Aldabra diet help

[adsuk]

hi I'm just wondering the best diet and amounts to feed daily I'm just wondering what every one are feeding and amounts fed a day just looking as a general Gide he / she is 18 months old

 

[ben awes]

Hello, great looking tort there! The diet depends a little on where you live in terms of what is available to feed, but in general, hay, hay, and more hay is my motto. Think shelled cow. If yours can graze all day outside, that takes care of a bunch of that. I live in a cold climate so grazing is not an option in the winter.

Mine is 27 months and 11 pounds. I feed chopped Oxbow orchard grass and a small amount of mazuri, sprinkled with calcium, vitamin. This covers most of his needs I think. I supplement with fresh; cactus pads, carrot, banana, kale, etc, etc,etc. amounts are tough to gauge. I supposed after I've soaked and chopped the hey and mazuri together I've got a small pile of food 1/2-3/4 the size of my fist?

Sometimes he eats it all, sometimes there's a bunch left over.

Hope that helps, and others can jump in too.

 

[Yvonne G]

grass, plants and leaves. And feed him as much as he'll eat. They grow very fast and need all the nutrients they can get in order to fulfill their needs.

 

[adsuk]

Yep im in the UK so gets cold iv just found a supplier of Timothy-grass which is a high fibre hay iv been reading
I dont know why iv not read about it befor

 

[Amanda81]

Hello, great looking tort there! The diet depends a little on where you live in terms of what is available to feed, but in general, hay, hay, and more hay is my motto. Think shelled cow. If yours can graze all day outside, that takes care of a bunch of that. I live in a cold climate so grazing is not an option in the winter.

Mine is 27 months and 11 pounds. I feed chopped Oxbow orchard grass and a small amount of mazuri, sprinkled with calcium, vitamin. This covers most of his needs I think. I supplement with fresh; cactus pads, carrot, banana, kale, etc, etc,etc. amounts are tough to gauge. I supposed after I've soaked and chopped the hey and mazuri together I've got a small pile of food 1/2-3/4 the size of my fist?

Sometimes he eats it all, sometimes there's a bunch left over.

Hope that helps, and others can jump in too.

Did you feed the hay when yours was younger? Did you chop it up fine and mix with the Mazuri? Have you ever offered the grass pellets and if so did he eat them?

 

[ben awes]

I got my Aldabra when he was one-year-old and fed him hay from the start. I've also bred and raised leopard tortoises and fed them hay from the day they hatched. The smaller they are the finer I chop it up, but I've always soaked it and most of the time add some Mazuri. Soaking brings out more of the smells of the grass which I think is more appealing to them. At least that's been my theory – and of course it provides a significant source of water. They also love the Mazuri more than the hay and so when I chop it up fine they inevitably have to eat hay in order to eat Mazuri. I switched to the new Matzuri a year ago, it does not absorb as much water, but I think that's because it actually has less bad stuff in it. I am not sure what grass pellets are?

 

[Amanda81]

Grass pellets are little pellets of chopped up grass. I get it at the local feed store here in Tennessee where I live. I can add water and I have chopped grass. I have been mixing it in the Mazuri since weather is cold and no one is getting outside to graze. I try and get out daily and gather what weeds I can for them but bullhorn plantain, dead nettle, and chickweed is about all I can offer at this point. I have only offered the grass pellet mixture to my sulcata, haven't offered to my leopard hatchling yet, she refuses to eat grass or Mazuri so it will be a process. Lol. I have never tried the hay. Since I plan on getting an Aldabra I didn't know if I should switch to hay or if the grass pellets would work.


If you soak this amount in water you end up with around a cups of chopped grass. It's extremely fine chopped, like it been put through a blender. It expands a lot, this one bag will last through the winter, maybe longer.

 

[KingBowser]

I have a 120 lb aldabra and I feed it a mixture of Timothy with all sorts of other veggies and fruits. However, he doesn't seem to like the Timothy at all! I think the previous owner fed him a lot of fruits and he has developed a sweet tooth. I have never tried pellets, but for the actual hay do you think it would help to soak it? I was also thinking of trying other grasses as well, like Alfalfa. I really want him to eat more of the hay but he resorts to eating anything else and still leaves a lot of it untouched.

 

[wellington]

I use the grass pellets in the winter too. It hasn't been big with my leopards until late this past winter. Most anything mixed with a little mazuri will be eaten. As much hay, and grass weeds, flowers and leaf is the best you can feed any torts. Make the others only a filler when needed.

 

[Amanda81]

I have a 120 lb aldabra and I feed it a mixture of Timothy with all sorts of other veggies and fruits. However, he doesn't seem to like the Timothy at all! I think the previous owner fed him a lot of fruits and he has developed a sweet tooth. I have never tried pellets, but for the actual hay do you think it would help to soak it? I was also thinking of trying other grasses as well, like Alfalfa. I really want him to eat more of the hay but he resorts to eating anything else and still leaves a lot of it untouched.

