hi,can anyone help,im worried about my horsefield tortoise as i hav never seen him drink water,have had him about 3weeks now,he has a fresh bowl of water in his cage(indoor rabbit cage) daily but will not touch it,im now worried he is dehydrated,as he doesnt seem to wee much i dont think,but im not sure wat im lookin 4 when it comes 2 tortoise wee!

any help would be great

thank you

lisa

Hi Lisa

Is he your first tort?, if he is then welcome to the world of tort keeping and of course welcome to the TPG. Are you bathing your horsfield Lisa?. I have 3 horsfields and to be honest I've never seen any of mine drink from their water dishes but I do bathe mine in luke warm water 3 times per week for 15-20 mins. You may not even see them drinking when they're bathing but they are able to take on water through their cloaca (tail). Keeping your tort hydrated is very important  so if your not bathing may I suggest that you give your tort a nice soak, preferably in something like a litter tray which he can't see/climb out of and of course don't be worried if he doesn't like his baths, being a horsfield he'll probably hate it.

Hope this is of some help to you,

Winnie

Hi Lisa
Like Winnie has said they do absorb water whilst in the bath, and mine go to the wee and poo! when they wee you will usually, not always, see that they have passed urates, which are metabolic wastes of amonia & urea.  healthy urates are soft and look like toothpaste. Reptiles cannot concentrate urine like Mammals or pass the urates through without loosing alot of water (urine) so you will see that they will take a drink before they they go to a wee to replace this.
Regarding the drinking, is the dish deep enough without being dangerous for your tort to submerge their nose and mouth when drinking, as this is the only way that they can drink and successfuly get some water.
Jane, Keya & Molly

Hi Lisa,

Totally agree with Winnie and Jane, its vital to bathe young tortoises regularly, this does encourage them to drink. It's sometimes difficult to spot a drinking tortoise in their bath, some duck their full head under to drink, some just seem to lower their heads to jaw level. Watch the movement of their throats for gulping motions, a good sign they are having a sneaky drink.  The level of the wather in their bath needs to be very shallow, no need for it to be any higher than the margin between their uper and lower sheels, about chin height. I often find that dripping or splashing a bit of water over the tortoises head also encourages drinking. For larger tortoses this can be extended to putting them under the shower! The majority of a wild tortoises drinking water comes during periods of rainfall so I assume the water droplets encourage a drinking rsponse.

hi peeps ,,just joined owner of an adopted tortoise had thm when i was little but dont know much bout em,  and was helped out on here by the water issue ,,, so wud it b ok to occassionally use a spray bottle or  is the bad for their shells ,,didnt know if they wud like it 

I too am struggling with our new tortoise not drinking. its very worrying. Ill try bathing him for 15 minutes or so see what that does. thank you x

I got my tortoise Chewbacca about a year ago, and have noticed that he hasn't been drinking much, so this is a big help! I also have some Nutrobal powder to sprinkle on his food but I'm not sure how much to put of that on. 

I have also noticed bits of his skin peeling off, I've been told that it's very bad if you pull it off so I've not done that, but my friends say that it's just a way of him shedding and as a tortoise with a shell he can't shed all at once so he has to do it bit by bit, it would be cool if someone could tell me if that's wright or not. 

In 50 years of keeping tortoises, I have never seen one 'shedding its shell'. Your friends' advice sounds like nonsense. If the animal's shell is peeling, I suggest you consult a vet as soon as possible.