New R/F...Some advice?

Yesterday I purchased what is almost certainly a FEMALE Red foot. She is about 6" long and looks and act perfectly normal..However she is very underweight. I gave her a long, warm soak and then placed her outside into a newly renovated pen with sleeping quarters (I'm going to keep her out of the big pen until I've had a while to observe her) and two plates of food. One had baby greens with spinach removed, the other had chopped brussel sprouts. She bobbed her head at one, then the other and walked off. I put her back in front of the bowls again and again, no interest. I went inside to get my special mix, It is mostly Mazuri wetted with about 5% dog food and some pumpkin puree. She gobbled that up pretty fast. So it's not that she wasn't hungry, but it's like she didn't recognize the greens as food. I bought her from a pet store that has never had an adult for sale that I've ever seen. They had pellets in a bowl. Today I'll try hibiscus leaves and flowers. Any tips for getting the weight up and getting her to try greens? I'm watching to see when she poos and I'll do an exam to make sure there is no obvious parasite problems. Like I said, she is very alert and active and fast... for a tortoise.

Sounds like you've got a picky eater there. Keep feeding the greens, weeds and veggies that you know she needs. For now you're most likely going to need to mix those foods with Mazuri. Slowly add less and less Mazuri until she's eating nothing but the good stuff. I'm sure she eats fruit so take advantage of that and add her calcium to that's. What type and how much protein are you going to offer? And the most important of all...... Got and pics?


0.0.1 Redfoot (Spike)
0.0.1 Cherryhead Redfoot (Bruce Wayne)
1.0 Sulcata (Hal Jordan)

I second tortdad, mix the better stuff with Mazuri and then start cutting it back. Also, don't forget, you just got her, give her time to get accustomed to her new home.

I had the same issue when I bought my tortoise years ago. Only she recognized lettuce-romaine. She was extremely underweight and I just kept offering her a variety of what I knew her diet should consist of. She'll start eating different stuff it's just because she's not use to it. And if she's 6 inches, who knows how long she's been eating what for sometime. Mix all those greens in her food. She will come around. And congratulations!! Yes where's the pics


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It sounds harsh but hunger is your best friend when it comes to breaking bad eating habits. Just put in good foods and if she doesn't eat it pull it out and put fresh in the next day. Eventually he will get hungry enough to eat it. Just don't cave in and offer her the lettuce, it will only set you back and make you start all over again. Also you could cut up some of what you are trying to feed her the night before and keep it in a container in the fridge with lettuce mixed with her food. Hopefully the smell of the lettuce will get on the good stuff. Then in the morning take the lettuce out of her food and feed her the good stuff.


0.0.1 Redfoot (Spike)
0.0.1 Cherryhead Redfoot (Bruce Wayne)
1.0 Sulcata (Hal Jordan)

I've got a cactus pear today that I'm gonna cut up and offer. My wife just called and told me that neither the hibiscus leaves OR FLOWER was touched. Hibiscus and weeds are my staple.( Mostly thistle and purslane.) She is eating Mazuri and I'll start to blend it with even more stuff.

I have a question with mazuri...isn't loaded with protein? So one time a week is good, not two times? I've seen many member state they feed up to two times a week. I'm new with feeding my torts it. Now they don't want their greens. So I'm trying to put the greens chopped in there but still they won't eat it & now I feel like I'm starting over with greens myself

That's a new one and I'd like to hear more. I thought Mazuri was low protein hay based....I chopped up some Hibiscus and Mulberry leaves in it and she picked through it as well as she could have if she had hands! I always jam extra stuff in it like minerals and other foods. With my other torts, they've been getting it about every other day.

ZEROPILOT said:

That's a new one and I'd like to hear more. I thought Mazuri was low protein hay based....I chopped up some Hibiscus and Mulberry leaves in it and she picked through it as well as she could have if she had hands! I always jam extra stuff in it like minerals and other foods. With my other torts, they've been getting it about every other day.

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I ordered mazuri twice but no nutritional information was in the box that came with my food, it just came in a ziplock bag. Plus I don't know the difference between the new and old formula?! So I could be wrong on this!! When I looked up nutritional info. on google and its nutritional ingredients I remember like 23% of protein & I'm just unsure how much is too much!! I'm trying to find it now what I looked at & this was almost 2 mos ago. Not having any luck finding it. If I find it I will post it on here. The % may be wrong however.

stojanovski92113 said:

I ordered mazuri twice but no nutritional information was in the box that came with my food, it just came in a ziplock bag. Plus I don't know the difference between the new and old formula?! So I could be wrong on this!! When I looked up nutritional info. on google and its nutritional ingredients I remember like 23% of protein & I'm just unsure how much is too much!! I'm trying to find it now what I looked at & this was almost 2 mos ago. Not having any luck finding it. If I find it I will post it on here. The % may be wrong however.

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I found it & it's 15% protein

If anyone's interested I posted below the ingredients & nutritional value. This is from mazuri.com

Thanks! It's still all that my new female will eat. Today I'm going with very tiny chopped up greens in it.

I have a redfoot that prefers pelleted food to anything else, but these are generally far too high in protein to feed frequently. My vet advised me to not feed her for 4 days (I felt so bad!) and then give her only the food that she has refused. This worked like a charm for greens, but I still haven't been able to get her to eat fresh flowers of any kind.

I also found a pelleted food called Komodo Tortoise Diet with a decent Ca : p ratio (3.5:1) and a crude protein content of 9%. I've used a well soaked and mashed up mixture of the Fruit and Flower variety to serve as a tortoise salad dressing on some of the items that she rarely will touch (she wont eat opuntia cactus pads without it.)

Again yesterday. She passed up grapes and mushrooms. Nibbled some Mazuri and left. Later I gave her pure pumpkin (from a can) and she jammed her face in it, tasted it and left. The others all went Apes--t for it! Chopped greens didn't work.

Man she passed up pumpkin too?! Well she's new and will adjust to new foods in time that you are offering! My smallest tort won't touch hibiscus leaves or flowers!! I thought that those are suppose to be like one of the best for tortoises, like treat wise

Not all Hibiscus is the same. I have ten or more plants in my yard. My RFs love the leaves and flowers of my simple red plants. They eat the leaves and like the flowers less on my yellow plants and will not eat the leaves or flowers of my peach colored hibiscus or the fancy, "HYBRID" show quality hibiscus. I also have a varigated variety with striped leaves and flowers with thin pedals. That plant is only tolerated at best. Hibiscus leaves and whole thin branches with flowers are the staple food. This time of the year the growth recovery is very fast. I just snip the outward branches. They have to be pruned anyway!