Star tortoise poop concerns

sunster

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Hi All,

My stars are now a week with me. Yesterday they pooped quite a lot more than usual. The consistency of the poop was semisolid and dark colored. Usually they just pass the white urate in a teardrop quantity.

Also, this is the first time they have pooped and that too so much. Hope all is well since I have no way to tell. Otherwise they seem fine. Diet is hibiscus flowers and leaves on alternate days with coriander. They are fed twice a day. I suspect the sudden semisolid poop could be due to the hibiscus since they were kept for a long time before feeding and today there was all mold on it.

Since last evening till now, no unusual pooping and they had coriander for breakfast dusted with Calcium. This calcium is from a pet store. The calcium tabs given to dogs, since the pet store guy advised me not to give the normal human being calcium. Hope this is not the cause.

Any opinions here?

Thanks

Sunny
 

Kapidolo Farms

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With no other information provided for feedback, (yeah I see your other posts and thread) it seems a reasonable interpretation that your tortoises may have been somewhat dehydrated, and then with ample water cleared it's digestive tract.

Just because tortoises can endure a lack of water for short to long periods of time does not give any reason to not hydrate, yeah? So I am guessing that you offer soaks as well as food, or at least easy access to water, misting, simulated rain etc. that may have been absent before you got those little stars.

I think it can take as long as two or three weeks to see much outcome from a tortoise with a big improvement in hydration or food. I think what you are seeing is the positive result of changes you have made, most probably with water.

Human calcium supplements are safe to use, maybe even preferred. It would be a good idea to offer more different things to eat, mixed up from one meal to the next. That mix provides balance and reduces the chance your tortoise will fix on just two or three food items. If what you feed becomes un-available, then an already acceptable alternate is good.

Some chopped fresh grass mixed in, some other leafy things. Small quantities of whatever leafy things you eat are usually OK to create diversity in diet.

I sometimes use Fenugreek http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenugreek AND http://www.feedipedia.org/node/12082 in the diet of my tortoises, I think that is commonly available to you, Moringa oliferia http://tortoiseforum.org/thread-81123.html seems like a native tree food option. Hibiscus is great, but so are many other things. Are there mulberry trees leaves available? - rinse off, and feed.

All my tortoise diet preparation centers around five main ingredients for greens (four leafy, one grass) and two for supplements (prepared commercial foods), with some other green mixed in to reduce that chance they will get fixed on a certain type of salad. The proportion of greens to prepared foods is consistent, but not the ratio within those two groups.

So no two salad preps are ever the same, yet I get uniformity, the tortoises eat it all.

It sounds like you are having fun with your tortoises.

Will
 

sunster

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5 Year Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2013
Messages
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Will said:
With no other information provided for feedback, (yeah I see your other posts and thread) it seems a reasonable interpretation that your tortoises may have been somewhat dehydrated, and then with ample water cleared it's digestive tract.

Just because tortoises can endure a lack of water for short to long periods of time does not give any reason to not hydrate, yeah? So I am guessing that you offer soaks as well as food, or at least easy access to water, misting, simulated rain etc. that may have been absent before you got those little stars.

I think it can take as long as two or three weeks to see much outcome from a tortoise with a big improvement in hydration or food. I think what you are seeing is the positive result of changes you have made, most probably with water.

Human calcium supplements are safe to use, maybe even preferred. It would be a good idea to offer more different things to eat, mixed up from one meal to the next. That mix provides balance and reduces the chance your tortoise will fix on just two or three food items. If what you feed becomes un-available, then an already acceptable alternate is good.

Some chopped fresh grass mixed in, some other leafy things. Small quantities of whatever leafy things you eat are usually OK to create diversity in diet.

I sometimes use Fenugreek http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenugreek AND http://www.feedipedia.org/node/12082 in the diet of my tortoises, I think that is commonly available to you, Moringa oliferia http://tortoiseforum.org/thread-81123.html seems like a native tree food option. Hibiscus is great, but so are many other things. Are there mulberry trees leaves available? - rinse off, and feed.

All my tortoise diet preparation centers around five main ingredients for greens (four leafy, one grass) and two for supplements (prepared commercial foods), with some other green mixed in to reduce that chance they will get fixed on a certain type of salad. The proportion of greens to prepared foods is consistent, but not the ratio within those two groups.

So no two salad preps are ever the same, yet I get uniformity, the tortoises eat it all.

It sounds like you are having fun with your tortoises.

Will
Hello Will,

Appreciate your comments. Yes the stars are doing better (I guess)
This morning they had passed some slightly gritty urate but no poop.
They do eat fine and are ok with everything we offer. We are in the process of making an enclosure for them too. One of them enjoy the soak while the other just wants to get away from it.

They are cute :)
 

sunster

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Hi

This morning one of my torts had a bit of runny poo. I fed them coriander and cucumber twice yesterday. I'm suspecting the calcium supplement I'm giving them. They say it's meant for dogs on the label. Should I give them something else. Please see pics of the calcium.

Thanks

Sunny
 

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Kapidolo Farms

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I would not suspect the supplement with calcium and the runny poo are related.

I see the ingredients on the supplement, and some of the analysis. I would tend to stay away from milk based products for tortoises.

As for the poo, maybe the cucumber (which may or may not be what I think of as) cucumber could be why.

When I go to the giant grocery stores here with food from around the world, there are several things called cucumbers, that are strange and weird to me. One is also called a bitter mellon, and another is called a Indian bitter mellon, both are also called cucumbers.

With the US government shutdown, I am not able to access so many data bases for nutrient content. I don't know what values there are for coriander,

I think diversity in leaves would be a good idea. If you can get the leaves from the cucumber vine that would be good.

Will
 

sunster

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2013
Messages
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Will said:
I would not suspect the supplement with calcium and the runny poo are related.

I see the ingredients on the supplement, and some of the analysis. I would tend to stay away from milk based products for tortoises.

As for the poo, maybe the cucumber (which may or may not be what I think of as) cucumber could be why.

When I go to the giant grocery stores here with food from around the world, there are several things called cucumbers, that are strange and weird to me. One is also called a bitter mellon, and another is called a Indian bitter mellon, both are also called cucumbers.

With the US government shutdown, I am not able to access so many data bases for nutrient content. I don't know what values there are for coriander,

I think diversity in leaves would be a good idea. If you can get the leaves from the cucumber vine that would be good.

Will
Hi Will,

Thanks for the insight. U know I never realised the milk content in these tablets. Can I give them plain calcium carbonate powder available at medical stores? Today their poop was considerably better and also Im only feeding them coriander. No cucumber. Will add hibiscus leaves and flowers too.

Thanks

Sunny
 
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