Redfoot has White Stringy Substance in Urine

[Jeloz]

Hey everyone,

For the past 2 days while soaking my Redfoot I noticed that when he pees in the water, a white stringy substance comes out as well. His poop is normal and firm, but his appetite and activity have slightly decreased recently.
Has anyone encountered anything like this before?
Here is a picture of the substance:

 

[KarenSoCal]

That is called urates. It is a by product of your tortoise digesting protein. It can also be an indication of how well hydrated your RF is. It is normal and nothing to worry about.

As long as it is soft and creamy feeling, like you pictured, you can ignore it. If you feel it and it's gritty, or has bits and pieces of stone like consistency, then 1 of 3 things are happening. One, you're feeding a diet that has a lot of protein in it. Or two, the tortoise is dehydrated. Or three, a combination of one and two.

If you feel grit or stones, soak, soak, soak! It's impossible to soak too much, so try for an hour at a time in warm water. You want to flush the urates out through the urine. If they just stay in his bladder, they cause bladder stones to form, which can grow very large. To remove them surgically is a huge operation for a tort, but to leave them stops the urine flow and leads to a very painful death. Prevention is key here.

Then check his diet. Are you feeding items high in protein? RF eat differently than other torts, and you feed them meat occasionally. Maybe cut down on protein a bit, and soak more.

 

[Jeloz]

That is called urates. It is a by product of your tortoise digesting protein. It can also be an indication of how well hydrated your RF is. It is normal and nothing to worry about.

As long as it is soft and creamy feeling, like you pictured, you can ignore it. If you feel it and it's gritty, or has bits and pieces of stone like consistency, then 1 of 3 things are happening. One, you're feeding a diet that has a lot of protein in it. Or two, the tortoise is dehydrated. Or three, a combination of one and two.

If you feel grit or stones, soak, soak, soak! It's impossible to soak too much, so try for an hour at a time in warm water. You want to flush the urates out through the urine. If they just stay in his bladder, they cause bladder stones to form, which can grow very large. To remove them surgically is a huge operation for a tort, but to leave them stops the urine flow and leads to a very painful death. Prevention is key here.

Then check his diet. Are you feeding items high in protein? RF eat differently than other torts, and you feed them meat occasionally. Maybe cut down on protein a bit, and soak more.

Hey Karen,

Thanks for the reply! Wow I had no idea Redfoots could produce urates - but it makes sense because he's recently eaten some protein.
The urates are soft and creamy so I guess everything is OK.