General Care Discussion :: turtles and sand

[SquidSox]

*BEWARE*
I took my Cumberland slider to the vet today as she has been throwing up and she has a partial impaction from eating the sand.
Turtles digestion system is daily slow and sand does not get digested at all in their bodies so if your turtle is eating the sand you can have a serious problem if they injest a good amount in a short period of time it can clump up and cause impactions since it will not be digested.

Just a warning to all the sand users. There is nothing wrong with sand as long as the turtle does not eat it. Keep a close eye on your reptichildren while they are playing in the sand and if they are eating it remove the sand and take your turtle to the vet

[SINI5T3R]

sand does pass through a turtle. if it just sits there and eats mouthfulls of it then ya impaction could happen.

[SquidSox]

Yes it can pass however they have a fairly slow digestion system so if the eat a large amount in a short period of time it can cause impaction. That's what I said. I didn't say it didn't pass I said its not digested as in it doesn't break down in the system like food does. That's why I said you have to watch them

[SquidSox]

I know it passes I've seen it get pooped out by my turtle before it just doesn't digest so the amount they eat in a time period that is harmful would be dependant on the turtles size

[steve]

Would you say there was a lot of sand mixed in with the poop?

[SquidSox]

No sometimes she pooped sand and sometimes she just pooped normaly and sometimes she pooped a little of both. I wasn't worried about it until she started throwing up that's when I took out the sand.

The vet said she was probably consuming slightly less then a dime sized portion a day so it didn't all have time to pass and clumped up. She is only just hit 4 inches so she is still fairly small so an amount that large was a big issue. The vet said if she was a full grown turtle that amount would have passed pretty easily but because of her size she didn't have enough space or time to pass both the food and the sand. Luckily she is still active and eating so she isn't in life threatening condition yet. I'm glad I took her in I'm going back on Monday for them to do a few more films and so we can decide the best route to take.