. For now i do in fact see daily pees in the evening but I still have to fix my sulcata's partially gritty pasty urates since she's barely drinking from ber water dish and soaks so I compensate by feeding a bit of lettuce after her fiber meal. I've had her since september 2020 but i barely see any growth so im considering that her previous bladder stone might be the cause. Her diet includes mulberry leaves, hibiscus leaves, siomak (a type of veggie high in fiber), opuntia cactus, aloe (very occasional), freshly cut eheatgrass and some mazuri LS pellets once in a week
The respiratory infection is likely due to cold damp night temps and the lack of night heat. More heat is the cure. Keep the temp 29-32C all the time using a heat source set on a thermostat, and offer a 36-37C basking area for 12-13 hours of every day. Its all explained here:I'm assuming that she might not be drinking because her nose might be clogged a bit with some clear sticky liquid. For now im using an electrical aspirator to suck some of the liquid inside her nose but on the lowest suction level and i'm administering some antibiotics orally and raising her enclosure temps
Will do Tom appreciate it ?Most people in the entire world do not start this species correctly, and most buyers have the wrong ideas about housing them. I find that people in tropical countries especially think they don't need indoor chambers with heat lamps and such. They do. Housing this species in open topped enclosures or outside all day just does not work well any where in the world. The urates you've seen are just one indication of this fact, and the lack of growth is another.
Your diet sounds great.
The respiratory infection is likely due to cold damp night temps and the lack of night heat. More heat is the cure. Keep the temp 29-32C all the time using a heat source set on a thermostat, and offer a 36-37C basking area for 12-13 hours of every day. Its all explained here:
The Best Way To Raise A Sulcata, Leopard, Or Star Tortoise
I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. Babies hatch during the...tortoiseforum.org