Eating Their Own Poop?

[daniellenc]

Sorry for double poop threads but I am thoroughly grossed out atm. I just finished soaking skurt and today he did not poop in his bath. I thought after yesterday's large contribution he might be good to go so I took him out and placed him next to his food bowl where he happily ate for a good twenty minutes. Suddenly I notice he has something dark and long in his mouth. I quickly go over what I fed him and realized nothing fit the bill so I thought it may be substrate. Being a good tort mom I open his enclosure to grab whatever it is out of his mouth but he won't give it up. Ok tort is three inches I'm 5 ft 4 so I gently get my fingernail in there which makes him release the "substrate", but upon removal I realize hey this is not substrate. Yep he was munching on his own poop

My question is is this normal? Is he deficient in something? Other than soaking until they poop how can I avoid this? I wasn't expecting him to be part of the bioactive substrate

 

[Pearly]

Completely normal! My babies at one point did that too back in their infancy days. As much as I hated the idea I trust our most experienced forum members in their explanation that torts instinctively seek to replenish their gut flora when they know it's lacking. They will eat other torts' and other animals' poop as well. Yep! Our pets are poop eaters!

 

[daniellenc]

Completely normal! My babies at one point did that too back in their infancy days. As much as I hated the idea I trust our most experienced forum members in their explanation that torts instinctively seek to replenish their gut flora when they know it's lacking. They will eat other torts' and other animals' poop as well. Yep! Our pets are poop eaters!

Well he is NOT getting a goodnight kiss!!

 

[Maro2Bear]

Yep, they do eat their excrement. But on close examination of what our sully eats, it is clearly clumps of "once eaten" (pre-digested) grass, hay, grape leaves, etc. Similar to cows, camels and other animals that eat once eaten/digested foods, its pretty normal. Out in the wilds of Africa.....no one is watching.

 

[Pearly]

Well he is NOT getting a goodnight kiss!!

I know, their breath reeks of poo when they do that! I'm glad mine enjoy good gut flora and have no poo cravings anymore