MY TORTOISE GAINED 6.6 grams I COULDNT BELEIVE IT.

[SILVERSTAR]

I GOT HIM ON 9-9-10 he weighed 38grams exactly and i weighed him again on 10-13-10 and he weighed 44.6grams i wasnt expecting that much gain,but he does eat hardcore,he gets like three dif types of squash including pumpkin which he loves and cactus and alotta other grasses ,weeds,romaine,i really do keep it buffet style for him

 

[geekinpink]

wow that's great! congrats! Can I ask how much your tort eats? like the volume of it? As they grow do they eat less? Because mine does not eat a lot, (she does eat a lot if romaine is her dinner) She consumes like 3 hibiscus flower (small kind, about 3") a very tiny opuntia pad. Does not like grasses and weeds
-if there is no flower she eats like 3 leaves only then sleep then comes back and eat a few more...I find her eating too little In 3 months she only gain from 200grams to 275grams
- had her checked and there's no parasite or anything.

 

[SILVERSTAR]

well im not an expert on tortoises ive only had my star tort for a month but 75 grams of weight gain doesnt sound all that bad as long as the weigh doesnt jus stay the same or drop then i think you should be ok,thats jus my opinion..i cant seem to get mine eating habiscus but i only got the california variety,and he will eat grass or at least he tries but i worry about how much he actually intakes since they say grasses are so important but i feel like he makes up for that part becuz he eats alotta clover an he takes in stem fiber matter most the time that i catch him nibbling on it.

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also mine sleeps allot too he goes thru phases to where he will be active almost all day entirely then the next day ill see him wander out of his cave only like twice for short periods only to retreat back into his slumber,i was hoping that he out grows the sleep all the time part and becomes an active juvenile tortoise but if he ends up jus being sleepy thats fine with me to,i find that sumtimes when i give him a warm water soak usually sumtime between 8-10am that it kinda wakes him up and he will be active and eat immediatly following the soak,if you feel that your tortoise is sleeping to much for its own health then me personally id prolly kinda start waking him up in the mornings with a nice warm soak,but thats if you feel its unhealthy sleep,i have heard(read)that this species of tortoise will be sleepy,timid,skittish,to a certain degree as it is,i mean its your tortoise if anyone knows that its not quite as active as it should be its prolly the owner maybe aside from warm water soaks-continued------

 

[Seiryu]

wow that's great! congrats! Can I ask how much your tort eats? like the volume of it? As they grow do they eat less? Because mine does not eat a lot, (she does eat a lot if romaine is her dinner) She consumes like 3 hibiscus flower (small kind, about 3") a very tiny opuntia pad. Does not like grasses and weeds
-if there is no flower she eats like 3 leaves only then sleep then comes back and eat a few more...I find her eating too little In 3 months she only gain from 200grams to 275grams
- had her checked and there's no parasite or anything.

I know nothing about stars. But 200 to 275 grams in 3 months. Would be roughly 6 grams a week. Which is pretty good, no? It's still weight gain regardless and a decent amount.

As far as the romaine goes. Maybe try and lesson the romaine amounts and feed other things only. They should eventually eat "The bad stuff" when they get really hungry. I personally don't feed romaine to any of my torts, although it is a good "filler". Just not something you want to feed often.

 

[SILVERSTAR]

well wut do you feed mainly then?,cuz everyone keeps suggesting romaine as the main staple or a like leafy green...

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Also i dont know if this is a good thing or a bad thing but i gave my tortoise the inside of a pumpkin flesh with out the seeds and he has jus absolutely loved it ever since and alotta times he will search around for it while other food is out there so ill give in and get him some,he was the same way about the cactus at first but as time went on he could care less when the pumpkin is around but i will say he still eats a variety of food,i mean the pumpkin is in the squash family so it is a vegetable rite????

 

[Seiryu]

well wut do you feed mainly then?,cuz everyone keeps suggesting romaine as the main staple or a like leafy green...

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I don't think anyone on this forum suggested romaine as a staple. If so, they have no idea what they are talking about. Romaine is one of the least nutritional greens you can give. Fine in small amounts sure.

Leafy greens you can do would be. Collard, Turnip, Mustard, Radish greens. Endive, Escarole, Radicchio, Plantain, Hibiscus leaves and flowers, Grape and Mulberry leaves. Weeds are also good, cactus pads too.

