Calcium Spray

[Ch+Stewie]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone used calcium spray rather than the powder, to suppliment tortoise's diets.

Stewie has the powder at the moment but doesn't seem to want to eat the leafs which has the powder on. He eats them eventually when he runs out of less powdered ones, but he doesn't seem overly keen.

Are the sparys as good as the powder?

Thanks

 

[Yvonne G]

I can't answer the "spray" question, because I've not heard of it, but to the "not eating the dusted food" part of your statement, try just putting a pinch of the powder over the food. If you put too much, they smell it and won't eat.

Yvonne

 

[Madkins007]

The sight or smell of the powder seems to bother some torts. Maybe it smells funny, or looks like mold, whatever.

I generally find that if I lightly toss the greens after sprinkling it usually takes care of it. I also have luck sprinkling, then putting more greens on top.

If you are using a powder, you should keep it light- like salting the food for a person watching their sodium intake. I keep mine in a salt shaker-like container and just do a little 'tap' or two.

My only concerns with a spray would be the unneeded cost and what I think would be a tendency to use too much.

 

[Madortoise]

Madokins007, I never saw anywhere else stating how much of Calcium powder to use. I always wondered. Thank you very much for the descriptive info.
My tort is also sensitive to over-powdered greens so I was going by trial and error method...how much more can I put before she rejects it. Recently, though, I saw a photo of a baby tort in this forum with powdered food all over his face. With that and the Vet saying that my DT's shell is softer than wild ones (which he said was to be expected from a captive tort), I thought may be I was too conservative w/powder and began sprinkling more. As so long as there are no chunks of it in one area, she seems to appreciate them. Is there a harm to using too much (if it's more than "light")?