Pearly's grand-tort babies growth

Pearly

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Hi Guys and happy Sunday. My daughter Toffi (the tort mom) and I did the measurements and weighed the babies after their soak this am. They are about 7 months old according to the breeder who sold them tome back in June. Shellie (the RF)has more than doubled her weight and Tac-tac doubled his weight exact to the "t" over this same time.
. ImageUploadedByTortoise Forum1445792010.902918.jpg
Here they are eating breakfast this morning. Tax-tac is the cherryhead who's just started marbling a little. You should have seen me frantically trying to "clean" him up! First, thought he got some calcium power on himself (I no longer use calcium powder, at least haven't for a while). I'd try to scrub it off with a very soft brush dipped in organic ev coconut oil It took me a while to figure out our baby was MARBLING just a little tiny bit.
So far things seem to be going ok.
I'm passed that stage of brand new freaked out keeper who's scared of doing something wrong that may harm the little critter. At this stage I have a lot more confidence and want to thank all of you guys on here who took the time to respond to my concerns and questions, pointed me in a right direction.
Thank you for willing to share your knowledge and experience with all of us newbies. All of our torts benefit from it.
Mine seem happy and healthy. They are cute as can be. I love being their grandma:)
 

Yvonne G

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Great-looking tortoises. I'd like to suggest that now they're bigger, you can stop cutting up their food into such tiny pieces. It helps the beak to be able to bite off from a larger piece. I chop up my babies' food into tiny pieces too. They get a lot more into them when you can put a great big pile of chopped up food on the feeding tile.
 

Pearly

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Great-looking tortoises. I'd like to suggest that now they're bigger, you can stop cutting up their food into such tiny pieces. It helps the beak to be able to bite off from a larger piece. I chop up my babies' food into tiny pieces too. They get a lot more into them when you can put a great big pile of chopped up food on the feeding tile.
Yes! Good point, I was blending food to help the eat more/better stuff in the beginning, still watching Tac-tac's intake. He's just so petite! Comparing to Shellie! But growing really well, doubled his weight in 3 months. I'm just a typical mother, worried about the kids eating enough good stuff:) I always put down few fresh different leaves with each feeding and they started eating those as well not too long ago. The colorful pellets you see on their food pile are commercial tort food. I put different brand just few pellets soaked into mash, my little guy must have been raised on dry food bus he loves all of it: mazuri and all other I've been dosing just a little for variety.
 

Yvonne G

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I use all kinds of commercial pellets too. Of course, my main stay is Mazuri, however, I have a hard time wasting or tossing food, and when people turn in their turtles and tortoises to me they also give me their supplies. So I have fed all kinds of commercial foods that I wouldn't buy on my own. As long as there's a nice variety of fresh foods to go along with it, I see no problem with it.

When I have a tortoise that picks through the pile, I blend a cucumber into mush and mix it all up with the greens so all the good greens smell like cucumber. They all love cucumber. I think watermelon would serve this purpose too, however, I've never tried it.
 

Pearly

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Why have you stopped using calcium powder?
I noticed that our little "cherry-boy" Tucker turns his nose on the food that has calcium sprinkled on/in it. I've had such hard time getting him to eat that now, when he's started showing interest in food, I want to keep the momentum going. They have a cuttle bone in their nursery and both use it, plus I make sure that the food I serve is loaded with calcium. The babies are doing great so far and have beautiful hard shells. I won't to do more research on tort supplements as well but for now: no supplements. No calcium, no vitamins. They get all that through the food they eat.
 

Pearly

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Why have you stopped using calcium powder?
@Redstrike just fyi, I've been using calcium since that last post but very seldom. The diet they get (though mostly farmers market produce as my own tortoise garden hasn't grown that much yet) is so diverse, they get so many different types of greens and fruits and veggies and different forms of protein and it's all supplemented with different type of commercial tortoise food daily, sm. amt. of different kind of pelleted food rotating daily, I don't feel there is a need to supplement calcium. ImageUploadedByTortoise Forum1471192935.140129.jpg last night before their EVCO massage. Shellie is 6 inches and weighs almost 1.5 lb!!!! Tucker is 5.25 in and weighs just below 1 lb. they both feel like little rocks. ImageUploadedByTortoise Forum1471193091.904212.jpg they hate being on their back! ImageUploadedByTortoise Forum1471193150.805116.jpg i love Shellie's head scales ImageUploadedByTortoise Forum1471193207.160012.jpg and Tucker's colors
 

Redstrike

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@Redstrike just fyi, I've been using calcium since that last post but very seldom. The diet they get (though mostly farmers market produce as my own tortoise garden hasn't grown that much yet) is so diverse, they get so many different types of greens and fruits and veggies and different forms of protein and it's all supplemented with different type of commercial tortoise food daily, sm. amt. of different kind of pelleted food rotating daily, I don't feel there is a need to supplement calcium. View attachment 183646 last night before their EVCO massage. Shellie is 6 inches and weighs almost 1.5 lb!!!! Tucker is 5.25 in and weighs just below 1 lb. they both feel like little rocks. View attachment 183647 they hate being on their back! View attachment 183648 i love Shellie's head scales View attachment 183649 and Tucker's colors

Whatever you're doing, keep it up. They look great!
 

Gillian M

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Hi Guys and happy Sunday. My daughter Toffi (the tort mom) and I did the measurements and weighed the babies after their soak this am. They are about 7 months old according to the breeder who sold them tome back in June. Shellie (the RF)has more than doubled her weight and Tac-tac doubled his weight exact to the "t" over this same time.
. View attachment 153685
Here they are eating breakfast this morning. Tax-tac is the cherryhead who's just started marbling a little. You should have seen me frantically trying to "clean" him up! First, thought he got some calcium power on himself (I no longer use calcium powder, at least haven't for a while). I'd try to scrub it off with a very soft brush dipped in organic ev coconut oil It took me a while to figure out our baby was MARBLING just a little tiny bit.
So far things seem to be going ok.
I'm passed that stage of brand new freaked out keeper who's scared of doing something wrong that may harm the little critter. At this stage I have a lot more confidence and want to thank all of you guys on here who took the time to respond to my concerns and questions, pointed me in a right direction.
Thank you for willing to share your knowledge and experience with all of us newbies. All of our torts benefit from it.
Mine seem happy and healthy. They are cute as can be. I love being their grandma:)
Adorable!
 
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