INFLUENCE OF THE NUTRITIONAL CONDITIONS ON THE ORGANIC COMPOSITION OF BLOOD AND URINE IN THE JUVENILE SEA TURTLE CHELONIA-MYDAS L

For successful farming of turtles, their physiological characteristics need to be determined. Here the organic composition of plasma and bladder urine was determined for 2 groups of juvenile sea turtles, C. mydas L., reared in laboratory conditions; 1 of the groups being submitted to a final 5 days'' starvation. The animals seem to excrete chiefly ammonia and urea. Starvation reduced glycemia and plasma non-protein N level, which is mainly constituted of urea. Azoturia is also considerably decreased in unfed turtles, at the expense of urea and of the undetermined N fraction. The high proportion of ammonia in bladder urine of starved specimens is attributed both to an enhancement of the renal production and a bladder concentration of this substance.