New baby tortoise! Diet Questions :)

[Crohnsaholic]

Hey everyone it's me Brandon! I just got a baby Red footed tortoise yesterday at the Kansas City Reptile Expo. I was wondering what would be a good diet schedule to maintain with him? He's only 2.5 inches long

Here's my plan

Monday-Veggies(romaine lettuce, red&green leaf, carrots, cabbage(both carrots and cabbage will be occasionaly not a staple diet), maybe some squash and zucchini as well)

Tuesday-Fruits (apples, mangos, strawberries, blackberries)

Wednesday-same as monday

Thursday-same as tuesday

Friday-Same as Monday

Saturday-animal protein(either catfood, insects or worms) however I have read that it isn't wise to feed babies animal protein, but I have read else where that you should. What are your opinions?

Sunday-veggies and fruits



Please post your thoughts I wanna make sure i'm doing this right. Also should I start Calcium dusting? And if so then how often? Once again I have gotten mixed reviews on websites

Thanks for your time!

 

[LindaF]

Good luck with your little baby! He might be too little for the animal protein yet. I am no expert at all, but have had my little baby since end of April. He is 3in now.
I follow diet on http://www.turtletary.com/.
But I do cheat and give him the occasional worm and cricket. He just loves them so. I think he is always so "proud" of himself when he finds his own. He must think he is a wild tortoise. Give him some dandelions as well, they are a natural sourse of vit D. Just make sure no pesticide contamination.

 

[HarleyK]

I feed mine the zoo med forest pellets and so far no problems. I also feed mazuri as well as fruits/veggies that I don't finish eating.

 

[PeanutbuttER]

Day 1 and 2 - greens
Day 3 - "fruit"
Day 4 and 5 - greens
Day 6 - fruit
Day 7 - protein.

This is the basic outline that I follow. However, I will say that I often change the order up. Maybe one week I'll feed fruit 2 days in a row and greens for the rest of the non-protein days.

 

[terryo]

http://www.redfoots.com/yenclose.htm
this is the care sheet I followed for over three years with mine...about the same as "PeanutbuttER". Go to the top of the page and put your mouse on the age appropiate diet. There's even pictures. Very simple to follow.

 

[Madkins007]

I have some care and diet information in the Tortoise Library in my signature below you might enjoy.

I personally agree with other researchers, keepers, and authors that the diet that has been mentioned here is too high in fruit, especially sweeter fruits. We want to aim for droppings that are brown/green, fibrous, wet, and well-formed while a diet too high in fruit produces a looser, browner dropping.

I like the squash in your plan- it is a good fruit option, like green peppers. I'd drop the carrot- there is not much in it you cannot get from yellow squash. Blackberries and apples are so-so. Pineapple, papaya, and wonderful figs are better.

I don't think protein and babies is a big deal, as long as it is kept light. When possible, I would prefer to use worms and bugs for babies, or low-protein options like chicken.

I generally feed my little guys mostly the greens and weedy stuff, some fruits- about the equivalent of a serving a week, and some meat every month or so.

I like spring mixes because of the variety of lettuces in one tub (although I add a big pinch of calcium powder to the tub and give it a good shake before using it) and getting my fruits and such from the salad bar in our local store. Lots of variety with little waste! I usually try to add some other greens every week as well- turnip, collards, hibiscus, dandelion, whatever I can scrounge up.

 

[eudora09]

I use this website to get an idea of what to feed my red foot. I feed him greens the 1st & 2nd day, fruit the 3rd day, greens the 4th & 5th day, and protein (nightcrawlers are his favorite protein and second is rehydrated cat food) the 7th day. Sometimes with his greens I'll give him a little bit of mushrooms chopped up he loves this.


https://sites.google.com/site/tortoiselibrary/red-foots/red-foot-diet

 

[Crohnsaholic]

I have some care and diet information in the Tortoise Library in my signature below you might enjoy.

I personally agree with other researchers, keepers, and authors that the diet that has been mentioned here is too high in fruit, especially sweeter fruits. We want to aim for droppings that are brown/green, fibrous, wet, and well-formed while a diet too high in fruit produces a looser, browner dropping.

I like the squash in your plan- it is a good fruit option, like green peppers. I'd drop the carrot- there is not much in it you cannot get from yellow squash. Blackberries and apples are so-so. Pineapple, papaya, and wonderful figs are better.

I don't think protein and babies is a big deal, as long as it is kept light. When possible, I would prefer to use worms and bugs for babies, or low-protein options like chicken.

I generally feed my little guys mostly the greens and weedy stuff, some fruits- about the equivalent of a serving a week, and some meat every month or so.

I like spring mixes because of the variety of lettuces in one tub (although I add a big pinch of calcium powder to the tub and give it a good shake before using it) and getting my fruits and such from the salad bar in our local store. Lots of variety with little waste! I usually try to add some other greens every week as well- turnip, collards, hibiscus, dandelion, whatever I can scrounge up.

Thanks Mark. I will most certainly follow the diet page you linked me.

 

[PeanutbuttER]

I have some care and diet information in the Tortoise Library in my signature below you might enjoy.

I personally agree with other researchers, keepers, and authors that the diet that has been mentioned here is too high in fruit, especially sweeter fruits. We want to aim for droppings that are brown/green, fibrous, wet, and well-formed while a diet too high in fruit produces a looser, browner dropping.

I like the squash in your plan- it is a good fruit option, like green peppers. I'd drop the carrot- there is not much in it you cannot get from yellow squash. Blackberries and apples are so-so. Pineapple, papaya, and wonderful figs are better.

I don't think protein and babies is a big deal, as long as it is kept light. When possible, I would prefer to use worms and bugs for babies, or low-protein options like chicken.

I generally feed my little guys mostly the greens and weedy stuff, some fruits- about the equivalent of a serving a week, and some meat every month or so.

I like spring mixes because of the variety of lettuces in one tub (although I add a big pinch of calcium powder to the tub and give it a good shake before using it) and getting my fruits and such from the salad bar in our local store. Lots of variety with little waste! I usually try to add some other greens every week as well- turnip, collards, hibiscus, dandelion, whatever I can scrounge up.

Thanks Mark. I will most certainly follow the diet page you linked me.

Squash counts as a fruit? I thought it was a vegetable.

 

[Madkins007]

Squash counts as a fruit? I thought it was a vegetable.

The technical definition of fruit is that is contains seeds and is formed from the plant's ovaries. Basically, if there are seeds in it, it is probably a fruit. Berries are fruits, which we already know- but tomatoes are berries, so they are fruits as well.

Squash, cucumbers, peppers, pumpkin- all fruits.

When researchers say that Red-foots, etc. eat a lot of fruit- the stuff they are talking about is nothing as sweet or juicy as what the stores call fruit. South American fruits are more like figs, squash, etc.- drier, less sweet, more calcium, etc.