Health During the daytime in summer,  fit, healthy tortoises should:- Keep their bodies warm to the touch at all times. Be alert and curious. Walk on the tips of their claws with their plastrons well clear of the ground. Hold their heads and necks above the horizontal so they can smell the air around them. Have a healthy appetite. Not be so frightened that they hide regularly in their shells. URINATION Tortoises should urinate daily. The urine should consist of clear water and pure white urates. The two should be ejected together, but should not be mixed. The urates should not be discoloured and should be the consistency of pouring cream. Any alteration from this, indicates problems in the kidneys (eg when anorexic). DEFECATION Faeces should be similar in colour and consistency to human faeces, except that, because the tortoise should be eating a very fibrous diet, it should contain more fibre. Green colour indicates lack of complete digestion; black colour can indicate internal bleeding; yellow inclusions (with females) are often broken eggs. DRINKING  A bowl of water should not be left out for your tortoise, as it can lead to high humidity, which does not suit all tortoises.  It is important to soak your tortoise regularly, so that it can flush out its bladder, and take in extra water if it needs to. Sometimes when a tortoise drinks, it is trying to flush unwanted substances from its kidneys. This can happen after poisoning or after injections; (see anorexia).