Feeding Tips ?

poco · Oct 29, 2014

Hi ,

I am new here, just got myself a pair of emys, been feeding them some green vegetables, papaya, banana, carrot, some aloe and cactus.

What else would be good for them to eat ?
Any suggestions ?

Thanks.

Btw, great forum, learned a lot here.

russian/sulcata/tortoise · Oct 29, 2014

welcome to the forum!

Gillian M · Oct 29, 2014

Welcome to the forum!

ZEROPILOT · Oct 30, 2014

Welcome

tortdad · Oct 30, 2014

Hi, welcome

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

Tyanna · Oct 30, 2014

Welcome!

Yvonne G · Oct 30, 2014

Hi, and welcome to the Forum!

The beaks on Manouria tortoises sometimes grow incorrectly - the lower beak juts out beyond the upper beak. I've been toying with the idea that it has to do with calcium, however, yesterday I read a reply made by Tortadise on a different thread that he thinks it has to do with not enough animal protein being offered to the tortoise.

So, in answer to your question, be sure to offer animal protein. Most folks use bugs and worms.

poco · Oct 30, 2014

Animal protein ?
Can we use chicken eggs ?

poco · Nov 6, 2014

I have a few more questions .

Overfeeding ?
Is it possible to over feed the M.E.E ?
Any pointers / guidelines on how much we should feed ?

De-worm ?
How do we do this ?
I noticed some worms / parasites on the fences , but not sure which types .
Would be better if there are ways to de-worm naturally , without using medicine , with some certain food items maybe ?

Any advice ?
Thanks .

Btw , the pair of M.E.E are WC , I lived in Sumatra , the pet store said their collector kept them for sometimes to get them used to captivity , can't tell how true is that but they are eating from day 1.

Berkeley · Nov 6, 2014

For the worms, you can try offering pumpkin. I don't know if that is available in Sumatra, but their are proteins in the pumpkins- particularly the seeds- that are a natural worming agent. It is not 100% effective, but it will certainly decrease the parasite load. Just give the tortoises the whole thing and let them chow down. It is good enrichment for them too. You may be able to do a little research and see if there are any other squashes/gourds in the Cucurbitae family that would have a similar medicinal effect.

In regards to the overfeeding, yes, it is possible to overfeed. Most adult tortoises know their limits though, and will generally stop eating at their full point. I usually offer a plate of food that is about the diameter of the tortoise that is eating from it. With this method, they eat almost everything offered, and there is only a little bit left over (and I don't have any overweight/deformed turtles!)

You had asked about eggs in your previous post. Some people do scramble up eggs (no butter, no salt or other seasonings....just plain) and mix that into a salad for the tortoises. I have never done this, but if done only occasionally, I would suspect that would probably be a reasonable way to get some good protein into their meals.

Good luck!
--Berkeley

poco · Nov 6, 2014

Thanks for the suggestions, Berkeley.

The male is around 36cm and 8kg , and female is smaller , around 33cm and 5kg.

I believe they are adults , male with big tail and concave plastron , female with tiny tail and flat plastron.

They finished half a kg of cucumbers the other day , I offered 3 big colocasia leaves ( around 30x30 cm ) yesterday , and they eat it away in less than half an hour .
Sometimes they finished up everything , sometimes a few left . So I have no clue yet of how much to feed them .

I will try some pumpkins later on .
Some told me papaya seeds , dried or not might work too , but so far I only feed it with the fruit , will try the dried method too later .

I plan on mixing the eggs ( hard boiled ) with moister mazuri . Hope they will eat it .

Oh and this is the pic if the male .

emysbreeder · Nov 10, 2014

poco said:
View attachment 103188
I have a few more questions .

Overfeeding ?
Is it possible to over feed the M.E.E ?
Any pointers / guidelines on how much we should feed ?

De-worm ?
How do we do this ?
I noticed some worms / parasites on the fences , but not sure which types .
Would be better if there are ways to de-worm naturally , without using medicine , with some certain food items maybe ?

Any advice ?
Thanks .

