overfeeding

hallo all..
i have a female indian star tortoise. this is the pictures of her:





its about 6 month since i got her until now, and its grow up from 10cm SCL become 11,5cm SCL. she eat much hibiscus and mustard greens (caisim) every day. only sometimes she got cactus or plantago.. what i want to ask is:
is it ok for her to eat too much food? because the others tortoises don't eat as much as her. is there any bad effect because eating too much vegetables?

thank you for the advices.

Tortoises will not overeat, however they can eat too much of the wrong foods. As long as you are offering a good quality selection of greens and grasses, your tortoise will monitor it's own intake just fine. They are constant grazers in the wild. I'm a big advocate of offering frequent smaller feedings instead of one larger feeding.

Hope this helps

I heard that overeat on some species like sulcata, radiated and yniphora will cause pyramiding or the carapace will develop darker colour, is it true?

In fact.. [ captive ] hatchlings and younger torts especially will over-eat. Because they are 'opportunistic' they will eat 'til they almost pass out. One of the first dangers to younger torts especially is the tendency of 'first-time' tortoise keepers to over-feed. Another reason we see obese and 'over-grown' ( captive ) torts is from over-feeding.

Hardly a week goes by that somone asks me about feeding habits.. and the affect it has on the character and looks of their tortoise.

I agree.. they do graze [ on the best stuff.. which they don't always get in captivity ] in the wild. They are more selective in the wild I'm sure.

I advocate.. feed less/keep them hungry!

As far as 'stars' are concerned - if that was a male I would say "Put him on a diet"!!! G. elegans [ especially ] are incredible eaters. Females in their 5th -6th year [ the size of yours ] will have amazing 'growth-spirts'!!! That's when mine grew the most anyway.

Size-wise.. mine will eat as much as I give them.

NERD

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torto_x said:

I heard that overeat on some species like sulcata, radiated and yniphora will cause pyramiding or the carapace will develop darker colour, is it true?

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Universally.. "pyramiding" is caused by low humidity. I've seen it at a number of Zoos in their breeding programs. They added humid-hides and their hatchling' growth smoothed out!

There is also a carapace 'deformation' caused by overeating/feeding [ especially the wrong stuff ].. and it appears as space between the carapace scutes. Put the two together and you get these sulcatas that look like pineapples at 4" ( 10 cm ).. and you know how they look the 2nd year, etc.

I've not heard about going darker.. there are those that use temps and lights to change colors to lighter. They probly play with diet too!

NERD

very nice information..
thanks to jeff and nerd

many thanks, jeff and nerd!

Where did that tortoise come from? I doubt that it is in fact an Indian. It looks far more like a SriLankan to me. Douglas

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I do not know how long you have had that tortoise, but it is exceptional! It has also been raised beautifully. Douglas

@douglas: i'm not sure about its locallity, because i got it at size 4". why you say its srilankan? what are the differences between indian n srilankan?

tortoise_lover said:

@douglas: i'm not sure about its locallity, because i got it at size 4". why you say its srilankan? what are the differences between indian n srilankan?

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Yeah it looks Sri Lankan to me too.
Sri Lankan Stars typically have thicker radiating yellow lines on the carapace and generally grow larger than the Stars from India. I have read that both the Indian and Sri Lankan Stars have similar DNA, indicating that they are the same species.

... he's beautiful by the way!

Callum