Pet shop food

[Rosiee]

I was wondering on peoples opinion of the ranges of dry tortoise food out there, I rarely give mine the T-rex tortoise food or anything like that cause i dont like the thought of none fresh food, but is it infact really good for her? I would be really interested to no whether you guys feed your tortoises on it?

 

[Yvonne G]

I do give my Aldabran tortoises a helping of moistened Mazuri Tortoise Diet once a week because I figure the grass they graze on probably loses some of its nutritive value throughout the year. So the Mazuri is a good way to be sure they are getting the vitamins and minerals they require as growing tortoises. They only graze, I don't feed them, so I can't sprinkle vit. and min. and calcium on their food.

However, here's my thinking on the matter:

I would NEVER use a prepared tortoise food as the sole food offered to a tortoise. A good example is to look back at the dog food industry. Dogs have been kept by humans for many, many years and prepared dog foods have been designed for quite a few of those years. And yet, in the '50's and '60's quite a few dogs were dying and it was found that the prepared dog food didn't have the correct vitamins and minerals for the dogs. It took quite a few years for science to get the correct and healthy recipe for our four legged friends.

Tortoise food has not been scientifically designed for very many years. What we have available to us is ok as a treat or a "in-a-pinch" feeding, but in my opinion, should NEVER be used as the main ingredient of a tortoise's diet.

Yvonne

 

[Redfoot NERD]

Any tort would be better to "fast" than be fed a commercially prepared food.

Having said that I do use a low-fat.. very high-protein [ 46%.. chicken ] DRY cat food for my REDFOOT torts.. once a week to 10 days [ depending on age ]. NOT suggested or recommended for any 'grass-land' type tortoise. There is a BIG difference in plant and animal protein.

nerd

 

[Itort]

As Yvonne and Terry pointed out it is best used as suppliment or treat. It should not be used as a staple diet. Some of the foods are designed for specific type of tort in combination with other foods (i.e. Mazuri for grassland torts). Others contain ingrediants wholely unsuited for torts (i.e. juniper = cedar) and soy (plant protein and calcium fixing). One product I've looked at was marked for grassland and another (same mfg) marked for forest tort, upon comparision of ingrediants found the only difference was label; much akin to feeding dog food to a horse.

 

[Rosiee]

stupid question but i am still learning, a herman is a grassland tortoise? just so i know.

 

[Itort]

Yes, I would say so. When I say grassland I mean open areas where grass and scrub is the common foliage. Think of S. California or Spain or the plains of Africa.

 

[agiletorts]

I bought this hermann's in Spring 2007 from a local pet shop. This is a c.b. and I was told that the previous owner could no longer take care of him. The first 14 days after I purchased him, he did not want to eat the vegetables that I gave to my other tortoises (lettuce or dandellion). I was worried, but then I gave him some tortoise pellets purchased from pet store, and he ate lots of them from my hand. After two weeks he slowly started to touch the veggies a little bit, but not after more than a month that he started to eat the veggies independently. Now he eats only veggies, which I lightly sprinkled with calcium powder once a week.

This is the picture taken last year. As you can see, he has pyramiding issue and I thought that his shell looked small compared to his body. I suspect that his condition was probably due to his pellet diet. But I can't be too sure as I've never been able to contact the original owner and ask them about how they raised him. He still has some pyramiding issue right now, but at least I could see some shell growth.

 

[elegans]

Hermanns eat a large variety of plants. I feel that they are not big on carrion or other animal proteins. That being said they do eat cuttle bone for calcium with relish, it also will cure an overgrown beak with time. Once a week Mazuri is fine as much as it can eat. Just remove the uneaten food before it could grow yeast, they will eat all they can within 3 hours in my experience. I have found that they do love to eat nut grass and purslane in addition to many other mixed greens so do not be afraid to just try all kinds of things. There are really very few toxic plants to tortoises. The lists that have been promoted by many people are quite incorrect. I do suggest to everyone with tortoises and a piece of land though to buy a Mulberry tree. I have yet to meet a tortoise or turtle that did not love the fruit and eat the leaves. This is nice as it grows over most of the country. They are also easily started from cuttings, so no need to buy one from a nursery. Best wishes Douglas Beard / Flora & Fauna

 

[Ozric]

Hi all

personally I don't use manufactured foods for my Hermanns and I think its best to feed the leaves and flowers of plants that I've grown myself. At the times of year when its more difficult some foods like raddicio, lambs lettuce and watercress that is produced for humans, I have to buy.

I am not sure I can quite agree that there are very few toxic plants for tortoises as suggested by Elegans. Ranunculus (Buttercup) is definately poisonous for Hermanns and they have been known to eat fatal amounts. Part of the problem is that we keep species in areas where they don't naturally occur, which means they are confronted with plants that don't belong in their bioregion; consequently they don't have any institnctive knowledge if its good or not.

 

[Redfoot NERD]

consequently they don't have any institnctive knowledge if its good or not.

I highly agree with that statement Ozric!

I also believe that the whole "VARIETY" thing is way out of range. Find a few good "staple" items and they will grow and thrive well!!!

nerd

I also believe that if after about 15-20 minutes of eating they don't walk away satisfied.. maybe something is wrong and they're not getting what they need(?).