And I think stars also eat grass (I may be wrong, but isn't it supposed to be a large part of their diet)? Although if it is young, it probably won't eat grass for a few years. Although you can try.

You could also try Mazuri tortoise diet (and soak it so it gets mooshy) and feed that once or twice a week.

 

[SILVERSTAR]

i already feed mazuri and sorry to say everytime i see a picture of a baby star tortoise it seems to be munching on romaine,and yeah its been suggested i may have misused the word staple but yes it was suggested for my tortoise along with grasses which not too interested ,clovers is a different story mine eats the stem sumtimes too.Its not like he only eats romaine,wut about the pumpkim that i asked about,thats more puzzling to me at the moment then the romaine issue.................

 

[Seiryu]

i already feed mazuri and sorry to say everytime i see a picture of a baby star tortoise it seems to be munching on romaine,and yeah its been suggested i may have misused the word staple but yes it was suggested for my tortoise along with grasses which not too interested ,clovers is a different story mine eats the stem sumtimes too.Its not like he only eats romaine,wut about the pumpkim that i asked about,thats more puzzling to me at the moment then the romaine issue.................

Well, not sure about Pumpkin. Hopefully someone else can help with this. I am sure once in a while it's for sure OK. If it's like other grass eating tortoises like leopards and sulcatas, you'd want to feed it once in a while (once every 2-4 weeks? for all fruits. They don't NEED it.)

I don't think stars are big fruit/veggie eaters.

As far as the romaine goes, I can't stop you from what you decide to do. But just because people feed something as a big part of the diet, doesn't mean it's good. And I'll leave it at that.

 

[SILVERSTAR]

yeah i understand where your comin from,its jus everything ive learned about star tortoises in a way contradicts,people say no romaine but i see it a bunch of piks and people do suggest it,they say its supposed to be a dry habitat but the lack of humidity can create unnatural pyramiding so far ive jus been kinda makin my own educated guesses and yes i realize the importances of natural diets as if they were in the wild,so i do try and stay close to that but i gotta admit ive heard allotta star horror storys and i jus dont want that ya know,i dont want my tortoise to start gettn lethargic or sum other thing bcuz he isnt gettn simple grass or weeds that are free outside.........

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also i guess i will quit feedn the pumpkin as much,bcuz so far ive gave him sum everyday even if it was only a small peice.

 

[PeanutbuttER]

yeah i understand where your comin from,its jus everything ive learned about star tortoises in a way contradicts,people say no romaine but i see it a bunch of piks and people do suggest it,they say its supposed to be a dry habitat but the lack of humidity can create unnatural pyramiding so far ive jus been kinda makin my own educated guesses ... ive heard allotta star horror storys and i jus dont want that ya know

This is the problem with the internet. Anyone can say what they want to say, so when you're new you read all sorts of conflicting stuff. Its very confusing to say the least. Stick with it and find out which sources are trustworthy. IMO that means, look for proof through pictures that what that person is saying works.

Also, people will be keeping tortoises different based upon where they live, local temps, and local humidity so that may explain to some degree why some people are giving different advice.

I've been impressed by the wealth and accuracy of a lot of the information on this forum which is why this is my main resource for tortoise keeping.

 

[SILVERSTAR]

yeah me tooooo.......i was hecka happy to find a tortoise forum wit threads dedicated to each species even the star tortoise,so to me this forum was like hittn the jackpot,cuz i was on two other reptile forums and havent even been back,like ramen noodle to ST.LOUIS style ribs,

 

[geekinpink]

I agree, everywhere i search on the web, it's always romaine isn't it? When I bought my tort, first thing that came out of the sellers mouth feed her romaine! lol
But that is not my staple food for her, I give her hibiscus flowers everyday if there are blooms, the flowers wilt for like a day so I pick all of it and just leave them on her enclosure, she eats them even when the flowers are closed. The opuntia and different greens everyday but she rarely eats them. She hates grass or hay though, I usually trick her into eating then but she uses her paws to remove them from her mouth, so i had to cut them up really small.


~@silverstar - you mentioned your tort does not eat hibiscus? I have different kinds of hibiscus, and mine only eats the local kind...i have no idea how different if it from hibiscus in other countries but she would not touch the big kind (they call it hula girl hibiscus). She did take a bite out of it but she never went back.

