What is wrong with my Hermann’s tortoise? (loose stool)

I have had a 5 year old female hermanns tort for about 3 years now, she has always had some pyramiding but never any other health concerns. However this last week or two I have noticed her faeces have been very runny and instead of doing it in one she does it in dribs and drabs. I have always mainly little jem lettuce, courgette (I have experimented with better greens like kale and cabbage but she will not eat them) and other greens and it has never been a problem.

Can someone please tell me if this is a major health concern?
Thanks.

Fe-2470 said:

I have had a 5 year old female hermanns tort for about 3 years now, she has always had some pyramiding but never any other health concerns. However this last week or two I have noticed her faeces have been very runny and instead of doing it in one she does it in dribs and drabs. I have always mainly little jem lettuce, courgette (I have experimented with better greens like kale and cabbage but she will not eat them) and other greens and it has never been a problem.

Can someone please tell me if this is a major health concern?
Thanks.

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The diet you are currently offering is very low in fibre!!!

I would start offering more broad leafy greens and weeds such as Dandelions, plantain etc....

Ben02 said:

The diet you are currently offering is very low in fibre!!!

I would start offering more broad leafy greens and weeds such as Dandelions, plantain etc....

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She does eat some dandelion food with added vitamins and minerals, is this enough?

Fe-2470 said:

She does eat some dandelion food with added vitamins and minerals, is this enough?

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I would up the dandelions. Have you had her checked for worms?

Fe-2470 said:

She does eat some dandelion food with added vitamins and minerals, is this enough?

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Be very, very careful with extra vitamins and mineral supplements. Tortoises that eat a wide diet don`t need extra vitamins.

Bee62 said:

Be very, very careful with extra vitamins and mineral supplements. Tortoises that eat a wide diet don`t need extra vitamins.

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Okay thanks, so get rid of the supplement and try her on darker greens like kale, cabbage and mustard greens.

Hi are you in the UK?
Little gem lettuce like iceberg has little nutrition and isn't one of the salad leaves recommended for torts.
I have to rely on shop bought greens over the winter, but there are salad bags with a better mix of leaves available.
At this time of year dandelions are abundant ,but only pick those not likely to have had any fertilisers/pesticides/car fumes etc near them.
Have you seen www.thetortoisetable.org.uk that is a good guide to tort safe foods, and also find the Hermanns caresheet which will tell you all about diet, temps, substrate etc.

If you are in the UK, try and get this salad bag from any of the major supermarkets


I struggled over winter with what to feed mine. I use this bag as the staple it contains radicchio, lambs lettuce and frisée and I add different things like bok Choy, kale, greens, little gem (nothing wrong one in a while and I feed it more in the hot summer months purely for the water content) chicory, and now we are in spring lots of flowers, campanula is an absolute favourite, pansy, petunia.

Just make sure anything you buy from the shops isn’t covered in pesticide. My local garden centre grow all of their own pesticide free but I’ve got lots of seeds growing in the garden now. If you go into eBay, shelled warrior shop sell quick growing weed seeds. I planted mine 3 days ago and they are sprouting already.

Fe-2470 said:

Okay thanks, so get rid of the supplement and try her on darker greens like kale, cabbage and mustard greens.

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Kale and cabbage are no good food for tortoises. When you feed grocery greens look for lambs lettuce, romain lettuce and belgium endive. These three are fine tortoise food. Dandelions and ground elder are both a very good tortoise food and other wild herbs too. Please search which of these herbs you can feed your tortoise.
Please read here why I am against kale and cabbage:

https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/plant-database/viewplants/?plant=621&c=8

https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/plant-database/viewplants/?plant=529&c=8