Red foot tortioise 4 days no poop

Wadetortoise

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Joined
Apr 13, 2022
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NEW YORK
Hi, new on here, our red foot is about a year old and it regularly poops every day or every other day while soaking or walking around in a separate box we have. Worried since it's now been 4 days since he hasn't pooped and we haven't changed anything since we got him 5 months ago. He soaks 10 minutes daily in warm water and we give him dandelion, fruit 2/week and protein once every two weeks.

I've read that maybe they eat their poop but we have never found poop in his enclosure. He always does it in the water or box. Just seeing if anyone has experienced this and if I should be worried?
 

Aces1719

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Sep 21, 2021
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Wadsworth
Hello! You could always try soaking a bit longer than 10 minutes. Sometimes my tortoises can take 20+ mintues of soaking before pooping. Also, what substrate are you using? I know with my redfoot, his poop sometimes gets coated in the coco coir and makes it hard to find. For the longest time I thought he would only poop during soaks when suddenly I found a few turds buried a bit in the substrate behind his hide.
 

Avuwyy

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Jan 29, 2019
Messages
180
Location (City and/or State)
Liverpool, Merseyside
Hello, and welcome to the forum!

Whenever my tortoise doesn’t poop for a while, I start giving long soaks to try and get him to poop. Soaking time for the long soaks I perform bounces between an hour, or two hours, regularly moving him between tubs to keep his water warm. Make sure your tortoise has enough room to move about, as this is what will stimulate them to poop (Attempting to climb out is a good sign, as they can poop when frustrated).

Unsure if, by your mentioning your tortoise’s diet, you mean they only eat dandelions every day, with fruit twice a week, and protein every two weeks? If this is the case, tortoises need a more varied diet than this. I’m not an expert on Redfoots by any means, so someone will have to pick up dietary recommendations in place of me (I will give out incorrect information otherwise). Definitely up your tortoise’s fibre intake if these are the only foods you are feeding though. If your tortoise hasn’t been eating a lot, it could be that what has been eaten is taking a while to move through the digestive tract (It takes on average 7-9 days for food to complete its journey through the digestive tract if I recall?)

Would you be able to tell us the temperatures of the cool area of your enclosure, plus the temps under the basking lamp? Without appropriate heat, a tortoise cannot digest its food, which can be the cause of constipation. Also would you be able to tell us the dimensions of your enclosure? As said in the soaking part of my response, a tortoise needs movement to digest food, so if the enclosure is too small it can slow the digestion processes.

Hoping someone else can pick up what I’ve missed out. Once more, I’m not very knowledgeable on Redfoots as a species.
Hoping you find something that works to ease your tortoise’s constipation soon.
 

Ray--Opo

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Oct 14, 2017
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Palm Bay Fl
Welcome, what kind of substrate do you use? Your heat supply and basking temperatures are important. Also how large is the enclosure? They need to be able to walk a lot to keep things moving. Sometimes a car ride will get things moving. It might not be something that you changed recently but combination of a few things. That have finally contributed to the problem. A pic of the enclosure would be great. We might be able to spot the problem.
 
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