 

[SILVERSTAR]

yeah i tried california habiscus and i think once he ate half a leaf,thats it its kinda big ...

 

[onarock]

I would say that romain is a no go. I would try to avoid store bought greens all together. I have 8 platynota and they all graze on grasses. In their section of my yard I have kukuya, seashore, burmuda, timothy and all kinds of weeds. I also have a couple verietys of sedum. In the summer when it's dryer I sometimes suppliment with Mazuri. They also enjoy hibiscus flowers and leaves the occasional banana leaf ( if it falls into their area) and papaya. I try not to feed fruits, only on occasion. I also soak them in coconut water when we have nuts on our trees, they drink it up I think they really like it (I don't know how good it is for them, it's great for us sooooo?). I also keep water available at all times, they love to soak.

 

[Gus]

Hi there's noting wrong with your star which don't eat grass because 4 of my star non of them like it also and they love hibiscus(hula girl hibiscus) and not those new hy-breed type as for opuntia try to feed them the baby opuntia and maybe you can chop them into smaller piece.

As for every meal I will ensure there's diff types of vege and not for getting the mazuri soak with warm water which my Star love it sooooooooo much. maybe thats the reason they start to gain weight.

If your star is eating well but not gaining weight at all it's time to proceed with de-worm (check your FB wall I have enclosed some detail for you)

As for grass or hay it's like human some love fish and some don't so your star is like my which don't

I agree, everywhere i search on the web, it's always romaine isn't it? When I bought my tort, first thing that came out of the sellers mouth feed her romaine! lol
But that is not my staple food for her, I give her hibiscus flowers everyday if there are blooms, the flowers wilt for like a day so I pick all of it and just leave them on her enclosure, she eats them even when the flowers are closed. The opuntia and different greens everyday but she rarely eats them. She hates grass or hay though, I usually trick her into eating then but she uses her paws to remove them from her mouth, so i had to cut them up really small.


~@silverstar - you mentioned your tort does not eat hibiscus? I have different kinds of hibiscus, and mine only eats the local kind...i have no idea how different if it from hibiscus in other countries but she would not touch the big kind (they call it hula girl hibiscus). She did take a bite out of it but she never went back.

 

[geekinpink]

oooh, i'm curious about the coconut! It;s good for humans and said to aid in cleaning the urinary tract... and our vet always prescribe giving it to my dogs and cats especially when they have trouble peeing... I wonder if I could give it to my tort too hmmm...

 

[onarock]

I started the coconut water thing because 1. I am surrounded by coconut trees and 2. I was trying to process my own coconut coir for my hatchling tortoises. I dont give it to them all the time, but when I do they seem to like it and it makes their shells shine. Who knows I may be posting "dont give your tortoise coconut water" after some tragic coconut water long term exposure tragedy ha ha. Geekinpink, I think its cool your vet recommends it. I drink it all the time, infact Ive used it as a soda substitute.

 

[Gus]

Certain thing which is good for human can be harmful for animal.
coconut it self which is sweet I personnally find it not suitable for star because most people avoid feeding sweet fruit to their tort.
But in a way a little bit shouldn't be that bad also

One of my female star had gain 20g+ for the pass 1 month because she's eat like there's no tomorrow and she love Mazuri pellet and hibiscus red flower. But the rest is kind of slow but it's ok as long it's growing will be great

oooh, i'm curious about the coconut! It;s good for humans and said to aid in cleaning the urinary tract... and our vet always prescribe giving it to my dogs and cats especially when they have trouble peeing... I wonder if I could give it to my tort too hmmm...

 

[SILVERSTAR]

yeah ive found that my hatchling will search everyday and not eat anything else besides mazuri until i put down squash,he jus likes it so much he runs for it,ive givin him every kind from pumpkin,butternut,summer squash,i recently cut him back cuz im worry that by eatn so much of that,that he wont get wut he needs but honestly he will eat grass and weeds but only a nibble or two,now he will eat spring mix and i get sum really thick leaved organicly grown romaine now and then,should i be worry about his love of the squash and its many flavors and kinds,???

 

[Gus]

Hi Silver

Why not you try to mix the mazuri with chop veg so that he will start eating it bit by bit.