Dear All,
I've attached three photos of Ponce, our mee from Vic Morgan's first 2nd generation captive bred clutch hatched one year ago (to make it clearer, these are babies whose parents were themselves captive bred). While he was small (33 grams at 20 days), he may have caught up with his wild cousins in terms of rate of growth. At 11 months he is over 170 grams and, thank God, doing well.
Vic had asked about his diet - At first I followed Vic's care sheet giving a wide variety of fruits and veggies. I found that he was pretty choosy. Things he eats with gusto: Green and yellow squash (I still shred it--see photo), collard greens, watercress, a little cooked sweet potato and various lettuces. As I learned more about the mee in the wild I discovered that between 60-70% of their diet in the wild is various forms of Alocasia. I now grow it in his enclosure (they also provide some extra shade so long as he can't reach a leaf) and if given a choice of foods he will always go for the Alocasia.
Once a week I give him four wetted pellets of Masuri. He goes nuts for it and will literally grab it out of my hand if I don't put it on his plate fast enough. I have the feeling its like Cap'n Crunch for tortoises.
I also leave a couple of pieces of cuttlebone out all the time, though I've never witnessed him chewing on it.
Please take a look at the photos and tell me what you think. Both carpace and plastron have developed some very pretty "whorls", I think.
My best to all and thanks to Vic for helping to ensure the future of this species!
Ron
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