Overeating and edible landscaping

[nell]

Hello!

I'm a little confused about how recommendations to plant edible plants in an indoor enclosure tally with the idea that you should only feed an indoor tortoise a limited amount. We got our Russian last summer, and she was in the garden until she hibernated, free to feed on whatever she liked. However, she woke up early and we now have her indoors. I started off letting her eat as much as she liked after hibernation, with a few plants in the enclosure. She ate these in the hour between her waking up and me getting up to feed her, despite my having chosen things that weren't toxic but also weren't something she'd normally pick. A week after coming out of hibernation, she already weighed as much as she did before going into hibernation (she's 10.5cm and 350grams), so we cut her back to the recommended 20mins of food per day. She gets through a lot in that time, but still tries to eat everything in sight afterwards- I've settled on a small olive tree in the enclosure, and she still tries to climb up to eat the (fairly inedible) leaves.

I'm therefore confused that some people have plants in their enclosures. Is our tort just particularly greedy, or are we starving her?

She'll go outside in a month or so, but in the meantime I feel like we're being cruel, and her enclosure looks far too barren!

Nell

 

[mlocke4548]

Tortoises are generally not gluttonous, they know when they are full. If your tort eats the edible landscaping I would let her. Also she may be hungrier than normal especially if she just cane out of hibernation. Try feeding her smaller portions of food several times throughout the day instead of one big feeding. Hope this helps.

 

[Yvonne G]

Its not uncommon for a tortoise to gain weight during hibernation. Russian tortoises are programmed to eat as much as they can because their good weather in their natural environment is a very short period of time. Sometimes they hibernate for 6 months out of the year. So they eat, eat, eat! The difference being, they have to wander far and wide to get what little food they can find, hence getting lots of exercise in the process. We keep them in small habitats and let them eat as much as they are programmed to eat, and they get fat. Once your little Russian gets back outside things will settle down. I try to imagine how much food will fit inside that little critter and only give it that amount.

Yvonne