My Leo won't eat his veggies

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Diana Stone

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I acquired a new Leopard tortoise about 4 weeks ago and I think he is just fabulous. The guy said he was 4 years old and a female. Clearly she is a he, his name is now Leonardo and is about 6" SCL. He did not have the best of care before he came to me. He was in a very large deep tank with only an 18" 5.0 UVB bulb, no basking spot, but it was kinda warm in there. He had no water, no hide, nothing, just rabbit pellets. He said he soaked him about every two weeks. He was not to specific as to what he was fed but I was told he ate organic kale, bananas and green leaf lettuce along with apples, etc. We have been to the vet for stool check and treatment for lots of parasites as well as the soft plastron and a beak trim. He is doing much much better now. Putting on weight as he is kinda light for his size. Eats well and is very active and has become very friendly. He loves it when I am cleaning up his table (putting things back in order) from all his walking, walking, walking all day long, he always comes to see what I am doing. He loves to have his rear end rubbed, wiggles it back and forth...to cute.:p
Problem is he will not eat anything but green leafys. No carrots, no cactus, no red bell peppers, no butternut squash, nothing. I have tried chopping up the carrots and other foods in the food chopper and covering the greens with it but he will totally ignore it all day. I have tried just sprinkling it on the greens, same thing. I have tried putting no greens but veggies out for him, nothing. I have tried grass (growing live grass), I don't think he knows what it is or how to eat it. I do however cut up the grass and sprinkle it on his greens as well as orchard grass and timothy hay. It stays pretty good when I spray it all with water to make it stick.
Help, how do I get him to eat something besides leafy greens?
 

Greg T

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I just mix my other foods like cactus in with the lettuce and they eat it all. Perhaps if you just keep mixing it in, eventually he will eat some of it and decide it is good. Maybe you just have a picky eater there! :p
 
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Maggie Cummings

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I just read up on the diet requirements for your tortoise and it looks to me that most of his diet can be grocery store greens this winter. The dark broadleaf greens are the best. 70% of his diet can be those greens. I would add TNT and powdered calcium to his greens and just let him eat that way.
I feed my adult Sulcata locally grown grass hay as the biggest part of his diet and you can use that too for your Leo. You've only had him for 4 weeks, and I think that just isn't long enough to make a diet change.
If you feed the grocery store greens added powdered supplements and some hay he should be fine.
 

Diana Stone

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I do add the supplements to his greens but he needs way more fiber than the grocery store greens have. So all I can do at this point is keep putting grass, timothy hay and orchard grass on his food and keep trying to fool him into eating those other foods that are good for him? Boy, I can't wait till the nice weather comes around and he gets to be outside. Natural grown goodies, yum!
 
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Maggie Cummings

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torts4me said:
I do add the supplements to his greens but he needs way more fiber than the grocery store greens have. So all I can do at this point is keep putting grass, timothy hay and orchard grass on his food and keep trying to fool him into eating those other foods that are good for him? Boy, I can't wait till the nice weather comes around and he gets to be outside. Natural grown goodies, yum!

To get my bigger Sulcata to eat hay I started by cutting it up small and sprinkling it over the greens. I cut it up so small that he had to eat it with the greens. It took about 2 years of doing that before he would eat the hay uncut. He now recognizes hay as food and eat's it with no trouble. But I get the soft sweet smelling orchard grass hay not the stems they sell as hay bagged up in the pet store.
In my defense of my first post to you both of the care sheets I read on Leos said that grocery store greens could take up to 70% of their food...
 

Yvonne G

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Actually, I see nothing wrong with what your tortoise is eating. Dark, leafy greens is a pretty good diet for a leopard tortoise. Eventually he will graze when he gets outside in the good weather. If you get his outdoor habitat planted with succulent weeds and grasses, I promise, he WILL graze. But in the meantime, dark, leafy greens is really ok.

Yvonne
 

Diana Stone

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Maggie, where do you get the sweet smelling orchard grass? Feed stores maybe? I would like to try that.
Yvonne, thanks for the input. I feel better about him not eating his veggies.
I will just continue to sprinkle the greens with the grass, timothy hay and orchard grass.
 
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Maggie Cummings

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I had already told you that your greens were fine to feed your Leo...:p
I get locally grown grass hay from a feed store here. You'd just need to call a feed store in your area, one that sells bales of hay to feed horses. My feed store lets me scrape up a bunch of the loose hay. I bring the biggest plastic bag there is and I push as much of the hay as I can into the bag. I think I got close to 1/2 a bale last time in 2 bags. Sometimes depending on who the clerk is that day I have to pay $2 other times it's free. I also get the terramycin powder and eye ointment there.
 

K9KidsLove

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Hi...Have you offered your leopard pumpkin? It is full of fiber and it acts as a natural dewormer. Use only 100% pumpkin. It comes in a can in the pie fillings section of grocery stores.
I usually offer a big teaspoon full monthly.
good luck
Patsy
 
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