redfoot diet questions

[ehopkins12]

My new redfoot is about 12 weeks old, should I be rotating protein such as cat food in occasionally at this point? or is he too young? my diet rotation will consist of greens on Monday Wednesday Friday, fruit on Tuesday Thursday, greens again Saturday and cat food on Sunday. calcium supp 3 times a week as well. How does the diet sound?

 

[Candy]

I think that the calcium sounds a little too much, but I'll wait till someone else chimes in.

 

[ehopkins12]

well you can't really overdo calcium though. I don't use the supplement with d3 so any unused is just passed through urine right? tell me if I'm wrong though. I was under that impression at least.

 

[terryo]

Go to the top of the page and go into diet, and you can see the age appropriate diet for your tort. I've followed these care sheets for two years now with very good results.
http://www.redfoots.com/redfoot.htm

 

[Madkins007]

My new redfoot is about 12 weeks old, should I be rotating protein such as cat food in occasionally at this point? or is he too young? my diet rotation will consist of greens on Monday Wednesday Friday, fruit on Tuesday Thursday, greens again Saturday and cat food on Sunday. calcium supp 3 times a week as well. How does the diet sound?

You seem to be following Terry Kilgore's diet, and I believe he is not a fan of protein until about 6 months, and only does calcium once a week.

Your comment about not overdoing calcium needs a couple of clarifications. Excess dietary calcium is urinated out as long as the animal is well-hydrated... are you 1000% sure yours is? Also, overdoing any nutritional element is just not a good idea. For example, calcium blocks dietary iron, and of course, you are using up your calcium about 3 times faster than you may need to be.

Terry's program works nicely. If you want to tweak it a bit to be more like the program that people like Mike Pingleton or the Vinkes and Vetters recommend in their books, you could consider two common things...

1. Add fiber. You can do this by adding hay (crunching up an hay cube is the easiest), or using the thick stalks of greens, etc. for older torts, etc. etc. Carolina Pet Supply's TNT additive is also good for this.

2. Reducing fruit, especially wet, sweet fruit. You can either replace some or all of it with vegetables with seeds (squash, pumpkin, bell pepper, etc.) or just reduce it altogether. Fruit is great for energy and some trace elements, but it is not absolutely needed in the Red-foot diet. Juicy fruits (not the gum ) also add a lot of helpful water.

 

[ehopkins12]

ok so it seems like the main concern is too much calcium. So I should be supplementing less than 3 times a week?

 

[t_mclellan]

And yet more input! Agreement? Discouragement?
OK, Just my opinion?
I tend to lean toward squash instead of sweet "Juicy" fruits.
Not that I don't feed "Juicy" stuff cuz I do.
It has more fiber & I tend to get better growth & weight gain than with the juicy stuff.
As for protein, I have had great results from the dry "Diet" cat food most recommend, Also with "HIGH QUALITY" feeds like "Mazuri, Aquatic Turtle" pellets & Trout & Game fish pellets.
Just more food for thought! (pardon the pun)

 

[Madkins007]

ok so it seems like the main concern is too much calcium. So I should be supplementing less than 3 times a week?

I add a small pinch (treating it like radioactive salt) when I feed a meal that has less calcium in it than phosphorous (called the Ca: P, and I aim for about 2:1, but I don't supplement until it drops below 1:1). I am also not a fanatic about it- if a day is low and the next couple are high I don't supplement.

I use the Donoghue Ratio to check if my torts are hydrated or not. While it does not work as well for very young torts, the formula is (straight-line carapace length in centimeters) cubed, times .151 to get the minimum weight in grams.

OR, SCL in inches cubed, times 0.113 to get the minimum weight in ounces.

By the way, feeding very fresh or well-soaked greens really helps with the hydration.