Cuttlebone Question

[Fern3]

Question~I have owned my tortoise for almost 3 years and he has been happy and healthy. He always has a cuttlebone available to him which he chews on occasionally. He recently went poop on the cuttlebone so I bought him a new one and he ate the entire new cuttlebone the night I brought it home. My question is; one, is that ok for him to eat that much cuttlebone and two, was he lacking calcium that he would do that?
Any input would be great. Thank you!!

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi and welcome to the Forum!

This is not usually what happens. Ordinarily, you place a new cuttlebone in the enclosure and it sits there for days, weeks sometimes months before the tortoise bites it. Maybe your tortoise just got used to seeing it laying there and forgot it was edible.

I don't think eating the whole thing is going to be harmful. Do you have UVB light? Calcium doesn't work, and just goes out in the poop and pee without the UVB either from the sun or a good light.

 

[Fern3]

Hi and welcome to the Forum!

This is not usually what happens. Ordinarily, you place a new cuttlebone in the enclosure and it sits there for days, weeks sometimes months before the tortoise bites it. Maybe your tortoise just got used to seeing it laying there and forgot it was edible.

I don't think eating the whole thing is going to be harmful. Do you have UVB light? Calcium doesn't work, and just goes out in the poop and pee without the UVB either from the sun or a good light.

I have a large 6ft by 4ft enclosure for him that does has a UVB strip on each section (it is an L shaped enclosure). Thank you so much for your reply! He's my baby and it concerned me