Calcium for my tortoise

[josh.wheeler85]

My tortoise won't eat fruit and greens with calcium powder on it? What r some other options? Can I put it in his soaking water?

 

[pugsandkids]

You can grate a cuttle bone over his greens, or even leave one with his food. Surprisingly, my Tank will nibble on his sometimes.

 

[mainey34]

If he won't eat his food. With. Calcium on it I would just leave a cuttlefish bone in his enclosure.

 

[Arizona Sulcata]

Agree with what's been said. Also there are many foods you can offer that have plenty of calcium in them naturally.

 

[AesopTortoise]

I mix the powder w/ pumpkin purée. It's cheap and they can't resist it.

 

[mctlong]

I mix calcium powder into the soaking water twice weekly and keep a mineral brick in the enclosure.

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Also, if you choose to soak in calcium water, use calcium citrate (found at health food stores), not calcium carbonate. Calcium carbonate is cheaper, but it does not mix well with the water and sinks to the bottom almost immediately. Calcium citrate will separate as well, but not as quickly. For longer soaks, I use a turkey baster to mix the water a couple times during the soak. This gives the water a creamy, milk-like texture.

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Another option is to mix the calcium citrate with water and put the mixture in a spray bottle. Shake the bottle and spray the greens down before feeding. This will give you an even consistency of calcium spread over the food so everything they eat will be covered in calcium. This way they can't avoid it by eating around pieces with calcium. Also, the calcium water sticks and doesn't fall off as easily as dry calcium. Calcium citrate works better than calcium carbonate because it mixes better with water.

 

[Dizisdalife]

Hi, welcome to the Forum. I feed my sulcata Mazuri Tortoise Food twice weekly and add calcium supplement to that. Over the years I have used Mazuri to feed several supplements and medicines (mostly deworming meds) to my tortoise, and to introduce new foods.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Josh, and welcome to the Forum!!

First of all, we need to know if you're feeding a forest-type tortoise like a redfooted??? Because other types of tortoise shouldn't have fruit on a regular basis.

Next thing is, you might be using too much calcium. It doesn't have a good taste/smell, and if there's too much the tortoises won't eat it. So if you're just feeding one tortoise, put the pile of greens on the feeding station, then just take a little pinch of calcium powder between your thumb and index finger and sprinkle that over the food.

If you don't want to use calcium powder, you can use a cuttlebone. You can buy them in the bird section of the pet store.

 

[josh.wheeler85]

Thanks for all the ideas. Ill try them out and see what works.