Sandstone covering for shell's abrasion and possible hatchling dehydration?

[Seejai]

Hi,

I'm throwing several things into one thread.

First, my baby sulcata I got in October has been doing well until last week when I had friend watch her while I was out of town. Apparently there was a misunderstanding on how often she needed to be soaked and the food I left went bad, so my baby was soaked less than normal and had a pretty unvaried diet of lettuce. When I got back she was lethargic and bloated and I freaked out. I decided she must be dehydrated and reinstated her normal diet and and soaked her multiple times a day. Her first two excrements were very thick and white (probably totally urates).

Now the bloating is gone and she is very active as normal but her urine is milky-white and thick looking in the water, where before when I soaked her it was clear with a few urates on the bottom as the evidence. Is this just part of her getting rehydrated or could something else be up? Just now she went on the peat moss and it looks almost like the consistency of bird poop.

Issue 2: She has a thin sandstone (pictured) that she basks on, feeds on, and burrows under. Since it is at an angle, she presses against it when she burrows and it has slight abrasions on the shell from rubbing against it. I don't think it's actually harming her, but I'm sure it's not a good thing. My stepdad suggested panting the bottom to make it smooth, but I'm imagining paint peeling off, and her eating it and getting poisoned. Any other ideas to smooth the sandstone?

 

[Yvonne G]

Maybe you could buy one square tile of indoor-outdoor carpet that has an adhesive back, cut it to fit the underside of the stone, then stick it on there.

It sounds like the urates are ok now.

Good thing you weren't gone longer. I can't tell you how many times we've heard a story similar to yours about leaving a baby in the care of someone while you're gone.

 

[Tom]

One week of reduced soaking and limited diet should not hurt anything. Shell abrasion COULD be a problem. I'd lay it flat to keep her out from under it. You can use a sheet of cork bark to simulate the same sort of hide with no abrasion.

 

[JoesMum]

Shell abrasion could be a problem, but is's unlikely in my opinion. Joe's shell has 50 years of abrasion from digging under rocks and trying to squeeze his shell through gaps that are too small... not to mention the occasional capsize when his sense of adventure has got him into trouble.

I have a beautifully smooth, but not shiny tortoise - it's a naturally gained matt finish from 50 years of outdoor reared weathering.

 

[Seejai]

I just soaked her. She was being kind of weird. There were bubbles coming from her butt area (maybe she was just peeing, I don't know) and she kept trying to tuck her head in her shell, while she was in the water. I took her out and this is what she peed. The urates are much thicker than they were before this incident.
Anyways, that's what they look like now with normal soakings. Is that normal?

Also, she used to defecate when I soaked her, now she only seems to be peeing with the thicker than normal urates, although I have seen some feces in her container.