Daily tortoise weight differences. Crazy.

[ZEROPILOT]

I'd never weighed my tortoises until recently, after reading a post about doing it do detect illnesses. At the time I had a plague of disease. It sounded like a great idea. (Still does.) I've found wild fluctuations from day to day in all three of my tortoises. They are different sizes and the larger, the more different, For example, my big male weighed 1,670 grams the very first time I weighed him. Each day he could be up to 45 grams lighter, or about the same. It seems like it could be mostly about water absorbtion. My two smaller tortoises gain weight in small increments because they are getting larger faster. The baby is 84ish grams. Up or down if she's had a soak. She's up from her original weight of 71 grams. The middle child is 177 grams. Up from 120...and sick. Should I weigh for a few days and use that reading as the whole months baseline? What do you do?

 

[Yvonne G]

It has to do with poop and pee.

 

[Jodie]

I weigh my 4 little ones every other day. This way i can be sure despite the fluctuation weight is steadily increasing.

 

[stojanovski92113]

I have also never weighed my tortoises....I measured them but apparently I've been doing that all wrong . So I've never been good from the start on this type of stuff. I did take my torts to the vet a lot however and they got weighed there...but that will come to an end. Only if absolutely necessary will they go!!!!!

 

[WillTort2]

I weigh my Russian torts twice a month. Usually after a short soak; 15 to 20 minutes. It does serve as an indicator as to which tortoises may need careful observation. I like to see steady but slow weight gains for all of my tortoises. But, it never seems to work that way! One is always a little piglet eating everything with great vigor. The others are less regular in accepting a wide variety of foods. But they all eat their favorite foods. Never is there a dandelion bloom left on the slate feeding areas.

 

[stojanovski92113]

My one tortoise has had a major growth spurt, never seen anything quite like it in my other Redfoots. I'm curious of why such the growth! Also it would of been great timing to weigh & measure!!! S/he is going to be passing my second larger redfoot in no time!!!