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Eating newspaper

Posted: 05 Oct 2019, 16:16
by Sarah
Hello all
I have a 4 year old Hermanns called Lloyd who is currently undergoing pinworm treatment, first treatment was 4 days ago. I have replaced his soil with newspaper after advise from previous threads on here and vet but he has started eating it, he is generally a greedy guts just wondering what you would do?

Re: Eating newspaper

Posted: 05 Oct 2019, 23:05
by Nina
Hi Sarah, and many apologies for the late response! It's a difficult one, as it is better to have newspapers while he's being treated so that they can be changed frequently. I doubt that eating a bit of newspaper will hurt him -- it will probably go straight through him.
How much longer will he need to be on the newspaper? The only other alternative I can think of is to keep him on towels, or something similar (I have heard off this being done) and they can be changed and boiled or put in a really hot wash. Or even an old sheet that could be torn up and sacrificed.

Nina

Re: Eating newspaper

Posted: 06 Oct 2019, 01:11
by lin
Hi Sarah.
To add to what Nina has said I would rather lean towards the glass t towels, the thin cotton ones the use for drying glass. Its small enough to have 4 hemmed edges and the toweling ones have a pile on whick if the tortoise is inclined to have a bite the threads could be pulled and swallowd. The same with an old sheet if torn could leave straggling threads.

As Nina said, I am sure the odd piece of newspaper will not to any harm and it could just be where the gut is feeling empty through lack of worm or worm activity.

Lin

Re: Eating newspaper

Posted: 06 Oct 2019, 09:17
by Sarah
Thank you, yes did think about using towels and will take Lin’s advice on the hemmed glass t towels. Think I may have solved for the moment as it was just if he found an edge or corner that he could get hold of so have strategically placed rocks and other decor in those areas! He was trying to eat flat paper (specifically the coloured bits -heehee) but can’t get a hold....keeps him entertained I suppose :lol:

Re: Eating newspaper

Posted: 06 Oct 2019, 09:31
by Nina
Sounds like you've got the right idea -- good thinking about the rocks on the paper. Hopefully that will do the trick! Let us know how you get on.

Cheers,
Nina

Re: Eating newspaper

Posted: 18 Dec 2019, 08:56
by alexcottrell
I will keep him on towels.