Am I giving my tortoise the right nutrition?

[zeewiciwan]

Hi,
Can anyone help me please, I'm new to tortoise care. I have a hermann's tortoise, been with us for the past two months but been told he has about 6 years. I've been offering him different kinds of plants and veg but he was only eating lettuce. Someone told me that this is probably due to our very warm temperatures in summer. Lately I've noticed as well that skin around his nose is coming off.
Today I noticed he was retreating his head while walking or stopping flat and retreat, keeping his hind part lifted. I've seen him do this sometimes before he exerts his waste. Can tortoises become constipated? Also another piece of skin came off (nose area) while I was holding him on my lap. Do tortoises shed parts of their skin normally or is it because of lack of nutrients? I am at a loss of what else should I offer him, tried dandelion, clover, grapevine leaves, tomatoes, but all he seems to want is lettuce. I feel he's not getting the right nutrition.
Also he sleeps outside, in back yard. We do not have a lot of soil, but he doesn't sleep there either. He usually likes to go in the tool shed and sleep under some shelves or in a corner. I made a wooden box but he does not seem to like it. He is very responsive, active and curious and haven't seen any inactivity from him, not even today.

 

[dmmj]

you are correct if he's only eating lettuce his diet is nutritionally lacking. lettuce is a low nutrient food and they need to eat around 25 pounds of it a day to get all the nutrients he needs, I doubt he's eating that much. They eat lettuce because they like the taste of it it's like candy to them. you'll have to keep on offering and trying different foods to get him to change his diet. should consist mainly of weeds. and yes tortoises do shed in pieces not whole like snakes do.

 

[zeewiciwan]

Thank you, what best seasonal weeds can I offer him? I live in the Mediterranean so I think he is quite at home. Is clover leaves nutritious? We have plenty of it in our countryside. His former owner told me they fed him carrot leaves and chicken food but the former is hard to find and the latter I read is high in protein.

 

[Lyn W]

Have a look at www.thetortoisetable.org.uk for tort safe foods.
Yes they can become constipated and impacted. If my tort seems to be having trouble pooping I grate some cucumber to a mush and feed it on a leaf, it seems to help quite quickly that way. Cucumber is not good as a regular food though. Aloe Vera is also good so I cut off a 'leaf' (spike) and feed that, but I used to mush that too before my tort developed a liking for it.


Do you soak your tort? Warm soaks will help keep them hydrated and most torts will poop in the water. You have to change it as soon as they do that though.


If you look under Species Specific you will find a caresheet written by very experienced keepers called HermanniChris or Tom, that will tell you all about diet, temps, humidity, substrate etc.

 

[Yvonne G]

Tortoises can only eat what grows in their yard or what you give them. If you stop giving him lettuce, he can't eat it. He won't allow himself to starve. When he gets hungry enough he will try eating something else.

 

[Gillian M]

A very warm welcome to the forum!

Please post pics of your tort as well as his enclosure. This will enable us to give you more advice, to help you more.

Do not get him used to lettuce.....I fell into that trap and GOD only knows how much time it took me to get my beloved tort to eat mazuri!

 

[zeewiciwan]

Have a look at www.thetortoisetable.org.uk for tort safe foods.
Yes they can become constipated and impacted. If my tort seems to be having trouble pooping I grate some cucumber to a mush and feed it on a leaf, it seems to help quite quickly that way. Cucumber is not good as a regular food though. Aloe Vera is also good so I cut off a 'leaf' (spike) and feed that, but I used to mush that too before my tort developed a liking for it.


Do you soak your tort? Warm soaks will help keep them hydrated and most torts will poop in the water. You have to change it as soon as they do that though.


If you look under Species Specific you will find a caresheet written by very experienced keepers called HermanniChris or Tom, that will tell you all about diet, temps, humidity, substrate etc.

Thank you for your suggestions. I tried to soak him but it didn't help. I'm not sure about how frequent they poop actually.

 

[zeewiciwan]

Thank you! .. I haven't met anyone that feed their tortoise weeds actually, so this is very new. Some also told me they eat potato peels! Anyways, I will be looking out for the weeds that have been suggested to me and this week will try those instead of lettuce... I hope it doesn't take long to adjust his diet. He wasn't planned to be with us actually, I knew a family who were leaving the country and were looking for someone to take him, so it just happened. But we love him dearly and was getting worried about his nutrition. He lives in our back yard and there's only 4x3 feet enclosure with soil, with excess for him but he doesn't go there unless I take him probably cos there's nothing yet except a shallow dish of water. So from what I gathered from the species file and other forum discussions, it would be best to plant some weeds in this box? I also noticed that he hates it whenever I put him in water.

 

[SarahChelonoidis]

Don't feed potato peels! Those are not edible. Edible weeds are quite commonly feed for grazing tortoises, however. Planting safe weeds for him will be a very good idea.

 

[Lyn W]

Thank you for your suggestions. I tried to soak him but it didn't help. I'm not sure about how frequent they poop actually.

Keep soaking regularly in warm water (not hot - luke warm) up to the bottom of his shell, daily - about 20 mins - but don't let the water get cold. This will hydrate him.