Hungry Russian torts

[fgately]

Hi Folks,

My three outside Russians are doing beautifully. Shells are rock hard and they are heavy. I wonder if I can let them get a bit hungry so they will start eating more of the plants I have growing for them in my yard. They never touch the lawn grass, although I'll bet they would where they come from. These are ancient survivors, perfectly adapted to very arid conditions. I was wondering if I should juts NOT feed them and let them eat what is there.

They wouldn't starve would they?

 

[dmmj]

A healthy tort won't starve itself, but why bother if they are eating what you feed them don't worry, mine don't like grass very much either.

 

[agiletorts]

When they're hungry natually they will roam around to find things to eat, so they wouldn't starve themselves as long as there are edible plants. If they feel the grass is edible and they like it then they will eat it.

 

[Kristina]

I personally only "feed" my Russians once a week. The rest of the time they eat was is available in their pen, which is dandelions, 4 types of clover, wild strawberry, wild violet, plantain, timothy, fescue, nettles, mallow, pansies, and a bunch of other stuff I can't think of right now, lol. Much better than spring mix, in my opinion!

 

[tortoisenerd]

If all you have is grass, and you haven't seen your tort touch it, then I would keep feeding (and plant some other stuff), because Russians aren't known to be interested in grass. If you have a variety of weeds and such in the yard and you think they just prefer the spring mix, then by all means go a few days or more without feeding them to see if they graze. What kind of plants besides grass do you have? I'd double check here that they are types Russians like, and then test it out. They won't starve themselves, but they might go quite awhile to wait out the good stuff, especially if they really don't like the stuff in the yard (such as if it was only grass).