Feeding

[rocky1998]

How many times do i feed my 2 year old Russian tortoises ? And what times precisely ?

 

[JoesMum]

Humans like to set meal times and eat three times a day. Torts, like all other animals, eat when they are hungry or when they find a particularly tasty morsel.

There is no need for fixed meal times and a good argument for allowing them to browse as they want. The outdoor ones that browse the living plants, like my Joe, certainly do that.

Most people keeping torts in indoor enclosures will feed first thing in the morning and the tort may well not clear it one go, but return to the food throughout the day. If the tort clears the food, a second helping is normally put out, but that may well be left in the enclosure and not cleared up until the following morning.

Precise times are completely unnecessary.

 

[GeoTerraTestudo]

How many times do i feed my 2 year old Russian tortoises ? And what times precisely ?

In the wild, tortoise feeding is determined not so much by time of day, but by suitable temperature. In the spring and autumn, tortoises often feed at midday when it's warm enough. In the summer, they often feed in the morning and evening to avoid the heat.

In captivity, a lot of folks (including myself) just like to give their tortoises a big breakfast. A good rule of thumb is to offer them a pile of food about as high as the tortoise, or what it can consume in about 20 minutes. They might not finish it all in the morning. Rather, they might just eat most of it for breakfast, and then nibble on the leftovers throughout the day. If you wish, you can split up that meal into two servings, and just reduce the size accordingly, i.e. a pile half their height twice a day, or what they can eat in 10 minutes at morning and evening.

My guys like to wait patiently by their food dishes every morning for breakfast. It's very cute.