margosha
Member
Sorry in advance for the length!
I've had my baby Russian tortoise for about a month (he's about 6 months old), and for the past few days he's been passing fairly gritty urates. And today, he seemed to strain for a few minutes before passing a pretty large chunk of gritty ones. Afterwards though, he ran around like nothing happened haha.
I feel awful, but like many, even after a ton of research, I was misinformed and kept him in an open-topped table with fairly dry substrate for the first couple weeks that I had him.
I know the breeder kept him in a "wet" environment, because I called him a while ago when my little one seemed too sleepy. The breeder told me to raise his temps and humidity, which I've since done. His humidity is now in the 60-75% range, and I soak him 20 min a day every day.
I know a tort's metabolism is slow, and it's been about a week that he's been living with the optimal humidity conditions, so could the grittiness be from keeping him too dry when I first got him? Do you guys think he will balance out? Or should I soak him longer/more often? Or are there any other suggestions?
I really appreciate anyone taking the time to help! I'm new to this and this forum has been so helpful!!
I've had my baby Russian tortoise for about a month (he's about 6 months old), and for the past few days he's been passing fairly gritty urates. And today, he seemed to strain for a few minutes before passing a pretty large chunk of gritty ones. Afterwards though, he ran around like nothing happened haha.
I feel awful, but like many, even after a ton of research, I was misinformed and kept him in an open-topped table with fairly dry substrate for the first couple weeks that I had him.
I know the breeder kept him in a "wet" environment, because I called him a while ago when my little one seemed too sleepy. The breeder told me to raise his temps and humidity, which I've since done. His humidity is now in the 60-75% range, and I soak him 20 min a day every day.
I know a tort's metabolism is slow, and it's been about a week that he's been living with the optimal humidity conditions, so could the grittiness be from keeping him too dry when I first got him? Do you guys think he will balance out? Or should I soak him longer/more often? Or are there any other suggestions?
I really appreciate anyone taking the time to help! I'm new to this and this forum has been so helpful!!