W Shaw
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2015
- Messages
- 452
From what I've seem on the forum, a lot of tortoises seem to have issues with not eliminating regularly. Mine's never had that issue. He defecates every time he eats. It's normally a semi-solid mass -- not too hard or loose, and the food appears well-digested. But when he soaks ((which is currently more or less nightly with occasional missed nights), he defecates within two or three minutes of hitting the water, and continues to do so until he's out of the bath. By the time I rinse and refill his tub, he's already gone again in the other tub. The first time will be mostly digested, but by 15 minutes into a soak he's eliminating essentially undigested food. Since he's soaking almost every night, I'm wondering if this could have an impact on nutrition. Calories are a particular concern for me because he came to me so emaciated. Obviously, he needs the soaking in any case. He's essentially free choice feeding right now. He gets a big balanced meal in the morning. Whatever isn't eaten by the time I get home in the evening I take away and we have about 20 minutes of hand feeding on whatever he wants before his bath and then I leave him with a small bedtime plate that he nibbles on before he goes to bed. He usually doesn't eat much of that plate, but it settles him down after his bath and it's there if he wakes up hungry during the night or gets up early. So, I'm thinking what he loses to the bath is probably not enough to be a problem, but worth asking the experts here about, in any case.