Northants88
New Member
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2016
- Messages
- 15
baby horsefield tortoise 3 months old so I've done the top soil and sand mix she eats it straw pellets she eats it aspen bedding you guessed it she eats it HELP ADVICE PLEASE
Both and not off the groundAre you feeding her on a dish or flat rock? Not just on the ground.
Yes she has cuttle bone the noise she makes when eating drives me mad I've got all the calcium and bit like thatWelcome to the Forum.
My Desert Tortoises were eating dirt and I bought some Miner-All (Outdoor without D3) by Sticky Tongue Farms and they quit eating dirt. You can buy it on Petmountain.com, Amazon.com and probably Ebay.com. If your tortoise does not go outside for sunshine, then get the one for Indoor which has D3 in it. I give it to all my tortoises - the indoor babies and the adults who live outside. It contains calcium and minerals.
Do you have a cuttle bone in your enclosure?
Your tortoise is adorable. I love Russian tortoises.
Flowers and weeds and thisWhat foods are you feeding her?
What sort of heating and lighting are you using?
Any red or infrared heat lamps?
What about UV bulbs? What type have you got?
I've gave that ago it's the coconut stuffThe lamp looks fine to me, as long as it's positioned and fixed right.
I, too, would suggest changing to another substrate such as coco coir, nicely packed down.
She is eating the coir too? I would be afraid to use this as the wood chips look to little. I'd be afraid she'd get one stuck in her throat. If she is eating the coir too, maybe try a bigger wood chip, one that can't fit into her mouth. Or if you have tort safe grass in your yard, no chemicals on it, big up some strips of the grass and use that as the substrate.
Is this worth trying??
That a photo of her in the gardenEating substrate so habitually points to a few potential issues.
1) your tortoise is doing it intentionally to fill a nutritional gap (most likely minerals). Sprinkling the MinerAl supplement onto food is good way to combat this. Evaluating your diet should come next (flowers and weeds sounds good - but what weeds specifically? Is it mostly weeds or mostly flowers?)
2) your tortoise is eating the substrate accidentally. In that photo you have a flower sitting on the substrate - make sure all of the food is on a surface like a big piece of slate or a terra cotta saucer. I like saucers because the lip keeps food on the plate. What are those weirdly coloured rocks in that photo? Take out 'food coloured' decor like that. Tortoises are attracted to bright colours. You posted your light photo, which was good - you're not using any coloured night lights are you? Those red lamps some people have noticed cause substrate eating (it's the same issue - food coloured earth seems confusing to tortoises).
Posting photos of your full set up and detailed diet info can help. That bag of substrate is likely fir bark - that should be fine, but if your tortoise has eaten all of your previous options, just switching the substrate may not be enough.
That a photo of her in the garden
Flowers and weeds and this