Quantity of food for an African Hingeback Tortoise

[Nicole B]

I am having a lot of trouble finding information on the quantity of food to supply my African hingeback with. I feel like I'm starving the poor thing - he eats everything I give him within about 20 minutes. I feed him once a day. He's an adult, not terribly large, but not tiny either. I've had him for about a month. I'm a seriously novice tortoise owner, but am comfortable with reptiles of all kinds.
He loves food. He eats mushrooms, tomatoes, earthworms, mealworms, strawberries, etc. He's not crazy about greens, but I'm trying. He came to me from another home, and all they could get him to eat was tomato, so I'm sure he has some standing vitamin deficiencies, but I'm working hard to correct those. The former owners were astounded when I told them what all he was eating. He also never had calcium regularly, and I'm working on that now too.
He is also a class pet - he gets great care because the students are eager to clean his water, mist his cage, feed him, and so on.
I don't have a lot of info on him - I've tried not messing with him much to keep his stress levels down, I haven't even weighed him. He looks healthy to me, except for possibly a spot on his shell that's flaking, but I think that could be normal shedding? It's contained to one square.
So - how much food do I give the cute guy?
Thanks!

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Nicole, and welcome to the Forum!

I don't keep hingeback tortoises, however, if I notice that the feeding tile is completely cleaned then the next day I give the tortoises more. I like for there to be food left over at the end of the day, then I know the tortoise has eaten its fill.