Btw , the pair of M.E.E are WC , I lived in Sumatra , the pet store said their collector kept them for sometimes to get them used to captivity , can't tell how true is that but they are eating from day 1.

emysbreeder · Nov 10, 2014

Hi, and welcome to this forum. You could be of great help to us because you live in their range. Try asking some Park Rangers what they see them do. All the food they need is in your forest. Maybe you could go on a guided tour where they live. They will have Parasites for sure as they live with them in Nature. Two things can happen on the worms. 1 They may have parasites from other non native animals from a pet shop. 2 Once in captivity the parasites native or from other countries will increase in numbers and start to ware the tortoise down due to a compromised immune system due to the stress of captivity. I do not know of any plants that have been proven to work. But that is just me. People on your side of the world might know more on this. Traditionalist Chinese Medicine may have something to offer. They are also known to get an infection in their gut from the worm infestation. It is very deadly even when treated. During the 80-90's when Mt.tortoises were starting to be imported to the USA in larger numbers they got the reputation for a 90+% mortality rate due to this problem. We understand it much better now but there is no reptile medicine produced here. We use Meds. for Horses, other farm animals and Humans. On animal protein I would love for you do do some experiments with that. Maybe you can get native small animals in the market places and offer it to them. That would be great to know as it is just pure speculation over here as to if they are carrion to a small or large extent in Nature. I'm not a Veterinarian but you can find meds. and doses on the internet. Maybe you can order the meds. on line.

Just be very careful as people will say anything without empirical evidence. Lastly I wish you the best of luck and feel free to ask me questions on this forum or find me through my web site Defying Destiny.org I have been keeping and breeding them for 25 years. Vic Morgan

poco · Nov 11, 2014

Hi , and thanks for all the advice's / suggestions.

I would love to be able to have a guided tour into their natural habitat . I will ask some park rangers next time I visit the park . However I doubt how much they would be able to tell me .There are not much attentions given to this species or turtle / tortoise in general .

From what I heard , owners here are giving human and or chicken / avian med for their tortoises . Some with dosage claimed to be from vet . There are who feed sliced green raw papaya and pineapple to help with the worms . But of course these are all without any data / research to prove .

If I have to guess , I will say we could probably find small rodents , birds , lizards , frogs , and all sort of insects and worms on the forest here .
I could get small birds and frogs from local market to try . And maybe hunt some small lizards .
The tortoise will take a bite of anything for sure . They will even bite your fingers / toes if you let them , I tried lure them around with my fingers once .

I will give it a try and update here .

Thanks .

emysbreeder · Nov 11, 2014

poco, OK very cool, I cant wait to here what you find out. Yes, I know what you mean about the biting, Mine sneak up behind me or others and will bite it you dont keep an eye on them. When visitors come over and are standing inside my walk in enclosures they say "Oh look they are coming our way they seem to love people" I have to shatter their bliss and tell them 'its a slow, methodical tortoise attack" ! I think if you can sneak in an dead animal and let them find it on their own and observe them from a far it might be more like a natural response than just tossing it in while their watching you. They are so smart their hard to trick. I've also noticed that no matter what they are doing, breeding, eating, as soon as a person shows up, they stop what their doing and walk in your direction. I often describe them as having, "a keen awareness of Human presence" * Vic pic...walking across a big enclosure to see the camera guy!

emysbreeder · Nov 11, 2014

Yvonne G said:
Hi, and welcome to the Forum!

The beaks on Manouria tortoises sometimes grow incorrectly - the lower beak juts out beyond the upper beak. I've been toying with the idea that it has to do with calcium, however, yesterday I read a reply made by Tortadise on a different thread that he thinks it has to do with not enough animal protein being offered to the tortoise.

So, in answer to your question, be sure to offer animal protein. Most folks use bugs and worms.

emysbreeder · Nov 13, 2014

Berkeley said:
For the worms, you can try offering pumpkin. I don't know if that is available in Sumatra, but their are proteins in the pumpkins- particularly the seeds- that are a natural worming agent. It is not 100% effective, but it will certainly decrease the parasite load. Just give the tortoises the whole thing and let them chow down. It is good enrichment for them too. You may be able to do a little research and see if there are any other squashes/gourds in the Cucurbitae family that would have a similar medicinal effect.

In regards to the overfeeding, yes, it is possible to overfeed. Most adult tortoises know their limits though, and will generally stop eating at their full point. I usually offer a plate of food that is about the diameter of the tortoise that is eating from it. With this method, they eat almost everything offered, and there is only a little bit left over (and I don't have any overweight/deformed turtles!)

You had asked about eggs in your previous post. Some people do scramble up eggs (no butter, no salt or other seasonings....just plain) and mix that into a salad for the tortoises. I have never done this, but if done only occasionally, I would suspect that would probably be a reasonable way to get some good protein into their meals.

Good luck!
--Berkeley

emysbreeder · Nov 13, 2014

Where can I find out about the Pumpkin seeds for a de wormer? Thanks Vic

Yvonne G · Nov 14, 2014

Vic: this is just one study:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22684690

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