Feeding my lil man :)

[kayannabella]

ok im so confused. i feed my tort the dole spring selection. every now and then i get kaleand colliards. sometimes i will give him a little tomato or a little bit of a bananna. i know hes supposed to b eating hay but what kind and where do i get it? also what else can i be feeding him? i think it would b so boreing to eat the same thing everyday so i would like to mix things up a little bit! thank you!

 

[Yvonne G]

If your little guy is under 3 he's probably not going to eat hay just yet.

You are offering a nice variety of things for your tortoise. I think you are anthropomorphizing when you say it would be boring to eat the same things every day. Think about your little tortoise living in Africa. He would come across the same things to eat every day. Horses and cows eat the same pasture grass every day. Rabbits eat the same things every day. Just keep doing what you're doing. He's got a really nice variety in his diet. Nothing at all wrong with it.

Go to either oxbow.com or carolinapetsupply.com. Both those places sell packaged hay called Salad Style Hay. It is usually orchard grass hay. Its fresh, and its cut up small. For tiny babies you can cut it even smaller and soak it for a few minutes, then sprinkle it over his food just to get him used to smelling and tasting it. The packaged hay you buy in the pet stores isn't fresh and its very hard and stickery.

If you give him spring mix one day, then collards the next day, then kale the next day, then escarole the next day, then endive the next day and maybe a bite of zucchini the next day, it certainly ISN'T a boring diet!!

Yvonne

 

[tortoisenerd]

If you can grow any weeds, greens, lettuces, flowers, etc, that could help. Mustard and dandelion greens are other options off the top of my head that you can find at the store. I like to always buy spring mix (we always eat it), and buy 1-2 other things at a time to rotate through, until they go back. I take variety to mean over time, not each day. That way I limit how much I spend and throw out. If you have a lot of torts (or a large one), buying a lot of variety each week is easier. You can look at russiantortoise.org for a good list of grocery store greens, although most spring mixes include a lot of those. So, look at the ingredients in in the spring mix you buy, and make sure to buy other things (lots of times they include escarole and endive). I also rotate through different brands for different variety, or buy the bulk spring mix so I can pick more of the weedy stuff than the lettuces. Personally I would never feed tomato or banana, but it's up to you. Beware you shouldn't feed too much kale as it can cause goiter....I would not buy an entire head for example. My natural grocery store sometimes has a mix they sell in bulk with little pieces of stuff like kale, or even tosses things in the spring mix like the kale...pretty cool. They also had squash blossoms--a tort delicacy. Just a note to look at different stores that you may not shop at normally. I can spend less than $5 a week and still buy my tort an organic varied diet. I'm lucky to live in an area that embraces healthy foods so we have a lot of options. Best wishes.

 

[kayannabella]

haha k thanx!!! i dunno im so weird about things like that. i have problems! but yeah hes about to turn 1 year i think. he still fits in my hand! i just want to make sure im doing everything right!

 

[Maggie Cummings]

But banana really is a bad thing to feed him. While tomatoes aren't the best thing they still aren't a bad thing, but bananas are a bad thing. They have an ingredient in them that can be a bit addictive. There's a lot of other stuff you can feed besides banana, even strawberries are better then banana...

 

[dannomite]

Hi kayannabella,

Ok so you will see a lot of posts that you shouldn't use commercial tortoise foods as a staple diet. I have to say that I have nothing but positive results with this product and I am using it as a staple food for mine.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000PNCFAA/?tag=exoticpetnetw-20

My suggestion would be to buy a container of this. Its ingredients include a variety of hays and when you soak it in a bit of water it gets nice and moist. Some people say their Torts won't eat it but I like to mix some things in it and it becomes more enticing (grated carrot, shredded spring mix etc)...now my Sulcata eats it even if I don't mix anything in it and she loves it. I need to post new pics of her soon, but he growth is very smooth and she eats/poops regularly and is never lethargic. I would say I recommend you get some and try it with yours. The fibre/protein percentages are perfect in my opinion. Of course you should always have variety in the diet but I have to say this stuff has done wonders for mine. Plus its not very expensive.

 

[chadk]

Diet is only one of the critical areas to focus on for your little tort. And you have some great suggestions so far. If you have access to a yard or land in your area with no pesticides and other chemicals, you can feed your tort on fresh grasses, weeds, etc.

How are you handling humidity needs? What kind of substrate? What do you do for heat? So you soak him? What about UVB?