Picky eater?????

[oliviaTORTOISE]

Olivia has ALLWAYS been a picky eater and refuses to eat anything purple..... But recently all she wants to eat is iceberg lettuce and bell peppers! And sometimes while I am feeding her her bell pepper I replace that with a price of arugula lettuce and she hisses and drags it out of her mouth!!! She does this with anything she does not like which is almost EVERYTHING!!! I used to buy her " spring mix" but I would have to pick out 50% of the lettuce so I switched to a arugula and a extra sometimes no extra diet.. What can I do to fix this? She is so picky and only eats fairly unhealthy items!!! I do not want to starve the poor little creature so I leave out her food and if the day goes by and she has not eaten anything I give in and feed her bell peppers or carrots I do not know what to do!! Please help! Thankyou SO much!

 

[Saleama]

What type of Tort is Olivia? I don't know much, but I do know that Iceberg lettuce should never be offered. It is nutritionally void and will give her diareah and zero nutrition. You should try to continue to offer her broad leaf greens and even put finely diced carrot and bell pepper on them so she will eat them. Slowly remove the pepper and carrot and she should come around. Other my experienced people will come help you soon I hope. Good luck! I know what its like. I have 5 spoiled little sulcatas and 12 spoiled rotten little box turtles! It seems only my Leopards and my Russians are not spoiled rotten. She will not starver herself if her only issue is being a picky eater. She will ventually eat what is offered. Just remember, tortoise metabalism is way slower than ours. She can go a lot longer than you think without food.

 

[oliviaTORTOISE]

Sorry she is a Russian! And do t worry I do not offer her iceberg frequently thanks for your concern!

 

[kathyth]

Hi Olivia
I wonder if you put so e finely chopped vegetables in some warm Mazuri, if you could trick her into eating healthy foods. Maybe making mash's of mixed foods will work better than plain old, healthy lettuces. I don't have any pocky eaters, but many on the forum do and will offer advice.
Good luck!
[SMILING FACE WITH SMILING EYES]

 

[oliviaTORTOISE]

Kathyth,
Thankyou! That's a old idea I just might do that thanks for the luck I will need it! tomorrow I will try to do the "trick" and see if it works!!!

 

[kathyth]

Great! Let me know!
[TURTLE]

 

[oliviaTORTOISE]

I will keep you updated I feed her once a day so I will try that tomorrow!

 

[DaveTheLeo]

I think i may be able to offer some advice here get all then food your tort dosnt like mix it with a little of the stuff they do like then cut a few pieces of cucumber, squeeze the juices out the cucumber over the food and your tort should eat it

 

[Steven Schultheis]

My tortoises are stubborn and they tend to only each leafy greens. I recommend Kale (not baby Kale). They love it and could eat it for every meal but they do enjoy lettuce and mustard greens. A few times a week I will add in calcium supplement and mix it up. This way they can't detect it.

 

[Yellow Turtle01]

My russain was picky eater at the beginning, but I just giving him good, healthy, weeds... and in the end he gave up and started eating healthy again It was a little sad, because I always felt bad for 'starving him', but I mean, he had the option to eat!
How are er eating habits nowadays?

 

[Yvonne G]

This thread is a year old. And oliviaTortoise hasn't visited the Forum in 6 months.