Are these urates normal?

[Sydgeo21]

I just checked on my tortoise and I noticed quite a bit of urates in his enclosure. Is this normal? It’s under his heat lamp so they may have dried out a bit

 

[zovick]

I just checked on my tortoise and I noticed quite a bit of urates in his enclosure. Is this normal? It’s under his heat lamp so they may have dried out a bit

It looks pretty normal to me. Do you keep the tortoise well hydrated by soaking it daily? That daily soaking helps to keep the urates at a consistency of a paste rather than them getting dry and hard and turning into a stone which can become hard for the tortoise to pass and cause problems.

 

[Sydgeo21]

It looks pretty normal to me. Do you keep the tortoise well hydrated by soaking it daily? That daily soaking helps to keep the urates at a consistency of a paste rather than them getting dry and hard and turning into a stone which can become hard for the tortoise to pass and cause problems.

When I picked it up it wasn’t hard it was super thick kinda like toothpaste maybe a little thicker. And yes I soak about 5x a week at least. I try to do daily right now because it dry where I live so I’m trying to keep him well hydrated. Normally I only see his urates when he soaks so I’ve never seen them in that form before. Thank you!

 

[zovick]

When I picked it up it wasn’t hard it was super thick kinda like toothpaste maybe a little thicker. And yes I soak about 5x a week at least. I try to do daily right now because it dry where I live so I’m trying to keep him well hydrated. Normally I only see his urates when he soaks so I’ve never seen them in that form before. Thank you!

Sounds good. If you notice the urates becoming more granular than pasty, then that is a sign the tortoise needs more frequent (or longer, or both) soakings to maintain healthy urate excretions.