Tortoise and Bird Poop

[Happy Tortoise]

My tortiose did it again, he pooped out white blob during the night. He did it on the first day too. Its not solid, its in like a sac of something that resembles mucus. It dried and to me it looked like bird poop. Can anyone help me?

 

[CourtneyAndCarl]

Sounds like a big glob of urates. Usually that's mixed in with a regular poos, but I think it's also fairly normal for it to just be that. If your tort is having a lot of these, you may try soaking more, since that may mean he has a big build up of urates in his system.

 

[Happy Tortoise]

Okay thank you for the advice

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I'll keep it in mind. Does every species do that???

 

[ascott]

Does every species do that???

Nope, not all...

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Species that are traditionally desert/arid dwelling species have been designed to do this to retain water during times of drought and lack of food items as well....

A tort will retain "old" fluid until a source for "fresh" fluid presents itself...so if you offer water for drinking, water for soaking and high water content food a few times at least a week then your tort will pass urates on a more frequent basis which in turn will clear their system of the urates.....

 

[GeoTerraTestudo]

Both birds and reptiles have a cloaca, which is a common opening for their anus, urethra, and genitals. This is why their urine and feces may be mixed; they often pee and poop at the same time. Both groups are capable of producing uric acid, or urate, as a means of excreting excess nitrogen. This is a whitish mass, not very soluble, that allows birds and reptiles to eliminate wastes, without losing very much water.

We mammals use urea instead of urate, which is easier to produce but more toxic, so we dilute it in our bodies and then pee out more water. This means we have to drink more (although some mammals have other water-conserving adaptations).

Tortoises from moist environments, however, instead of producing urate, produce urea like a mammal. This is because they have access to lots of water. Since they don't have to conserve as much water, they have evolved to simply produce urea and pee it out, like we do. This is why, for example, sulcatas excrete whitish droppings, but redfoots don't; sulcatas have to conserve more water than redfoots do. Actually, you can tell a lot about the kind of environment a tortoise comes (and needs) from its droppings.

As FLT said above, though, perhaps your sulcata is dehydrated. He will always eliminate some urate, but the more hydrated he is, the more dilute his urine will be, and that's a good thing.