Tortoises Eating There Own Feces?

[Vegas_Leopard]

Hey Tortoise Forum, what's hatching?

I have a few questions regarding tortoises eating there own feces aka poop. I try to clean up my tortoises droppings before it could manage to eat them, but there's times where I'm too late. My questions of concern are;

1.) Should I be worried about my tortoise eating his own feces?

2.) Are there any health concerns, that I should be looking out for?

3. )A tortoise eats his own feces, what's the worst that can happen?

Thanks in advance,
-SulcataDud3

 

[Laura]

its what they do.. if they eat others poop or other type of animals,, they can get parasites, or if they eat a dogs feces that has been medicated, like withheartguard.. it can be harmful to your tort.

 

[tortoisenerd]

1. This is completely normal and natural, especially for Sulcatas.
2. Just make sure he doesn't re-infect himself with a parasite after getting rid of it. As long as he eats his food and is otherwise healthy this is typical.
3. The worst that can happen is for him to eat the poop of another animal and potentially get sick or die. His own poop is typically fine.

Lots of discussion on this already if you care to browse. Best wishes.

 

[samstar]

I saw mine ating it's own poop today and it just put me off but like you guys mention, it's normal
Hmmm recycling..

 

[dmmj]

I also get a little grossed out when I see mine chowing down on his feces.

 

[t_mclellan]

Hey Tortoise Forum, what's hatching?

I have a few questions regarding tortoises eating there own feces aka poop. I try to clean up my tortoises droppings before it could manage to eat them, but there's times where I'm too late. My questions of concern are;

1.) Should I be worried about my tortoise eating his own feces?

2.) Are there any health concerns, that I should be looking out for?

3. )A tortoise eats his own feces, what's the worst that can happen?

Thanks in advance,
-SulcataDud3

Hi all;
Simple & quick.
Q 1 answer: No! There tortoises, Its what they do!

Q 2 answer: No! There tortoises, Its what they do!
Even if they eat feces of another tortoise, (Think about it) If they can find its poop they most likely have been exposed to the same things. In this case "Poop is Poop".

Q 3 answer: The worst that could happen? If the tortoise wasn't fed a quality diet to begin with, It wont have quality poop! Therefore it won't get anything good the 2nd time ether!

These are just my thoughts & what I have seen.

I'm sure someone is going to bring up parasites & things, I refer you to # 2 above.
If there is 1 or 20 in the pen its still the same!
If they have worms & they are treated indoors, The substrate must be changed, Disinfected & tortoise washed immediately after the poop. If you just pick up the poop, there will still be eggs on the tortoise's plastron & thereby in the substrata.
Outdoors, ya need to move the pen to uncontaminated ground.
& I know there aren't any people that let there tortoise & dog use the same yard! Remember Ivermectin kills tortoises!
Its like life!
What comes around, Goes around!

 

[Stazz]

Well not quite really. Its normal for them to eat their own, but to eat another torts poop is not good as the other tort my have worms or parasites the first one, does not have! Everything else is pretty much correct

 

[t_mclellan]

Well not quite really. Its normal for them to eat their own, but to eat another torts poop is not good as the other tort my have worms or parasites the first one, does not have! Everything else is pretty much correct

I refer you to answer #2, If they have access to each others feces then I would imagine they are in the same enclosure or am I missing something?
Thereby eating in the same place I would think. Also exposed to all the same problems.
I never said it was "Good" I sad its what they do.
Although I have never seen my neighbor throwing tortoise poop from there pen into my pens I have caught them throwing there dogs poop into my tortoise pen.
So I suppose you are correct in assuming that there could be poop of unauthorized origin available to an unsuspecting tortoise.
No I'm not picking on you. I seem to feel the need to state the obvious.