When I was teaching mine to eat grass what I would have to do is chop the grass up very small and fine then I mixed it with stuff they did like, weeds or mazuri. I would start with like 30% grass and 70% weeds, leaving the weeds somewhat larger. Then every 2 days I would reduce the weeds and up the amount of grass, maybe by 5-10% still keeping the weeds larger and grass chopped small and fine. You can wet the weeds some and the grass will stick if ya want to. I usually do it over about a 2 wk period. My baby sulcatas had times where I would have to back up and add more weeds sometimes but I had no problem with my Aldabra hatchling. I used spring mix to switch him over to straight weeds and then used the weeds to introduce the grass and now he eats the grass all by itself. I did read somewhere that they usually prefer orchard grass/hay over the Timothy. I dried my own grass this year and plan to use that. I do plan to wet it before feeding but now my Aldabra weights 1 pound (as of this past Friday) so I'm not sure if you would need to. I know when ya wet the Timothy pellets you get a grass smell from them that's not really there when their dry so I would say, just in my opinion, wet it. It's not going to hurt nothing. I'm still new to it all but this has worked for me and my guys.

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

grass, plants and leaves.

~ Agree, I would also encourage cactus!

 

[KingBowser]

I know this is probably a silly question, but what sort of weeds do you give them? Just weeds from the yard? Secondly, should I give him my grass clippings after I cut the grass (I have St. Augustine)?

 

[Amanda81]

I know this is probably a silly question, but what sort of weeds do you give them? Just weeds from the yard? Secondly, should I give him my grass clippings after I cut the grass (I have St. Augustine)?

There are multiple list around forum that list plenty of safe weeds. As big as your guy is he can pick and chose which he eats and don't eat. I haven't really came a across a specific list that's just for Aldabra but I use the same list I used for my Sulcata. Tom has some pretty long list and Yvonne is real good about IDing things you might not know. There's a thread in the diet section (I think it's that section) that people have put together of weeds and such that's already been IDed. I'm not sure of your location but I get weeds from any place I know there's no chemicals. Woods, yards, neighbors yards (with permission). Something's that I haven't got readily available in my area I have ordered seeds and grown my own. I actually built a raised "weed" garden, it helps keep things in order but offers me a place to grow whatever I need. U can also buy seed, already mixed, with weeds, flowers, and grasses. Sow it straight into his outdoor enclosure and he can graze on what he wants as he wants. How I do things will be way different then how you do because of the size difference. I personally think, from what I've seen from my torts, they actually eat grass and such more readily if they can wonder around and pick it themselves. Any day that weather permits it I take Jessee (that's my Aldabra) outside to his enclosure, which is 8'x12', and let him do his thing for awhile. That enclosure has been sowed with just straight grasses, couple different varieties. He also has assess to half the weed garden giving him another 8'x6' area to explore and exercise. He eats very well when in his indoor enclosure, he eats what I give, but I do see a difference when he's outside, he will nibble this and move on, nibble that and move on, which I believe is probably what they do in the wild, they help themselves to many different items, getting whatever nutrients they need from whatever the seek out. There's a really good list of things that you can feed on a thread titled "for those who have a young Sulcata". It list plenty of things you could grow in his graze yard and things to offer. If he can be outside I would recommend making him an area that's full of lots of different things, and letting him graze as he wants. If he can't be outside and you have to serve him his food then as long as you know there's no chemicals or anything harmful on your grass you can offer the clipping that's left over after mowing. I don't know if it's really needed but I always clean and check my mower blades before I mow and offer the clippings, just to make sure nothing is on them that will come off in grass and be harmful. Where Jessee is still small he doesn't keep his own enclosure ate down yet so I will mow it about every 2 weeks and the clipping from that I dry out so I can offer it in the cold months when it won't be available. I don't have to really offer my actual yard clipping to him (I did give yard clippings to the sudans and they loved it). If weather permits for him to be out and you can make him a safe secure graze area and fill it will all different safe grasses and weeds, he can graze on that alone for awhile, you might have to tough love him a day or two, don't offer him nothing else, that way he will eat what's healthy and you can get him off his less healthy diet he is use to.

 

[KingBowser]

Awesome idea, I will probably start sowing some things in his enclosure. Thanks for the help!

 

[KingBowser]

Hello again everyone,
I was just wondering if there are any vegetables that I CANNOT feed my Aldabra. I know some may not offer the nutrition he needs, but are there any that are actually detrimental to his health? (Specifically broccoli and celery)

 

[Alaskamike]

I don't feed mine
Broccoli
Asparagus
Onions
Alvarado ( tho that might be considered fruit or seed)
Celery ( except the leafy tops)

Honestly I don't remember why , just something I read about each one that turned me away from them

Not scientific.

 

[KingBowser]

Thanks everyone. My Aldabra has finally been eating his grasses, it took some mazuri and some weeds but he's eating it now without that stuff mixed in. I've also been putting calcium powder on his grass. I really want to get his pyramiding down.

This is a pic of him with his best bud a red-footed that follows him around all day.