Not All Tortoises Will Eat Mazuri

[Ramsey]

Hi, I read many posts stating that tortoises will gobble up Mazuri.

I have not found this to be the case with my baby leopards.

Four times a week I will sprinkle crumbs of soaked Mazuri on their food dishes. They never pay attention to it. They instead eat around it.

We are talking about the standard Mazuri pellets. I am considering trying LS pellets since they are smaller. We shall see.

Any thoughts on motivating my little guys to eating the stuff?

Thanks!

 

[Souptugo]

Chop the veggies up into fine pieces and mix with mazuri. They can't eat around it.

 

[JoesMum]

Don't bother with the LS - torts seem to universally hate it.

Feeding Mazuri isn't mandatory. They don't have to eat it. Their diet is weedy leafy greens.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Soak the Mazuri in warm water in a bowl. Mash it up like mashed potato and add Your greens finely chopped up. (in the case of Redfoot use fruit)
While it is unusual for a tortoise to not eat the "regular" Mazuri. It's not unheard of.
Maybe you can offer it up to another member who lives nearby?
Sorry. I have no experience feeding Leopards.

 

[teresaf]

All three of mine love it. One's a leo. Mash it together with the rest of the food after it's soaked about 5 minutes. They won't be able to eat around it. They probably just don't recognize it as food but will when they realize how tasty it is. Start small but really spread it into the other foods. Gradually add more and more untl they like it

 

[GBtortoises]

"Soak the Mazuri in warm water in a bowl. Mash it up like mashed potato and add Your greens finely chopped up."

I do that as well as crushing them up dry, sprinkling them on greens and then spraying it with water to soften the Mazuri to make it adhere to the greens better.
This is with the larger, original pellets. None of my tortoises are even mildly interested in the LS pellets.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

MANY members are having a hard time locating the "regular" Mazuri.
If nothing else works,
Toss it into a ziplock bag and place it in the for sale section. I'll bet someone will snap it up in a flash.

 

[eric joranson]

the nose knows.....I have no luck with Mazuri yet. But luckily mine will eat Zoo Med's Grassland pellets. The pellets look alot alike; but have to assume there is something in the smell; that steers him away from the Mazuri. Ive tried mixing it; sprinkling over favorite food...but as soon as he gets close; he gives me that "stink eye" look and turns away from it.

 

[motero]

Baby tortoises are so funny. I do think you can get any tortoise to eat it, but is it necessary, no not really. Is is easy and convenient, oh yes. I had one Sulcata that shunned the stuff, It was funny watching the group come running when they smell Mazuri on the air, and one, only one, running the other way.

 

[huff747]

the nose knows.....I have no luck with Mazuri yet. But luckily mine will eat Zoo Med's Grassland pellets. The pellets look alot alike; but have to assume there is something in the smell; that steers him away from the Mazuri. Ive tried mixing it; sprinkling over favorite food...but as soon as he gets close; he gives me that "stink eye" look and turns away from it.

Mine (leopards) are the exact opposite. Mine come running for Mazuri and avoid the Grassland pellets even when I try to mix the two they pick out and eat the Mazuri and avoid the Grassland.

The also completely ignore LS.

 

[teresaf]

the nose knows.....I have no luck with Mazuri yet. But luckily mine will eat Zoo Med's Grassland pellets. The pellets look alot alike; but have to assume there is something in the smell; that steers him away from the Mazuri. Ive tried mixing it; sprinkling over favorite food...but as soon as he gets close; he gives me that "stink eye" look and turns away from it.

You got hold of the wrong Mazuri. You have the Mazuri LS that the majority of tortoises hate. It looks like the zoo med tortoise pellets. The ones that look sort of like dog food I call nuggets and are the original brand Mazuri that most all tortoises love.

 

[Greta16]

I believe I have the original mazuri, not the LS and my baby won't touch it. I soak it in warm water, mash it up and put it on top of her greens. She mostly just lays on it. I was thinking of getting a mini cheese grater and grating it over her food. I spray her food many times a day so I think she would inadvertently eat it that way..

 

[teresaf]

I believe I have the original mazuri, not the LS and my baby won't touch it. I soak it in warm water, mash it up and put it on top of her greens. She mostly just lays on it. I was thinking of getting a mini cheese grater and grating it over her food. I spray her food many times a day so I think she would inadvertently eat it that way..

