General Care Discussion :: White in Droppings

[Juxtapose13]

Hello all,

And a very Happy New Year to everyone!

I have a 24 year old female red eared slider. Typical diet is live earth worms, live feeder gold fish, and koi pellets. On _very_ rare occasions, some of her droppings have passed with white in it, but that never concerned me. Recently though I've been unable to find the koi pellets I normally feed her (the supplier is having issues), so I picked up Nutrafin Basix Turtle Pellets as a temp substitute. She's eating them and enjoying them just fine, and the colour of her droppings has of course changed to the light red colour of the pellets, but shortly after stopping her live food (she started quazi-hibernating for the season, which is normal for her), her droppings consistently have white in them as well as "normal" waste.

Outside of this she has no other symptoms of a possible health issue. It's gotten warmer again and her activity/appetite level is up (and as such, I've bought some live food for her again and will start feeding it to her tonight), so I'm not going to take her to a vet at this time, but does anyone know what the white is?

She also passed about 8 eggs this past summer; could it have anything to do with eggs? Some kind of residue?

I figure it's mostly due to the dietary change.

Thanks!

[steve]

Hey Juxtapose13, is she eating anything else, like cuttlebone? Aside from that, I would probably make some changes to her diet. 24 years old and still laying eggs? Wow. Unless she's gravid again, I don't think it has anything to do with it.

[Juxtapose13]

Hello steve,

As I mentioned, she normally eats feeder goldfish and earth worms, but I stop buying them when she slows down for winter as she only wants to eat a few times a week or less during that point and the live food spoils. So she's only been eating these Nutrafin Basix Turtle Pellets for now.

I did start feeding her live food again last night, and I was able to find her traditional Koi pellets today, so I can swap out for those soon.

For the eggs, is it unusual for a 24 year old female to lay them? I've taken her to the vet for having eggs twice (when she was 21 and 23) and he was not concerned at all.

[steve]

I wouldn't say that laying eggs is not normal at that age, but I don't often hear about it. There was one case of an older cooter with overactive ovaries and she was producing an extreme amount of eggs. As long as she is successfully expelling/laying them, it should be fine. Most female RES kept alone don't become gravid.

[Juxtapose13]

Interesting. Yeah, thus far, she seems to be passing them fine. Again, took her to the vet twice and he was not concerned.

With respect to her droppings, it's been about a week now since I reduced the Nutrafin pellet quantity and re-introduced live food and the issue has resolved itself, so it was the pellets, or at least the quantity of them.

[steve]

Hmmm, that's interesting. Thanks for the update!

[Juxtapose13]

Just to update this, not much white in the droppings and that does seem like a dietary thing, but I'm confident she has eggs again as she's exhibiting the signs. Light nesting behaviour over the last few weeks, but starting yesterday her frantic panic to get out of her aquarium.

It's odd though as it's much earlier in the year and she's never acted like this so early. The winter was very mild though, and I'm guessing that's part of what messed her up.

[steve]

Those females that are kept alone and produce eggs are very unpredictable., I wish I knew more about what's going on with them.

[Juxtapose13]

Those females that are kept alone and produce eggs are very unpredictable., I wish I knew more about what's going on with them.

Ha, tell me about it! I came home yesterday to a destroyed aquarium, pretty much. I have her raft supported by some bricks; creates a nice tunnel for her to swim through and a little shelter to hide/sleep under. She had knocked one brick completely down, pushed another aside, twisted her raft around (and could no longer climb on it) and tore both heaters off their suction cups. She's also fowled up her water quite nicely these last few days, so I'll be doing a full clean/water change this weekend.

Her appetite has indeed died down as well. She'll eat her live food, but is only eating about half her pellets before trying to escape her feeding aquarium in a mad panic.

As I type this she's going nuts and trying to get out of her living aquarium.

So yeah, she has eggs; no question. The irony is after however many weeks of non-stop panic, she'll pop it out and immediately turn around and eat it. Likely when I'm not home and I'll just find the remains later.

It's supposed to get colder outside this weekend and snow again for a bit, so perhaps that'll alter her behaviour for a time.

[steve]

I hope she passes them quickly, for everyone's sake.

[Juxtapose13]

I hope she passes them quickly, for everyone's sake.

Thanks man. So how do females that have eggs that _aren't_ alone act? What makes them more predictable?

[steve]

They'll act the same because they are in a tank, so you can definitely expect some activity.

[Juxtapose13]

They'll act the same because they are in a tank, so you can definitely expect some activity.

Oh, okay. Well, yesterday she downgraded from full on panic to simply restless, which was a huge improvement. Today already though, she's anxious, but not panicky yet.

I'm about to clean her aquarium actually, as over the last week with her panic she's fowled the water far faster than usual. I'm hoping the water change and proper clean will help to either calm her or promote a bit better conditions to pass that egg.

[steve]

Yea, I think that's pretty much what you can do. Some would let their RES roam around and maybe find a spot at home, but I think that's only worked for one person.

[Juxtapose13]

Yea, I think that's pretty much what you can do. Some would let their RES roam around and maybe find a spot at home, but I think that's only worked for one person.

Yeah, that's all I've been able to do in the past, and she ultimately starts passing them in a week or so; hopefully this time it's the same. I wouldn't trust letting my turtle run around unsupervised either; mine's rather destructive .

Back in 2013 I tried setting up a little environment for her with sand and water, but she didn't like it and didn't lay her eggs there.