How often should I feed the tortoise?

[Alpha752]

Henry is a hungry guy. He LOVES his Kale. I am trying to mix it up and give him other things, but in winter in Ohio, we are limited to the super market.

I worry about overfeeding him, but he always wants food! Right now he gets a pile of greens about his body size (a good handful) about twice a day. He is indoor and not able to graze. He is an adult, as I am learning in another thread. He came from a pet store, so I wanted to make sure he was good and fed, because I don't trust them to have taken care of him and he was there for months. Now that I've had him for about a month, should I slow down the food? I feel bad because he will sit in his empty food bowl basically begging for food.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

What type of tortoise?
It may come down to what you are feeding and not how much.
For example, my tortoises get fed every day. But they eat a mixture of things. A varied diet.
Not too much of any one item.
They eat. They walk away. They might return later for a leftover.

 

[Alpha752]

What type of tortoise?
It may come down to what you are feeding and not how much

He is an adult Russian.

He eats a lot of Kale, but we try to vary it with romaine, dandelion when we can find it, other kinds of spring mix. About once a week he gets a strawberry or cherry tomato or something like that.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

He's not going to get fat eating dark green lettuces.
I say let him eat

 

[Alpha752]

Really? I thought that overeating was a big concern with torts, especially indoors ones. I cant wait until it's warm enough for me to be able to take him outside so he can roam and graze, but that is a couple months away.

So he is ok to eat this much twice a day?

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Really? I thought that overeating was a big concern with torts, especially indoors ones. I cant wait until it's warm enough for me to be able to take him outside so he can roam and graze, but that is a couple months away.

So he is ok to eat this much twice a day?

My rule of thumb...And I've learned it here... Is once a day. The same time every day. A pile of food about 1/2 the diameter of the tortoise.
Back off of the sugary stuff.
I wish someone with a FAT tortoise would chime in.

 

[Yvonne G]

You sometimes see an overweight Russian tortoise. This is because he's kept in a too small habitat. Tortoises need exercise in order to keep the inner works working. A tortoise that eats and sits with no exercise runs the risk of becoming constipated and maybe even fat.

I put a big pile of food at each feeding station in the morning. If, at the end of the day, there is still food there, I know I've put down too much, so the next day I give a bit less. It there's absolutely no food, not even crumbs, at the end of the day, I know I haven't given enough, and the next day I give more.

 

[emma.brown91]

Really? I thought that overeating was a big concern with torts, especially indoors ones. I cant wait until it's warm enough for me to be able to take him outside so he can roam and graze, but that is a couple months away.

So he is ok to eat this much twice a day?

I worry I feed mine to much too as he is inside at the moment as well. This is very helpful and has settled my mind

 

[GingerLove]

Ginger was a fat tortoise. Until she exercised and cut back on getting fed almost three times a day. I was a new owner, no judging!! Anyways, I feed her once a day. Sometimes she won't eat it, sometimes she'll eat it all and beg for seconds. I figure it's just best to set up a regular routine so she knows the food is there whenever she wants it.

 

[Tom]

Tortoises are grazers. They should be free fed the correct foods. GIve them as much as they want, but also house, heat and soak them properly. No small tanks. They need room to move.

Kale is not good as a staple. Its okay once in a while, but not on a regular basis. If you must use grocery store food, favor endive and escarole as your staples and mix in lots of other stuff like cilantro, celery tops, carrot tops, collard, mustard and turnip greens, bok choy, chard, watercress, etc…

The problem with grocery store greens in general when compared to the weeds, leaves, flowers and succulents they should be eating, is threefold:
1. Low in calcium.
2. Low calcium to phosphorous ratio.
3. Low fiber.

Using a calcium supplement once or twice a week and offering cuttlebone will help with the first two. To add fiber you can use grass hay that has been through a blender or finely chopped, fresh grass, or get some ZooMed Grassland Tortoise Chow. With any of these, start with the tortoises favorite foods finely chopped up and pre-wetted, and mix in a tiny amount of the new stuff. Use so little at first that its hardly noticeable and mix it in thoroughly. Over weeks and months, gradually up the ratio until you get it where you want it.

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

Everyday. They should be fed everyday. As Tom point out grocery greens have some deficiency that has to be taken into account if you feed such. Escarole is off course a cultured weed so meets the needs with out supplementation.

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/grocery-store-greens-good.81609/

 

[Rockwhi1972]

From what I read Kayle can give kidney stones. And I think it has oxalates in it

 

[RosemaryDW]

Kale is not good as a staple. Its okay once in a while, but not on a regular basis. If you must use grocery store food, favor endive and escarole as your staples and mix in lots of other stuff like cilantro, celery tops, carrot tops, collard, mustard and turnip greens, bok choy, chard, watercress, etc…

I don’t want to hijack the thread @Tom but collard, mustard, turnip greens, bok choy, chard and watercress are all brassicas, just as kale is. Why all those but not kale? I don’t feed kale often, in part because I eat collards and turnip greens more. The other part is that my tortoise doesn’t care for it but I imagine she’d get used to it if fed more often.

Anyway! do you not feed it it because of a low calcium ratio or ..? I know turnip greens and choy have good calcium, I don’t know anything about the others.

I feed a fair amount of brassica to my Russian because from the (little) I have read, they eat a fair amount in the wild at certain times of year. I don’t know about other tortoise diets; this is just my sense of what a Russian can eat. Varied brassica of course. We see people feeding too much kale all the time on the forum.

@Alpha752, this is not a statement about your tortoise! Keep feeding him often and feed a varied diet, just as other folks have already said.

 

[Tom]

I don’t want to hijack the thread @Tom but collard, mustard, turnip greens, bok choy, chard and watercress are all brassicas, just as kale is. Why all those but not kale?

None of those should be staples either. I didn't say no kale ever. I said it shouldn't make up a large percentage of the diet and neither should the ones you mentioned.

 

[RosemaryDW]

I see. Thank you.