You probably do. I was replying to Eric. I think he's using the yucky stuff.

 

[Ramsey]

the nose knows.....I have no luck with Mazuri yet. But luckily mine will eat Zoo Med's Grassland pellets. The pellets look alot alike; but have to assume there is something in the smell; that steers him away from the Mazuri. Ive tried mixing it; sprinkling over favorite food...but as soon as he gets close; he gives me that "stink eye" look and turns away from it.

Exactly this. I've tried it raw/solid, soaked, soaked mixed with greens, soaked smashed, dry chopped up finely with a veggie chopper, wet chopped up with greens...

I've tried it on Tuesday mornings, Thursday afternoons....

My tortoises tell me they will not eat Mazuri:
Not in a box.
Not with a fox.
Not in a house.
Not with a mouse.
I would not eat them here or there.
I would not eat them anywhere.
I would not eat greens and Mazuri.
I do not like them, Sam-I-am.

 

[kelii]

My red foots actually prefer the ls version. You can by small bags at Petco for your torts to try.

 

[Ramsey]

My red foots actually prefer the ls version. You can by small bags at Petco for your torts to try.

Funny change of events. Twilight (left) still won't give it a second thought. She looks at it with disgust.

Pinkie (right) on the other hand finally took a taste and has been hooked. She's mowing through them like my child does Hot Cheetos.

She favors it above all else.

I have a a few bags of LS, none of my torts like it for now, just the regular stuff.

 

[Greta16]

Funny change of events. Twilight (left) still won't give it a second thought. She looks at it with disgust.

Pinkie (right) on the other hand finally took a taste and has been hooked. She's mowing through them like my child does Hot Cheetos.

She favors it above all else.

I have a a few bags of LS, none of my torts like it for now, just the regular stuff.

Same here..Hermie wouldn't touch her mazuri and then about a week ago, voila, she's eating it! That was a happy day for me! Congrats on your tort eating it, hopefully the other one will join in as well!

 

[Madkins007]

If you are using Mazuri Tortoise Diet, you might want to know that Mazuri does not recommend wetting or soaking the pellets (except to get the animals used to it in the first place. http://www.mazuri.com/mazuritortoisediet.aspx) I do not remember where on the site I saw the explanation, but soaking or wetting the pellets can wash out water-soluble nutrients.

Most of the time my redfoots ate it just fine even as little ones. I broke up the pellets for the tiny guys but they quickly learned to break it up themselves nicely. Over time, I kept swinging back and forth about how much I included in the diet but generally aimed for about 25-50%, depending largely on budget.

I tried the 'chop it up and mix it in' bit, but had more luck offering less popular foods by doing a light or fast day, then offer the unpopular food only the next day, and the regular diet the day after that. (As the torts get older, you can stretch this to a couple of days easily.)

(Another important Mazuri tip: the oils in it WILL go rancid in something like a month (don't remember for sure) unless it is stored in a vacuum and triple-lined bags, or frozen when still rather fresh.)

 

[teresaf]

If you are using Mazuri Tortoise Diet, you might want to know that Mazuri does not recommend wetting or soaking the pellets (except to get the animals used to it in the first place. http://www.mazuri.com/mazuritortoisediet.aspx) I do not remember where on the site I saw the explanation, but soaking or wetting the pellets can wash out water-soluble nutrients.

Most of the time my redfoots ate it just fine even as little ones. I broke up the pellets for the tiny guys but they quickly learned to break it up themselves nicely. Over time, I kept swinging back and forth about how much I included in the diet but generally aimed for about 25-50%, depending largely on budget.

I tried the 'chop it up and mix it in' bit, but had more luck offering less popular foods by doing a light or fast day, then offer the unpopular food only the next day, and the regular diet the day after that. (As the torts get older, you can stretch this to a couple of days easily.)

(Another important Mazuri tip: the oils in it WILL go rancid in something like a month (don't remember for sure) unless it is stored in a vacuum and triple-lined bags, or frozen when still rather fresh.)

That might be true if you use too much water and have to dump off the excess. Nutrients would be lost. Try using just enough water to soften the pellets with none left over so that nothing will be lost.

 

[seanang168]

I recalled that it took me about 2 to 3 weeks for my star tortoise to finally eat the Mazuri original formula. I just switched to the smaller LS formula and they seems to like this more. Maybe the size is just nice for them. I run the LS pellets under water, without soaking, and feed.