Picky eater

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biochemnerd808

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I would love some advice from Greek tort owners who have experience with picky eaters.

I rescued our little Boo from a lady who fed him nothing but Romaine and carrots, and she kept him tethered by a ring in his carapace. He is shy, but very active, and LOVES climbing and walking all over his new tort table. However, he is a VERY picky eater.

I am familiar with proper tortoise diet, since I have 2 Russian torts (and currently one foster-RT). I feed a variety of dark leafy greens, and thanks to our mild climate, we still have access to a lot of the plants I grow in my garden, such as dandelion leaves, raspberry leaves, clover, daylily, lady's mantle, hibiscus leaves (those are beginning to wither), fig leaves, etc. I also buy some organic spring mix and kale and collard greens during the winter, and every now and then add romaine, or red-leaf-lettuce. Boo won't touch any of those. He'll take a couple of bites out of the romaine (he'll find it at the bottom of the pile!), but just walks all over the other leaves, tracks them into his water dish, etc.
I only rarely give any vegetables, such as winter squash - but he won't even touch that! He nibbles on his Timothy hay a bit.

He is a little on the light side for his size, and he NEEDS to eat. Any suggestions?

Substrate is coco coir with a little sand. He has a planter box with organic soil that has bird seeds sprouting (he does nip the tips off of the sprouts in small amts), and a live spider plant. He has a pie-pan as a water dish, and a large flat rock to bask on. Basking temp is 95-100 degrees, warm end of tort table is 80, he has a fresh UVB tube light, and the room temp is 68 degrees steady. I supplement with TNT, and he has a cuttlefish bone. His feces are normal (though he only goes about 1-2x per week). There is no sign of illness.
 

biochemnerd808

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Oh~ and because I know everyone always love spics, here is one that I took of him a few days ago.

Boo December 2012.JPG
He is becoming a little less shy! Can you see the mischievous sparkle in his eyes?!

I know his beak is still a little long, but believe me it is about 3x shorter than it used to be when we first rescued him. I trimmed it a few weeks ago, and will file it down a bit more soon. I don't want to interfere with him eating right now (and I do feed him on a flat rock, btw).
 
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PowersSax911

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My tortoise looks very similar to that! Maybe we could have someone determine the subspecies?

To your question: My Greek loves to eat Kale. It tastes horrible to me, but my little guy loves it. It's all we give him (I know I know I should alter it) but when he's given fruit or other kinds of vegetables, he eats those too. Seems like I have a gluttonous tortoise XD I would recommend that you slowly incorporate your food into what he's used to eating,
 

whughes

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When I want to try to get my guy to start eating a different kind of green that he's not too keen on, I'll put some more preferred food items, such as banana or strawberry, on top of the greens. I'll scale that back to putting fruit bits on top, but under a thin layer of greens and gradually faze the fruit out. I don't know, I'm still new at this, but that's what has been working for us!
 

biochemnerd808

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Initially we thought he was a Tunisian tort, but I've been told by several experts on here that it looks like he's an Antakyan greek. :)

The thing is, Boo won't even eat a whole leaf of romaine (which is what he used to eat with the old owners). I offer LOTS of different greens, and have tried both whole and cut up.

Probably it will just boil down to having to be more stubborn than Boo - I put fresh food in every day, and remove the wilted stuff. :)

PowersSax911 said:
My tortoise looks very similar to that! Maybe we could have someone determine the subspecies?

To your question: My Greek loves to eat Kale. It tastes horrible to me, but my little guy loves it. It's all we give him (I know I know I should alter it) but when he's given fruit or other kinds of vegetables, he eats those too. Seems like I have a gluttonous tortoise XD I would recommend that you slowly incorporate your food into what he's used to eating,
 
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