Has any observed a tortoise eating a.......

[Justin90]

So we took Ella out for a little walk and she found a snake's skeleton...she walked passed it once, but on her way back, she decided to chow down on it... should I have stopped her?! I felt like she would have ate it in the wild and she seemed to enjoy it!

 

[Tom]

Your tortoise is not in the wild.

Eating wild reptile remains is a very good way to infect your tortoise with parasites or other deadly pathogens. Do you know why the snake died? It might have been from a contagious disease. Or poison.

I'd wait a couple of weeks and take a stool sample in for examination just to be safe. If your tortoise drops dead for no apparent reason, you will have a good idea of why...

 

[Justin90]

Thank you for reining me in on the disease/poison potential risk. I have been thinking about taking her to a vet, so getting a sample of poop to take in would be a good idea. I've been watching the snake decompose for a while now. I'm fairly certain my landlord ran over it with the mower. Nonetheless, I am her care taker and I shouldn't let her eat certain things. However, when I see her smell poisonous berries and not eat them, I can't help but trust her "judgement".

 

[MPRC]

I have caught my redfoot eating a dead snake (mower apparently got it) and I took it away right away. I provide a balanced diet that I feel good about, no need to eat dead things in the yard (or the piles of poop that they love so much).

 

[KevinGG]

Thank you for reining me in on the disease/poison potential risk. I have been thinking about taking her to a vet, so getting a sample of poop to take in would be a good idea. I've been watching the snake decompose for a while now. I'm fairly certain my landlord ran over it with the mower. Nonetheless, I am her care taker and I shouldn't let her eat certain things. However, when I see her smell poisonous berries and not eat them, I can't help but trust her "judgement".

Please remove the poisonous berries from her enclosure. Many others have trusted their torts "judgement" with fatal results. Easy to assume they have a sixth botanical sense, but this has been false so many times. We regularly hear about tortoises who have eaten plastic bags, sponges, and poisonous plants.

In regards to the skeleton, this may have been a way of getting needed calcium. I'd put a broken up piece of cuttlebone in the enclosure.

 

[Justin90]

Please remove the poisonous berries from her enclosure. Many others have trusted their torts "judgement" with fatal results. Easy to assume they have a sixth botanical sense, but this has been false so many times. We regularly hear about tortoises who have eaten plastic bags, sponges, and poisonous plants.

In regards to the skeleton, this may have been a way of getting needed calcium. I'd put a broken up piece of cuttlebone in the enclosure.

Well the berries are outside when she is taking a "walk" longer than what her enclosure can do for her. But i don't let her near the berries anymore, after I realized.

I used to have a cuttle bone in her enclosure, but she never touched it, so I ground it up to a powder and I will put it on her food every now and then, she doesn't mind that.

 

[JoesMum]

I feel uncomfortable with torts "taking a walk outside their enclosure"

Far too frequently we have reports on here of lost tortoises. The owner has only been distracted for a moment and the tort has blended into the background and disappeared.

Even at 7lb and over 10 inches, Joe is near impossible to spot in undergrowth.

It is much better for you and your tort to make the outdoor enclosure bigger and minimise the risk of an escaped tortoise... and you also have a controlled environment with regard to plant availability too.

 

[Moozillion]

Well the berries are outside when she is taking a "walk" longer than what her enclosure can do for her. But i don't let her near the berries anymore, after I realized.

I used to have a cuttle bone in her enclosure, but she never touched it, so I ground it up to a powder and I will put it on her food every now and then, she doesn't mind that.

My Elsa Elizabeth totally ignored cuttlebones for the first 2 years or so, so we scraped it over dampened greens she was eating. Now for some reason she is happy to eat cuttlebone bones and really goes to town on them!

 

[seanang168]

Once my star tortoise ate a piece of spent staple on the floor. I was too late to react. This shows they could practically eat anything they come across.

 

[Justin90]

My Elsa Elizabeth totally ignored cuttlebones for the first 2 years or so, so we scraped it over dampened greens she was eating. Now for some reason she is happy to eat cuttlebone bones and really goes to town on them!

When we first got Ella, she would never eat carrots. We didn't feed them to her for a couple months and now she loves them. So after this weekend, I put the cuttlebone in her enclosure, maybe she will eat it now haha

 

[Yvonne G]

I have seen a desert tortoise in my yard eating a lizard (I think it was dead).

 

[Moozillion]

I have seen a desert tortoise in my yard eating a lizard (I think it was dead).

Oh, MY!!!!!

 

[seanang168]

I have seen a desert tortoise in my yard eating a lizard (I think it was dead).

Yes the guy from kamp Kenan said that many tortoises may start munching on a dead animal when they come across one in the wild