Moving turtles outside! Best "bedding" for large 10x10' area?

[wellington]

If the granules are still visible and the tortoise can eat them, then the yard is not safe yet. Once the granules are fully dissolved and not visible anymore, it should pose no risk for the tortoise.

Also be sure it was just plain fertilizer and not "weed n feed", or something else with toxic chemicals in it. Some lawn chemicals now have pesticides, herbicides, and god only knows what else mixed in.

This is what I felt was needed, a bigger explanation. I don't use it at all, don't have the room to let them out on a different section while the fertilizer soaks in. My weeds and grasses grow fine. I will fertilize any new plants I plant for them, but they are kept from it until its well established and new growth is doing well.

 

[Markw84]

A fun aspect to using fertilizer in this fun world we live in now is that fertilizer, even those listed as organic, can often contain the waste of commercial animal waste. This can be so full of antibiotics that will indeed pass on to your tortoise. Like me, y’all aren’t raising up yer tortoise for eating, but if it were to take to being ill, and needing antibiotics, that are already being consumed can help create viruses and bacteria that are harder to knock down and just harder to treat overall.

Drugs that are administered are Metabolized in order to be passed by the kidneys and liver. In ruminants, often more is in urine than feces. However, the only thing that can pass is metabolites that are very different than the original drug administered. I've personally never understood the warning about drugs in the feces / urine of animals.

 

[Tom]

Drugs that are administered are Metabolized in order to be passed by the kidneys and liver. In ruminants, often more is in urine than feces. However, the only thing that can pass is metabolites that are very different than the original drug administered. I've personally never understood the warning about drugs in the feces / urine of animals.

Though I've never personally seen a case, I read multiple times that if a tortoise eats feces from a dog or cat recently treated with Ivermectin based heart worm preventative, it can be fatal.

Is this false?

 

[Bambam1989]

Though I've never personally seen a case, I read multiple times that if a tortoise eats feces from a dog or cat recently treated with Ivermectin based heart worm preventative, it can be fatal.

Is this false?

Wonderful question. I would also like to know the answer.

 

[Markw84]

Though I've never personally seen a case, I read multiple times that if a tortoise eats feces from a dog or cat recently treated with Ivermectin based heart worm preventative, it can be fatal.

Is this false?

Not totally false. Depends upon how the drug is administered. IF orally, and depending upon dose, some of the drug will not be totally absorbed and can indeed pass through and be in the feces.

 

[Olddog]

Though I've never personally seen a case, I read multiple times that if a tortoise eats feces from a dog or cat recently treated with Ivermectin based heart worm preventative, it can be fatal.

Is this false?

Ivermectin is felt contraindicated in chelonians. It can be fatal. Ivermectin has be associated with extreme paresis or flaccid paralysis. Some species appear to be more sensitive than others. Toxicity would probably be dosage related. Have no idea about levels in dog feces but apparently a high percentage of ivermectin given as bolus in cattle is excreted un-metabolized in fecal matter.