So cara has soft mushy eggs covered with egg yolk
- Thread starter Fruitguy
- Start date
Thomas tortoise
Well-Known Member
I believe the cause is low calcium.
Nothing usually causes that because it doesn't usually happen after they have laid good eggs.
Calcium would be the most obvious place to look, but you might want to review all your husbandry.
1. How often do you soak the tortoise?
2. What do you feed her?
3. Does she live alone? If not, how many others and what sexes?
4. Does she have a heated shelter for cool nights and winter? Or does she live in a burrow year round?
she is with a few other tootsies, one of which shows the same symptoms. i feed a lot of cactus, plus alfafa hay, mulberry leaves and assorted fruits and vegatables. she has a pond she can soak in at anytime, but i don't force her to go in it. she had a heated house for winter, but it's hot now and not needed
I've had a few people - icncuding a local vet-speculate what it is, but nobody can tell me for sure. i would gladly pay a vet to look at her, but no vet I know has sulcata experience. any ideas?
I guess I posted it in the wrong place, so I'll say it again she lives with a few other tortoises one which has the same symptoms, I feed a lot of cactus, grass, plus alfalfa hay, Mulberry leaves and a lot of assorted fruits and vegetables. She has a pond that she can soak in at anytime but I do not force her to go into it. I also have flood irrigation that floods the enclosure 4 inches deeper water every two weeks, so I'm sure she gets a good soaking she had a heated house for winter but it's hot now and not needed. I've had a few people, including a local vet, speculate what it is but nobody can tell me for sure. I would gladly pay a vet to look at her but no vet that I know of has sulcata tortoise experience. Any ideas?
Crushed empty hen eggs shells is the norm. I think oyster will be too sharp and dangerous. Have you read the sulcata care sheet as that may help you check set up and diet.
tortoiseforum.org
The Best Way To Raise A Sulcata, Leopard, Or Star Tortoise
I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. Babies hatch during the...
tortoiseforum.org
I had this same thing happen one year. I bumped up the calcium and it went away the next laying season. In the years that followed, I did not bump up the calcium and it never happened again with that female or any other. Have you tried upping the calcium? I bought calcium powder in bulk from @Kapidolo Farms You can also buy RepCal in bulk, cuttle bones for birds in bulk or ZooMed has large canisters of it too.
They should not be fed fruit. Fruit is low in calcium and high in phosphorus, which is not good, but the sugars can wreak havoc with the flora and fauna in the GI tract. The primary diet should be grass or grass hay. Orchard grass hay is best, but teff or Bermuda can also work. Avoid Timothy. Its too stemmy. Mulberry leaves and opuntia round it out nicely. A variety of weeds thrown in is good too. Grape leaves? Hibiscus?
Alfalfa is okay once in a while, but I wouldn't feed it to them regularly. High protein with a lack of soaking can cause bladder stones.
Oyster shell is calcium carbonate. I prefer the powdered forms that are available instead of the type used for chickens and pigeons.
