HI Jane, Normally when a tortoise intakes water then they will pass urine, most of mine will pass urine when i bath them. Which raises the question: who always pees in the water bowl?
Keya wee's at every bath and normally passes urates, but she has not done this for about 5 days now, which is causing me some concern. I am giving her 2 baths a day and some cucumber. She is drinking Ok too. Last time she went there were lots and they were grainy which suggests dehydration, but I cannot see how she can be, and she looks fine. This happened last year when she came indoors full time. I have double checked the temps which are fine 28-30c, she has plenty of space to move away if she wants to!! I have stopped Dandelion heads at the moment and wonder if they were making too much protein hence urates everyday!!. Would you be concerned about the 5 days. (When I get home tonight and give her a bath she will probably go now I have posted !!! hopefully) Thanks
Hi Darren I have had Keya for nearly 2 yrs, and she has passed urates every day, so this seems to be unusual for her. Her temps were abit high for about a week as I had brought a new Mega ray light and it was giving out more heat than the powersun. She was able to move away from the light though. The reason I am worried is that, the urates pass out all the toxins,(if I am correct ) so does that mean the toxins are building up? Thanks
Well Keya has now passed healthy urates which has made me relax now, poor little thing wondered what all the excitement was about! It has answered a very long standing question I have had though. Keya has suffered some very mild overgrowth, but the vet and anyone else I consulted could not understand why, as I was doing everything OK and not over feeding her. But over the past 2 wks Keya has not had any dandelion heads with her other greens and that has been when the urates started to be passed less. So I guess that it was the heads that was giving her too much protein, hence the overgrowth, and she should not have been passing urates every day like she was anyway.Has anyone else discovered this has happened to them? or rather their torts? Thanks Jane
I live in a very much hard water area and the tap water is drawn from bore holes in limestone rock. It then goes through the usual purification processes.
I have noticed varied patterns with urates. For example, I have never, ever seen urates with my leopard tortoises and I have 16 of them. Their diet is 70% grasses/hay and 30% weeds. I use collected rainwater for them to drink, rather than tap water, and it is allowed to stand before I use it.
My hatchling and juvenile Russians pass urates almost daily and until I started using cooled boiled water for them or rain water their urates were always gritty and now they are smooth and creamy. They are fed the same diet as the adult Russians who also have creamy urates (when they are awake). Their water is collected rainwater too.
I also keep Hermanns and like the Russians they have creamy urates and their water is also collected rainwater. My hatchlings and juveniles haven't started winding down as yet for their winter sleep and they have been having dandelion heads on a daily basis, but as I say their urates are creamy now.
This is such a fascinating discussion! My hachlings pass urates about twice a week and I always use boiled cooled tap water as I have been advised. We do live in a very soft water area though.
Hi Helen I remember you advicing me before about the rainwater, which I do follow when we have a down pour. I supose with keya her normal pattern has been passing urates everyday and quite alot, I have had a sneaky inkling that it was due to her diet but could not see how dandelions would do that as they are recommended in all the books. I am going to start giving her the heads again and see what happens, so that will be interesting. Even if its proves it about the Dandelions heads I think that like each of our torts, they have their own little make-up, and I would never generalise about the heads producing too much protein, just that they have that affect with Keya!! I love learning about Keya and Molly and their little ways.. Jane
As you say Jane it will be really interesting to see whether the dandelion heads and the production of urates are linked. Do please keep us informed. There is still so much that we don't understand about tortoises and I love learning something new all the time.
I learned something I didn't know before from my vet only this last week. He told me that we now realise that tortoises, like other reptiles, have a 3rd eye on top of their head. This is the main area they use for soaking in the sun rays and for obtaining their UVB. It is a really sensitive area and, for example, if a bird flies directly overhead, a tortoise will quickly withdraw it's head. This is a reaction to the shadow of the bird going directly above the 3rd eye and the tortoise natural survival from predator instinct.
This leads me to think if the tortoise uses this area to soak in the majority of its UVB then in captivity I wonder how effective tubes are? UVB flood bulbs will give out UVB over a wider area. I do have a UVB meter and I do use a combination of tubes and bulbs so this week I am going to check the UVB levels at the tortoise head level in relation to the UVB tube and then I'll do it in relation to the bulbs. It should be interesting - so watch this space.
