New Hatchling Snoopy needs food...

[ch12ag]

Hi guyz As a few of you may know I got my new hatchling SNOoPY on tuesday and im having a problem with food. Not what you may think I understand what I can and cant feed him and I have plenty of food BUT how much do I give him? he will munch down as much as I give him so I decided to switch to giving komodo complete flavoured food pellets so I can monitor roughly how many pellets he eats. he still just keeps eatin them so for today i've him around 12 pellets and stopped there. Please consider he is only 2" so I dont want to overfeed him from now and at the same time I dont want to underfeed him either, please advise any information will be much appreciated, thank you

 

[Meg90]

IMO a pelleted diet is a bad idea. Its not formulated correctly for growing tortoises. "Flavored" usually means there are additives that make it appealing to the tort, but that doesn't mean that it will be healthy. Also, if the pellets have dyes, think about all the chemicals you a dumping into your torts delicate system. They would never come across those kinds of things in nature. If you want to feed something like that, get some Mazuri. There is a type that is created just for torts.

A good amount to feed is what they will eat in 20 minutes. Though I do feed my Greek hatchling this amount twice a day. Another estimate is a pile of springmix and weeds roughly the size of the babies shell.

I would be more worried about UNDER feeding, than over feeding. They will only eat as much as their little tummys can hold.

A clue that they are hungry is if they are doing laps around the enclosure, or visibly sniffing the ground and looking for "something" I find this "something" is usually more food!

 

[stells]

If you have only had the tortoise since Tuesday i wouldn't worry to much about food yet... Hewill still be settling into his new home... by giving him the pellets you are making a rod for your own back if you want him to try other things... its can be hard to get a tortoise away from pellets once they have started...

 

[ch12ag]

thanks guyz, I feed him on greens and a mixture of pellets, not solely on pellets, but thanks

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by the way the pellets i use are komodo complete, like i said i mix these with a few romaine lettuce leaves and rose petals so far. i thought komodo complete was meant to be quite good, am i wrong? please tell me so i can change what i feed him. and what is spring mix?? I looked for it everywhere in the supermarket but cant find it, is it a US packaged thing??

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im from the UK

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just checked mazuri dont ship to UK. Komodo complete ingredients show high in fibre, medium to low protein and calcium. I also feed him cuttle bone

 

[stells]

Spring mix is a bagged salad mix... i'm in the UK too there are plenty of weeds about right now to sustain a tortoise... if you must use supermarket food Florette CRISPY salad is a good one... Mazuri cannot be sourced in the UK and the UK version has ceased production... I don't use any pellets with my Testudo's so wouldn't like to recommend one to use with them...

 

[Maggie Cummings]

Snoopy would be better off if you'd feed him greens and not a commercially pelleted food product. They may be alright in an emergency or as a supplement, but I would only feed pellets once or twice a month. That's just not a natural thing for tortoises to eat...
I know you can get packaged Spring Mix in the UK and that with some weeds thrown in for flavor would be a much better diet for him.
Give him a small to medium handful of the greens and let him munch on them thruout the day. I used to pick up the leavings but then I noticed my tortoises liked to eat the dry stuff later in the day...so leave what he doesn't eat and he'll go back several times and eat whats there...

 

[tortoisenerd]

Great advice here so far. I don't give my tort anything that doesn't at least closely resemble what they would get from grazing in the wild, just as a rule. If a tortoise is active and growing I think it's a little tough to overfeed. You can weigh and measure the shell length weekly, and keep track of how they tort looks and feels in the shell (pudge should not hang out, but they should feel like a rock and not empty). My tort will stand on his feeding tile and look up waiting for food if he's still hungry! Otherwise, he usually leaves a couple scraps everyday.

 

[ch12ag]

kool i will lay off the pellets then, so what kind of weeds should i feed him, I am very unsure only because i dont want to give him something poisonous to him

 

[tortoisenerd]

russiantortoise.org lists safe ones (Greeks have the same diet as russians and you may find more online for russians). Also, search this forum and look in the "food and diet" section. There are dozens that are commonly fed and liked by torts, and hundreds that can be used that a tort may like. If you want, list the ingredients in the pellets and we can tell you if they are ok for infrequent use (such as emergencies when you can't go out to get food), or if they should never be used. I haven't heard of them, but every flavored/colored pellet I've seen has ingredients that are not good for torts and don't at all resemble a diet as they would get in the wild. By feeding grasses, weeds, and greens, in captivity you can most closely resemble what they would get in the wild. Dandelions are a favorite weed for example, as is clover (but make sure it's not oxalis). There are websites online that have pictures and names of common weeds so you can identify them.

 

[ch12ag]

thanks . as for the pellets ingredients are:

Oats, Beet pulp, Maize gluten, Maize, Calcium Carbonate (i use cuttlebone and a calcium supplement as advised by the vet), Dicalcium phosphate, Lucern, Minerals, vitamins, glucosamine, chondroitin, MSM, Titanium dioxide, Contains EU permitted colourants and flavours.

Analysis: Crude Protein 9%, Oil 5%, Fibre 12.5%, Ash 7%, VitA, VitD3, VitE, VitB1,B2,B6,B12, Niacin, Calcium, Phosphorus, Copper, Omega6 and Omega3

 

[tortoisenerd]

Corn, Oats, and all the other odd ingredients are not good staple foods--nothing like they would get in the wild. Sorry! Not as bad as some foods I've seen though.

Yes, calcium carbonate daily and a cuttlebone is good. What other advice has the vet given? That's great Snoopy went for a visit.

 

[ch12ag]

kool i just realised truly how much of an abundance of food i have at home without turning to pellets he gobbled down grated carrot and skinless tomato yday with some calcium powder over it - he really went to town lol. I have wood chippings for his substrate but read some nasty things bout some turtles eating substrate so i've switched to Zoo Med Eco Earth, seems to be working wonders and he seems to love it will take some pics and try put them up not sure how tho...

 

[Crazy1]

Chirag, sounds like you are doing a good job at tweaking SNOopys food and enclosure. Careful not too much tomato it has lots of sugar. Try and stick to dark green leafy vegs. Like Chicory, Plantain (the plant not the banana), clover, some dandelion but only about once a week it is considered a mod oxalic acid food. There is a good long list in the food section for arid torts. Mine love Grape leaves, mulberry leaves, hibiscus flowers and leaves, geranium flowers and leaves, wondering jew, rose petals and leaves, cactus, cactus fruit, strawberry greens including the leaves, boysenberry leaves, chicory, escarole, Frazee, spring mix minus the spinach if it has any. (I do not give my hatchlings any spinach though my adults do get a little). Dandelion and lots more. About once a month they get pumpkin, zuccini or other squash and maybe a strawberry, piece of mango etc. for a treat. Most of their threats come in the form of flowers like squash blossoms, roses, hibiscus flowers, sunflowers dandelion flowers pansies etc. (what I like to do with my adult is when I am cooking all the ends of the vegies I cut off go into the adult tort food, like zuccini, yellow squash, celantro, bell peppers, tomato ends. So that way they only get a small amount and it is devided between all my 7 adult torts. Occasionally I give the a couple of Mazuri tort pellets but they don’t seem to like them much. Though my DT and my two dogs love them.

 

[ch12ag]

Thanks!! today I trialed him on english daisy and aloe, he seems to love them