Not eating his greens....

[verda]

I got me a 5 month old leopard tortoise(babcocki) almost a week ago, and his eating behavior kinda changed. When I first got him(we will call him for now) ate the greens I gave him with no problem. But then when I started feeding him Mazuri food, he won't eat his greens anymore. I have to chop up his greens finely and mix it with the Mazuri food, only then he would eat it. And when he is outside he would eat the weeds with np. Is this normal or is something wrong? Beside that he is acting very normal and active, walking all over his enclosure and basking under his lamp.

 

[yillt]

You need to slowly wean him of mazuri. Still give it but a tiny bit at a time. Give him more greens every day and less mazuri.

 

[Kathy Coles]

My red foot is like addicted to mazuri. It's tough love not to feed it all the time. I say to him, " Eat your veggies young man". He keeps growing, so all is well. They won't starve if the greens are there.

 

[verda]

I just started growing my clovers and alfalfa and fresh grass, hopefully then he can have more of that when it's grown. Until then I'll try and mix less Mazuri each time and more greens. Thanks

 

[Star-of-India]

Mazuri sure does seem addictive to torts! That said, it seems like it is a fairly balanced diet. The problem I worry about is that as I soften it for my torts it doesn't give their beaks any trimming. Most of my torts eat both greens and Mazuri, 2 of mine do show little interest in greens now that I've made Mazuri a major part of their diet. They appear to grow well on Mazuri in any case.