New Owner of a RT

[tgoodman]

Hello!

I have recently acquired a 10 year old Russian Tortoise off of Craigslist. I have had Hank Leroy for about 6 weeks now, and have been slowly improving his living conditions! He is most stubborn and has rejected all kinds of good greens, except for Romaine, which was all he ate for the previous owner. He is currently in a large cement tub, to which I added another one and connected via piping. I have a 5'x3' bookcase that I am going to be turning into a tort table for him. He is in need of a beak and nail trim - I am scheduling an appointment this week. He also has old shell rot - I looked at the photo gallery and saw someone else's post about recovery time being 6 years or more! Poor guy. I ordered a MegaRay and am waiting for that to come. I was considering a PowerSun, but I came across a disturbing article about UVB output dropping off significantly: Article Here

A few questions about additional lighting, etc. but I will post that in the correct forum!

Thanks!

 

[Jacqui]

Hi and welcome! There are two basic ways to go about changing his diet.

a) The tough love/cold turkey theory: Simply stop feeding him any romaine until hunger makes him start eating the other foods you are offering.

b) The more 12 step program where you cut everything up fine and mix it well. Each day or couple of days slowly decrease the percentage of romaine you have in the mixture. Slowly you wean him from romaine, while he discovers the whole wide range of other good things there are to eat out there.

 

[tgoodman]

I've tried both with no luck. He went 4 complete days without eating... and I wasn't sure how long I could let him go without. I could attempt this again if it's alright to go longer? I next tried mixing in greens in a variety of ways, from chopping really fine pieces and wetting them onto the big romaine leaf, to doing a "lettuce wrap" and rolling the romaine around other leaves. Either way, he will walk up to it, and then immediately walk away. He won't have anything to do with it. And when I try something new, he will then refuse even his romaine for the next day!

Grrr.

 

[cemmons12]

My rescue Ophelia was the same way, but she finally came around, just takes time. Also I started giving her Mazuri and now she just loves it!!

 

[Yvonne G]

Welcome!

 

[pam]

Welcome

 

[Maggie and Torie the Tort]

Welcome!!!

 

[tortadise]

Welcome!

 

[tgoodman]

Thanks everyone!

@cemmons12 : I have ordered a small sample of Zoo Med Natural Grassland Tortoise Food - I figured in the meantime if I can at least get some more nutrients in him that way, it's a temporary compromise.

 

[Jacqui]

If he is of good weight, he can go a lot longer then four days without eating. It's just hard on us humans to not give in.

 

[tgoodman]

Sorry about the non-photos. I wanted to see if my dropbox links would work, but looks like not. Here they are