tortoisetrustforum.org

Hi all, i wasnt quite sure what section to post this in or whether or not i should be worried
This is little Dec - my smallest tortoise. SCL: 8cms.

This morning after his bath he passed urates, creamy consistency as usual, followed by a small stone, i say small but compared to the size of his vent its quite big, here it is next to a normal 5ml medicine spoon, i have chopped a bit off it here to see how hard it was:

Heres a close up.


I can say hand on heart that this little tortoise has been bathed 2 or 3 times a week since last April and has always had access to water. Should I be concerned about this stone and are there any other causes for these other than de-hydration?

Ahhhhh poor little Dec! He is such a cutie. I bet he felt better after getting rid of that Kathy It does look big for a little tort.
I think you should stick to feeding them weeds
I'll be interested to see what the experts say. you learn so much from this brill site

Jackie

Thanks Jackie, and yes he is adorable
Im just worried as these are normally down to de-hydration, but I cant see how he can be

I hope someone can shed some light on this for you

We only worry cos we love our torts. I'm sure you are doing everything right. I bath mine most mornings, make sure my temps are right, the diet is right, give nutrobal every day & look at my poor Quasi.

Sure someone will put your mind at rest soon.

Jackie

Is it possible to over supplement? I would have thought, with a good diet, Nutrobal everyday is a bit OTT. Just a thought to throw into the pot....I don't really know.

I had wondered that Chrissy, but im sure its ok to use daily and I dont use very much atall

I read that Lornas Vet said that Nutrobal didnt cause her tortoises stone and Andy has said that daily is ok



My own view is that calcium/Nutrobal just twice a week is not sufficient in any event. We recommend daily use.

Andy

Yeah I can't put too much on as they won't eat it. Plus some times I feed them by hand with fresh grub from the fridge

Jackie

These are urate stones.

Causes: Typically dehydration, overfeeding, excess protein in diet - in any combination.

Tortoises in the wild make greater use of microclimates than typical captive examples. See:

http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/microclimates.htm

Andy

Thanks Andy, having read the article, i still dont see where im going wrong and if something I have done has caused this to happen. They have deep enough substrate to burrow in if they wish, they choose not to and sleep under a log roll bridge just very slightly burrowed. Their diet is good and you may recall i had to over winter Ant & Dec as they had medication in the summer. The tubs that I planted in November have seen them through this winter with viola, violets, campanula, bellis daisies and pansies, also the odd bit bit of Opuntia and Pereskiopsis. This particular tortoise was 76g when I got him 10 months ago, he is now 113g so has gained 37g in 10 months which only equates to 3.7g a month so I dont think I have over fed him.
He has passed more of these today

He looks as though he is growing nice and smoothly as well which I am quite proud of:

I think all I can do then is up the baths to daily for the time being but I cant help thinking - you can take a tort to water but you cant make it drink

Hi Kathy im wondering if one of mine has something lkie that in his belly, as wen i put him in the bath he seems to be bottom heavy-took a stool sample to vets today even tho i didnt know which one did it and pleased to say it was free of worms-which obviously doesnt rule out it cud of been from hermanni who was wormed a few weeks ago=im sure Dec is in safe hands having you as his mommy