Introducing “Toki”. How am I doing? How is he doing?

Jenna524

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Joined
Mar 16, 2021
Messages
63
Location (City and/or State)
Central Valley, CA
55615C87-596F-4AD0-A84A-B92906309872.jpegThis is Toki. He’s about 15 pounds. Length about 13 inches (shell only). We weren’t told an exact age, but we think he’s between 2-10 years old. We adopted him in July this year. It’s been about a month and a half, and things seem to be going well so far. We love this guy!

We have plenty of grazing opportunities for Toki—Tesudo mix on the side yard, huge amounts of grass and weeds, and also I’ve planted hibiscus, optunia cactus, and we have various leaves from our veggie garden to share. He seems to graze on all of it, with some breaks to rest under a rose bush routinely throughout the day. He hasn’t dug any huge burrows yet, but he makes some 2-3 inch deep impressions in the ground under shaded areas to rest. He has a heated night box available, but prefers outside right now (assuming because it’s summer heat outside). It’s gotten a bit cooler at night (60 degrees), so we’ve put him in his house at night with the door open for now, and he will stay there all night. But if we don’t put him in the house, he’ll stay asleep under the rose bush all night. I’ve tried to soak him about once a week. He has a water dish, but I’ve never seen him show any interest in it.

Our feeding routine seems to be letting him graze on grass and weeds all week, then once a week I’ll give him cactus, hibiscus, and any other leaves or plants available. He’ll eat the hibiscus and cactus and some leaf types really well. But I cannot get him to eat the orchard grass or Timothy hay at all. He also won’t eat the cuttle bone I gave him. I do not add calcium to his food, since he mostly gazes—when I make a pile of food for him, he only eats the cactus or flowers—for example, the pile of food in the picture was left untouched, while the cactus was gobbled up quickly.

Questions:
1. While right now Toki seems to be grazing and eating fine, I worry about what to do for him in the winter when our plants and grass start to die off. He won’t eat hay. What can I do to help this guy be prepared for eating when he doesn’t have as much to graze on in the winter?

2. Is there anything else in his diet or hygiene that I should consider to help him stay healthy?

3. How do I add powder calcium to his diet if he won’t eat a pile of plants/hay? (And he doesn’t really eat the cuttlebone).

4. Also, are there any other hygiene/health things that I should be doing for him? (Like I heard something about trimming beaks? I don’t know anything about it!).

5. How often should I check the underside of his shell? And does it bother/hurt him to turn him upside down?

If you have any suggestions I’d like to hear! Thanks!
 

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wellington

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Be sure to soak the hay and then feed. Don't use Timothy, it's too woody. Orchard grass hay is good.
When feeding his pile, put his favorite items under a layer of the other items. This way he has to hopefully eat the others to get too his favorite.
Have you added mazuri tortoise pellets yet to his diet? That would be a good item for winter.
I have leopards and for winter I feed the leaves I have saved in the fall. I put them in a vacuum type air tight bag and suck the air out with the vacuum and then i freeze it. Not sure if you have to freeze it, i just do.
Also @Tom might be able to help with what he does.
 

Jenna524

Member
Joined
Mar 16, 2021
Messages
63
Location (City and/or State)
Central Valley, CA
Be sure to soak the hay and then feed. Don't use Timothy, it's too woody. Orchard grass hay is good.
When feeding his pile, put his favorite items under a layer of the other items. This way he has to hopefully eat the others to get too his favorite.
Have you added mazuri tortoise pellets yet to his diet? That would be a good item for winter.
I have leopards and for winter I feed the leaves I have saved in the fall. I put them in a vacuum type air tight bag and suck the air out with the vacuum and then i freeze it. Not sure if you have to freeze it, i just do.
Also @Tom might be able to help with what he does.
Thank you for this info. I will try putting the cactus under the weeds and leaves to see if he eats more hay. Also, do you wet down all the types of hay you feed your tortoise? Or just the orchard hay? How long does it last when it’s been watered down? Good idea with preserving the leaves. I saw a vacuum seal machine went on sale at Costco. I’m very tempted…
And do you only feed him Madurai in the winter? Or all year? Thanks!
 

wellington

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The hay doesn't last real long wet. Not more then a day. Only feed a small amount at first to see if he will eat it. Soak all hay. Large tortoises don't need it wet but if they don't eat it, wetting it usually gets them too.
Small torts need it cut into small pieces and soaked.
The mazuri gets fed about once or twice during the summer months. They have all kinds of things to graze on in the summer. They get fed mazuri in the winter every 2 too 3 days
The vacuum seal machines work good to. Just take your time with it though. A few years back I bought one and burnt it up the same day with continual use. It's quite fun lol
 
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