Any ideas?

[Lstrayer92]

Hey all! I've had my russian for 4 months now and when I bought him I also bought the dry tortoise food that kinda looks like fruity pebbles because that's what they had in the cage with him at the pet store, but in the 4 moths that I've had him he has not touched or it payed any attention to it at all. Right now I have it in a seperate feeding bowl but I've tried mixing it with his leafy greens and also getting it kinda soggy and Micky it with his everyday food, he just kinda picks around it and this food is supposed to have good vitamins and everything in it for him but he won't touch it and I don't want him to be vitamin deprived or something.. Any other ideas you guys have that I could use to get him to eat it?

 

[theelectraco]

That food is junk anyways, so I wouldn't worry about your tortoise not eating it. What foods are you providing your tortoise?

 

[rideburton87]

I personally believe that all natural food is the way to go like home grown grasses and weeds if you can provide it. Thats all he's going to eat in the wild, not some fruity pebble junk that we make in some factory.. The only supplementation that you should have to give to a healthy tort would be calcium

 

[Lstrayer92]

I sprinkle calcium regularly on his everyday food. He LOVES romain lettuce, he eats spinach, kale, cucumber and basil every once in a while. he eats grass, dandelions and clovers when outdoors and I've tried other things too but he's a very picky eater. And I'm currently trying to grow grass and lettuce for him but I don't have much of a green thumb lol. And that's good to know that I shouldn't worry about that dry food, at least I can stop wasting my money on stuff he 100% ignores haha

 

[Lunartwist]

Hiya! Congrats on your new tortoise!

Everyone is right, those things are JUNK. I used to work at Petco, and we used those pellets to just "bulk up" the food so we didn't have to spend so much money on veggies (and our Russian tortoises ate anything you put in there). Sure, it has vitamins in it, but it also has a lot of corn, wheat, soy, and other fillers. Its like adding vitamins to a greasy cheeseburger...doesn't make the burger any less of a junk food!

If you do want to bulk up his food a bit with something fortified with vitamins and minerals, you can try a more natural pelleted food, like Zoo Med's "Grassland Tortoise Diet". Its not as grain heavy, and you can actually see the chunks of grasses and hay in it. I give it to my torts every once in a while to add some extra fiber. A lot of people here also use Mazuri tortoise diet as well, but its not available in my area so I don't know much about it. Or you can just get actual hay and chop it finely, or pick the grasses and weeds (from a pesticide and fertilizer free yard) and wash them and add them to his food. Other than that, if you want more vitamins and calcium in his diet, try adding a cuttlebone (in the bird section of the pet store) for extra calcium, and a vitamin powder to add to food a few times a week. There you go!

 

[Lstrayer92]

I have cuttle bone in his cage he doesn't ever touch it, it usually just ends up getting buried in his substrate haha