Eating Urates

[Prairie Mom]

I've caught my sweet freak eating her own Urates three times in the past couple weeks. Blech!

Anyone have any insight into this behavior?

Also--The texture of her urates are fine. -They're icky white jam.




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(Also, here's a random comment that I have to share.... When I looked up "eating Urates" into the forum's search engine it brought up this completely off-topic thread of Yvonne's from 2010. It's an awesome thread where she talks about a friend of her's, posts South Africa photos, and Maggie posts a picture of Bob in his cart! The thread is locked, but worth peeking at! http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/visitor.13214/#post-117956)

 

[Yvonne G]

You all know that I'm a true Forum lover, and I would never say anything bad about it...well, almost never. But the 'search' feature we have is terrible. I have much better luck with Google. You enter "Tortoise Forum" first, then a hyphen and what you want to find. For instance - "Tortoise Forum - eating urates"

 

[wellington]

You all know that I'm a true Forum lover, and I would never say anything bad about it...well, almost never. But the 'search' feature we have is terrible. I have much better luck with Google. You enter "Tortoise Forum" first, then a hyphen and what you want to find. For instance - "Tortoise Forum - eating urates"

I totally agree about the forums search. I never get what I'm searching for. Usually either nothing found or totally off from what I was searching for.

As for eating Urates, my guess would be cuz they are white, which attracts torts, torts will eat their poop, so why not Urates

 

[jaizei]

You all know that I'm a true Forum lover, and I would never say anything bad about it...well, almost never. But the 'search' feature we have is terrible. I have much better luck with Google. You enter "Tortoise Forum" first, then a hyphen and what you want to find. For instance - "Tortoise Forum - eating urates"

If you want to limit your search to just Tortoise Forum, use "site:tortoiseforum.org". It's highly likely that the top results from the way you do it will be from tortoise forum, but it's also possible that other sites may include the words "tortoise forum."

I can't remember what used to be different about the search feature, but I didn't like it at first either. Now, I think it's very useful. I think it depends on whether you are searching broadly, or if you already 'know' what you're searching for. You can narrow the search considerably.

 

[Schatzi011]

If she is eating her urates, she must be needing some nutrients from them. It is not uncommon for other hind gut fermenters to eat their own feces (coprophagia). I haven't seen my guy do it, but I have seen him eat dog poop.

Urates are high in nitrogen, which will help with protein generation. What is the rest of her diet like? That may help figure this out. In general though, I wouldn't be hugely concerned. It seems more like a nutritional management issue that can probably be resolved.

 

[JoesMum]

The other thing she may be after is calcium. Does she have a cuttlebone in her enclosure?

If not you can get one from any pet store. They'll be in the bird aisle