A picky eater...

[Mrs. Farris]

I have a baby Russian Tortoise. I live in a highly populated part of Southern California and really can't harvest any food from outdoors besides grass clippings, so I have to shop for all of his food. I know that it is best for them to have a varied diet. I use two types of pellet food supplements, in addition to the produce. I buy various bags of lettuces, catus, and other veggies like the leaves from carrots and broccoli, etc. Well, my little guy pretty much only eats this one type of frilly lettuce. I don't think it can be very nutritious, but he loves the stuff! and, he won't eat anything else. I have tried lots of veggies and cut them different ways, shaved them, etc. But (besides a teeny amount of the pellets every once in a while) he only likes the lettuce! he chomps and chomps on it and it seems like he is eating it up for ever when I first put it in. lol. I have thought about only offering food besides that lettuce, but I feel bad taking away what is clearly his favorite food. Should I be worried he isn't getting a healthy enough diet? Any suggestions on how to introduce more variety?

Thanks for all the help, you guys are always great

 

[Gus]

Hi have you try out mazuri pellet try to soak it with warm water and mix it with other chop vege you will be surprise that your baby tort eating happily

 

[dmmj]

russians are not big grass eaters anyway, unless you were talking about weeds, like dandelions which they love. You can always use tough love only giving him the healthy food until he eats(tough to do), or you can trick him give him his favorite food and finely chop the other food and mix it in with the other food and wet it down so it sticks to the other food, and then you can gradually reduce the amount of food you don't want him to have and increase the amount of food you do want him to have. Wow I hope that made sense. trick or tough love. trick is a lot easier to do, I feed mine hibiscus leave and flowers, rasdish tops, and lots of delicious weeds I find in my area, I know you said it is hard for you to find food like that but maybe you could grow a few plants on the balcony? if you have one.

 

[Yvonne G]

He can only eat what you give him. If you stop giving him the frilly lettuce, he can't eat it. They won't starve themselves.

Try chopping the frilly lettuce up into small pieces, then add to it some other type of greens also chopped up small...not too much, just a bit. Mix it all together. Every day, add more of the other stuff and less of the frilly stuff. If he stops eating, back up and add more frills and less other. You will be able to change him over to a more balanced diet.