tortoise stool

[Paige Lewis]

I was after some advice. I have a 10 month old hermanns hatchling. He has had a recent trip to a vet (a specialist that he has been seen by before), he checked a stool sample and everything seemed fine apart from a couple of worm eggs but no signs of hatched worms yet, he has been treated to get rid of the eggs, my reason for taking him to the vet was because i was every now and then finding undigested pieces of food, as in i could recognize for example a dandelion petal, his stools were still quite well formed although a little on the wet side and a dark brown colour, he also seems to have a little trouble passing his stools sometimes, he wags his tale a little and does a couple of squeezes before he passes his stools, he also seems to pass a large amount of stool. I have been going mad trying to work out what is wrong, he is on probiotics and has been for a while, his basking temp is about 95, his diet consists of: dandelion (leaves and flowers), plantain, herb robert (leaves and flowers), cats ear, nipplewort, clover, violets (leaves and flowers), rose petals, mouse ear chickweed, bittercress, carlisa repens plant and the occasional bit of opuntia cactus. The only thing i could think of is may be not enough fiber because i'm not sure what else it could be, or possibly overfeeding although looking at his weight gain of between 2g and 4g a month i dont think it is the latter. I am just concerned about the slight straining and more so the undigested pieces of food. Apart from this his seems great, the vet couldnt see anything wrong with him but i cant help worrying.

Any opinions would be great!

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Paige:

I think that all tortoises do that little tail wiggle thingey before a pooping session. Don't worry about that. Also, quite a bit of the food does come out the other end looking pretty much intact. There should be a bunch of gunky-looking stuff, but you will also see blades of grass and whole leaves. This is normal. I love your tortoise's diet. You're so lucky to be able to find all those nice weeds for him.

 

[Maggie Cummings]

I think it sounds normal too. You might add some grass for more fiber...

 

[terracolson]

Sounds normal to me.. even my babies take a min to poop.

I treat my hatchling like a newborn baby, very fragile and i dont make a lot of changes.

IF you watch a new born baby poop, it take them a few trys to get the poop out. A few fruitless pushes and then the get it. You baby tort is learning how to effectively push! thats it..

sounds like you are a great parent...

 

[Paige Lewis]

Thank you so much for all the replies, that has really put my mind at ease. I still can't believe how much i have fallen for my little guy, its amazing how these torts become such an important part of our lives!

 

[tortoisenerd]

I also think everything sounds good. I don't think 2-4g a month weight gain is overfeeding, even without my knowing the size of the tort (the proportion of total weight that gain is). He probably has more of the undigested food because that is a good diet (the torts who have the lettuce diet get the runny non-fibrous stool)! He might enjoy a baby bath warm soak to help with any constipation or straining. I just put the fresh warm water into my tort's dish in his enclosure and place him in--when he wants to get out, he does. Less stressful and most of the time he wants to stay and enjoy it (I can only get the water to stay so warm in the enclosure as I won't put it right under the light in case he flips in it).