baby tortoise as hardly eaten today

[Tracy Gould]

Hi Shelby as been with me a week now, and as been eating well but as not eaten alot today. He is still active so i am proberly worrying over nothing. i feed Dandilions and clover, bind weed,and other weeds i also give him safe herbs and crest and now and again he as rocket and Radichtio lettuce which he loves but i know it is high in water so i do not give alot. i add vits and calcium. I vary his diet but because he did not eat his weeds i gave him some of his favourite lettuce and a tiny bit of baby tom which he took. Is it normal for them to have days were they do not eat as much or is it a sign he is sickening?

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Ok the little monkey is having a evening feast, i put him on his food he normally walks off but he started feeding,He did this on purpose waiting till i posted on here then made me out a liar lol

 

[GBtortoises]

Tortoises not eating much or at all in a single day is not unusual. Their digestive systems work differently than us humans. They eat, fill up, take a long time to digest and once that process is complete, eat again. Their digestion process is a very slow one.

Actually if you are supplementing with powdered vitamins and calcim your tortoises should have access to lots of water.

 

[Tracy Gould]

Tortoises not eating much or at all in a single day is not unusual. Their digestive systems work differently than us humans. They eat, fill up, take a long time to digest and once that process is complete, eat again. Their digestion process is a very slow one.

Actually if you are supplementing with powdered vitamins and calcim your tortoises should have access to lots of water.

Thank for that i was worrying a bit he normally eats small amount about 3 times a day. I gave him a tiny bit of apple yesterday evening as a treat that may have filled him up for longer lol.
He has water in his home i also soak him every other day even if he as gone in his water.

 

[tortoisenerd]

With a tort not eating (if this is in fact the case, the tort may just be eating less than you think it should or just be having an off day and not hungry), I would think more that the temperature could be too low, it is settling into the enclosure, or possibly an illness such as a parasite. If you have not done so, regardless of any symptoms I would get his poop tested at a vet's for parasites. Keep offering a wide variety of foods with pure calcium powder if you have UVB or sun (I do not believe in vitamin supplements unless they are natural ground up stuff because you can easily overdose the tort, so please provide more info about what type of supplement so you can be given advice on it), and keep any eye on the tort's eating habits. Spring mix is a great mix of lettuces you can add to the weeds for variety unless you are feeding a lot more than you listed, as in the long term those are all higher in oxalic acid. My tort will have a day or two at a time where he is less active and doesn't want to eat--my vet says that they can feel the atmospheric pressure change. As long as the tort is eating for example 5/7 days of the week, it is growing and gaining weight (weigh and measure a hatchling weekly at the same time such as after it has eaten & pooped for the day for consistency), is free of parasites, has been shown to be in good health by a vet, moves around each day to thermoregulate, and is being housed properly including a good temperature gradient, I would not worry if they have some off days. Also, torts can literally take months to settle into a new home sometimes. Just double check everything and don't worry! My tort has strange days too--every once in awhile he likes to sleep all day and then eat late at night after his food has wilted. It happens all the time that we'll post about something and then it solves itself. No worries.

 

[DeanS]

...if all other varients are in place (temp, etc) sometimes it can be as simple as adding something new to the diet...any kind of stimulant can do...a differnt grass, weed, fruit or veggie! Give it a try.

 

[GBtortoises]

I would recommend staying away from feeding fruits to a baby Hermann's that is not eating it's normal diet. Tortoises really don't need "treats" unless you are attempting to train it to sit and roll over like a dog (good luck with that)! A little bit of fruit once in a great while for adults won't do any harm, but also not at all a necessary part of their diet. For very young and small tortoises, what may appear to be a small amount to us is actually a lot for their digestive system to handle. If the tortoise has not been eating regularly it's digestive system may or may not be fully functioning. Adding fruit to it can be counterproductive.

A Hermann's tortoise's diet should be comprised of around 85-90% good quality, varied greens with the remainder being a varied diet of quality vegetables to provide additional vitamins and minerals. The majority of fruits are high in sugar, citric acid or both. The Hermann's digestive system is not designed to digest those ingredients at the levels that they are found in fruit.