New Russian Tortoise Mom

Tashatlp

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Joined
May 11, 2016
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3
Location (City and/or State)
New York
Hello All! My Name is Tasha and I share my life with my handsome Russian Tortoise Clarence! He is about 5 years old and has been living with me since January. We live in New York and travel regularly between two houses one in the North Country and one in Western NY. I'm a graduate student and Clarence travels with be between my apartment at college and my parents house. I have already learned so much useful information from the forums and finally decided to officially join!
Clarence is a very picky 'grumpy old man' and the one question I have that I have found little about would be how to introduce the zoomed grassland tortoise food into his diet. I plan to use it only to add variety and fiber into his diet. he is very picky and I have all ready tired to wet it into a paste and mix it in with his regular diet (which consists of the following, which I rotate regularly: romaine, mustard greens, collard greens, turnip greens, spinach, spring mixes, carrot shavings, cucumber, celery, and local weeds/ grasses). I was wondering if there are any other tips I could try to introduce the zoomed into his diet? Also I gave him a turtle bone to help introduce calcium and to help with his beak but he will not touch it. Any tips would be helpful thanks!



Here is a picture of my baby! Clarence :)

IMG_1503.JPG
 

Jodie

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Welcome to the forum. I mix grassland with the greens regularly for my Russians. They eat around it as much as they can.
 

dmmj

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my Russians of 15 years have never touched cuttlebone
 

Tashatlp

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May 11, 2016
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New York
Welcome to the forum. I mix grassland with the greens regularly for my Russians. They eat around it as much as they can.
I try to mix it in wet and he will either pick around it to get to the greens or not eat the greens at all. Should I try to mix it in dry?
 

Grandpa Turtle 144

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I try to mix it in wet and he will either pick around it to get to the greens or not eat the greens at all. Should I try to mix it in dry?
I grind it in a coffee grinder and put it over my greens to sock up the water and help the greens last longer .
 

Tom

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I try to mix it in wet and he will either pick around it to get to the greens or not eat the greens at all. Should I try to mix it in dry?

You might be using too much. Chop up the days greens super fine and wet them. Then soak a tiny broken piece of one pellet until it is mushy. Then mix the mush in with the days greens. If the tortoise refuses to eat because of the tiny little minuscule amount of pellet mixed in, keep offering the same greens with the same amount of pellet for several day until he does eat it. Gradually over time, add more of the Zoomed Food.

In the mean time look for some mulberry leaves and grape vine leaves. Spineless opuntia pads are some times sold in grocery stores. Do they have any Mexican grocery stores there? Like Vallarta or Tres Sierras? These store always stock spineless opuntia pads.
 

Tashatlp

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May 11, 2016
Messages
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Location (City and/or State)
New York
You might be using too much. Chop up the days greens super fine and wet them. Then soak a tiny broken piece of one pellet until it is mushy. Then mix the mush in with the days greens. If the tortoise refuses to eat because of the tiny little minuscule amount of pellet mixed in, keep offering the same greens with the same amount of pellet for several day until he does eat it. Gradually over time, add more of the Zoomed Food.

In the mean time look for some mulberry leaves and grape vine leaves. Spineless opuntia pads are some times sold in grocery stores. Do they have any Mexican grocery stores there? Like Vallarta or Tres Sierras? These store always stock spineless opuntia pads.

Thank you so much! I'm going to try and use a smaller amount when I feed him tomorrow! And I've been on the hunt for the spineless cactus at hardware stores (to grow it myself) with no luck but I've never thought to look in a Mexican food store but I'll look into it to see if there are any around.
 

Yvonne G

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Hi Tasha, and welcome to the Forum!
 

Sara G.

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Thank you so much! I'm going to try and use a smaller amount when I feed him tomorrow! And I've been on the hunt for the spineless cactus at hardware stores (to grow it myself) with no luck but I've never thought to look in a Mexican food store but I'll look into it to see if there are any around.

You can try stop & shop too, mine carries them and pieces of aloe as well.
 
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