I was in a similar situation. I had one cherry head that grew faster than the other two and was behaving similar to yours. One day I saw it biting the shell of one of the other ones when it was trying to eat. The other two were not growing nearly as fast. Long story short, I had to give up...
Nice! And I see your from Illinois? Nice to see people having success breeding redfoots in colder climates. I'm guessing they are indoors a good bit? If you don't mind me asking, how big and what kind of an indoor enclosure do you have to support a breeding group?
I came across a YouTube video of a guy hand feeding a big sulcata zucchini. He was holding a full size zucchini long ways and the tortoise was biting big chunks off effortlessly. I imagine it could of done some damage if a finger got caught up in there.
I'm no expert on the testudo Mediterranean species, but I would guess a Hermanns Tortoise or Egyptian tortoise. I could be wrong though. It would be hard to guess the age, but it looks like it has been captivity for a while. I'm basing that on the slight pyramiding and raised growth rings on...
Kale isn't a favorite of mine either. They devour any other greens but really don't like kale too much for whatever reason. I didn't know it wasn't good to feed, so maybe it is a good thing they don't like it.
Pothos and spider plants work well. If you get a big one of each it's easy to keep growing new ones from cuttings. And you will need to. My two will eat and destroy decent sized plants in a month or so. And they are only 3.5" and 2.5" long.
I was wondering about parasites too. I used to eat the steaks a little pink but with the 300% increase in Lyme's disease in my area, I'm too paranoid now. It gets cooked the whole way through. I don't think it's even possible to spread it through digestion but it still makes me paranoid...
Thanks for the link. I like the food processor idea. I can't believe I never came across that before. And I also love some venison stew myself. I'm a pretty avid hunter, and eat it a bunch of different ways, once or twice a week most of the year.
Would it be ok to feed my redfoots a little bit of ground venison for their protein? It's really lean, completely organic, and I had a good year, so I have a lot :D
If it's ok, should I cook it first, or just unthaw and feed raw?
I use a wood stove and a oil furnace as back up. I burn about 4 cords and a couple hundred pounds of coal. It keeps my house around 70 and my oil use under 100 gallons. It varied to much for my tortoise room, so I keep the door shut and rigged up a space heater to a thermostat, and it stays...
I'm sure it could be done with certain species, but I wouldn't support it. Just look at reticulated pythons and boa constrictors. I know they are completely different than tortoises, but there are dwarf retics that stay around 12' and boas that mature around 4'-5'. That's almost a %50...
Those are very nice! I wish I had the room to start some locality projects. How do the Colombians compare in size and shape (on average) to the Surinam's and Brazilian's?
I had Russians in the past, but had to sell them when I moved the first time. Now I have redfoots/cherry heads. Some pro's and con's in my experience:
Russians:
Pro's:
- stay small
-not picky at all when it comes to eating, actually have to watch over feeding them
-all you need, as...