# How many times should my tortoise poop?



## Newtortowner (May 30, 2014)

Hello everyone,
I am a new Russian Tortoise owner and am curious about how many times he should be pooping a day. He seems to poop around 5 times a day, especially when I try to hold him.


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## JoesMum (May 30, 2014)

Pooping when you hold your tort could be a stress reaction. It is possible he doesn't like being handled. Torts that are eating a lot, poop a lot. It seems to be quite an enormous amount compared with the size of the animal! 

. I will be honest and say that I don't think there is an average number of times per day... it is just what goes in has to come out!


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## tortadise (May 30, 2014)

I agree with joesmum. That is quite a lot for your tortoise to be excreting a day. The tortoises gut works pretty slow. Will take 2-4 days for ingested food to pass. However this also depends on how often it is fed and how warm the temperatures are. Tortoises gut and digestion works at optimum 80-85 degrees and on up. This is the core temp of the tortoise not ambient(outside temp). So if constantly kept very warm and fed massive amounts daily or more then they will deficate more. But certainly not 5 times a day. You may want to get a fecal examination done on your tortoise. Russians are notorious for being dirty. Meaning they carry a good payload of internal parasites. Also want to make sure and feed roughage like broad leaf greens, weeds, and grasses. Watery soft foods typically will induce the gut into processing quicker, as softer foods are more liquified. IE diarrhea. Which can dehydrate the animal too. Hope this helps.


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## JoesMum (May 30, 2014)

Russians are also notorious gluttons. They will eat everything going and more which results in lots of poop!


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## Yvonne G (May 30, 2014)

that all depends upon how much you feed him. There are no set answers. Most tortoises poop daily, sometimes more than once a day...however, what you feed him today isn't what comes out tomorrow. The bigger the tortoise the longer it takes to go through the system.

When you mess with a tortoise, because they don't like to be messed with (it stresses them), they will poop or pee on you as a defense mechanism.


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## Newtortowner (May 30, 2014)

Thanks for all the help


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## crimson_lotus (May 30, 2014)

On the way to the vet my tortoise likes to poop at least 6 times. It's definitely a stress thing.


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