Malcolm and I are fighting.

[MrChadley]

Hello!
So here's the deal. I adopted a 12 year old Russian Tortoise a few months ago. I found a list of ideal greens to feed him, and every week I just buy a different type. I usually rotate between dandelion greens, mustard greens, kale, and sometimes spring mix, with the occasional tomato and Dandelion (which I know aren't as healthy).

Problem is, my little sister flew in and I let her feed him every morning before I woke up for a week. It turns out she only fed him cherry tomatos and dandelions.

Now that I'm feeding him again, he won't eat anything else!

I know that I need to wait him out, and I doubt he'll starve himself, but it's been 6 days since he's eaten now and I'm getting worried!

I offer him fresh food every day and he walks over it or ignores it! I've been mixing mustard greens and red kale.

I'm worried that while he may not starve himself, he may get dehydrated without realizing it! He has water, but he never drinks it, and I soaked him for 30 minutes yesterday.

Any tips? Anyone gone through this before? He's walking around all night like he's hungry and I'm feeling so guilty, but I know I can't let him stay hooked on just tomatos and dandelions!

Help!

Thanks.

 

[Jacqui]

Mix in some of what he wants to eat (in this case the dandelions and tomatoes) into what you want him to eat. Make sure you cut the dandelion blooms and tomatoes into small pieces so it blends in and coat the other items. Then slowly you can start making there less and less of what you want to wean your tortoise off of. I must say, at least the dandelion blooms aren't that bad. When I first started to read this, I had visions of something really bad.

I do have a question, how or why did you happen to decide to have dandelion, kale, and mustard as your usually green choices?

 

[heyprettyrave]

ha yeah i went through this before. i used to feed Ophelia tomatoes all the time, and when i found out they were not super great for her i stopped. and she lets just say threw a tantrum. lol i have to sneak in stuff she likes for her to try new things