Russian Tortoise won’t eat

HollyLovesBob

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If you can find some dandelions that you can be sure haven’t been sprayed with chemicals, give them a good wash and try them out for size. My Russian loves them! They’ll eat (and it’s safe to eat) the whole thing - leaves, stalk and flowers.

Don’t feed them daisies, think I saw somewhere not to.
 

RosemaryDW

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Russian tortoises eat a great deal of daisy relatives in their native environment. I don’t have any concern about offering them to mine; although she never eats any of them. :/
 

Grannie griff

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Still not eating vet gave her medicine on Thursday for paracistes go back in 2 weeks for next dose but she still hasn't eaten soaking her twice a day as vet said
 

Erlabella

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Sorry, I’ve been absent for awhile now. Things are pretty much the same. Though, she’s more active. She’s curious whenever I place her food bowl in the enclosure, but won’t take a bite. It’s like she’s hungry, but doesn’t like the food I give her. I think I’m going to start growing my own foods for the tortoise. I have two bearded dragon too, and they would also love some.
 

dmmj

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If you have a couple of pots grow your own. Lots of good choices dandelions grow like weeds :) radishes grow fast (two weeks you can harvest over & over) turnips, beets. Let your imagination run wild. What about flowers? Hibiscus flowers are tortoise crack.
 

Erlabella

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Unfortunately no. I’m gonna need help from my father to build a new indoor enclosur, and he’s not home at the moment.

Yes, I’d love to plant flowers too! Which ones are both easy to grow inside and nutritious for the tortoise?
 

Erlabella

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I’m thinking Dandelion, Hibiscus, Collard, Mustard, Turnip tops, Chicory (are the flowers edible?), Endive/Escarole, Radish tops, Kohlrabi tops, beet tops and carrot tops. The last three I can get a hold off on a farmers market, the others I’ll have to grow myself.
Do these sound good?
 

RosemaryDW

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Turnips and radish are the easiest to grow in low light, in general, actually.

The chicories and relatives (endive, escarole, radicchio) should be doable in lower light, they like cool temperatures. Yes the flowers are fine.

Collards and mustard are cool weather crops but get pretty large.

You need warmth and sun for hibiscus and also dandelion so I wouldn’t try those.
 

Littlez

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Have any of you used the website The Tortoise Table? It's a UK based website with pages and pages of plants telling you if they are good tort food, ok for the odd occasion, or a total no-no.
www.thetortoisetable.org.uk
I'd be interested to know how you guys rate their advice because I pretty much depended on it when I got Rover, my little dinosaur, and I took what it said as gospel but the best advice (in my opinion) usually comes from people with years of real experience comparing notes with each other.
Z
 

Maro2Bear

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Another flowering plant that easily grows from seed, in a pot, that doesnt require too much care is Nasturtium. Again, not a plant to solely feed, but another source. Can feed both the nice round green leaves, and the flowers.

The Tort Table info -
  • common Name: Nasturtium
  • Latin Name: Tropaeolum majus
  • Family Name: Tropaeolaceae
Edible, but high in oxalic acid, so feed in moderation.


For @Littlez - yes - lots of ppl use The Table. Mostly geared toward UK plants....so, good for you.
 

Littlez

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Another flowering plant that easily grows from seed, in a pot, that doesnt require too much care is Nasturtium. Again, not a plant to solely feed, but another source. Can feed both the nice round green leaves, and the flowers.

The Tort Table info -
  • common Name: Nasturtium
  • Latin Name: Tropaeolum majus
  • Family Name: Tropaeolaceae
Edible, but high in oxalic acid, so feed in moderation.


For @Littlez - yes - lots of ppl use The Table. Mostly geared toward UK plants....so, good for you.
Thanks. I do worry because (as I'm sure lots of you have experienced) if you look long enough online you will find something to conflict with everything else you have read!
Z
 

RosemaryDW

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Have any of you used the website The Tortoise Table?

I'd be interested to know how you guys rate their advice because I pretty much depended on it when I got Rover, my little dinosaur, and I took what it said as gospel but the best advice (in my opinion) usually comes from people with years of real experience comparing notes with each other.
Z

As noted above, the “owners” of that site are in the UK so they have plenty of advice on things that grow near you or that you might grow in your garden.

I personally find their advice to be extremely conservative and sometimes the underlying science they use isn’t clearly applicable to tortoises. Sometimes the only research available is for mammals, perhaps, which may not matter for tortoises. They are more highly focused on oxalic acid than I am (I don’t think it’s a problem in a varied diet—that’s just me, others feel differently). Things like that.

I always take a look at it but I put more weight into what longtime owners say about what they feed. So if I want to check on buttercups, for example, I’ll do a search in the diet thread. Buttercups are a big no no in the Table but some Testudo types eat them in large quantities in the native diet and plenty of our UK owners let their tortoises graze on them in their gardens without issues. I also see what kind of tortoise is being fed. What is okay for a Greek may not be okay for a Sulcata.

I’ll do more research on an individual plant if I’m really interested but that approach is overkill for most. :)

At the end of the day only you can decide what’s best for your tortoise. Your tortoise is going to be around for decades so there is no rush for a new owner to decide about debatable foods. Some folks feed only foods on the Table’s “safe” list and that’s just fine so long as it’s varied.
 

dmmj

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Another flowering plant that easily grows from seed, in a pot, that doesnt require too much care is Nasturtium. Again, not a plant to solely feed, but another source. Can feed both the nice round green leaves, and the flowers.

The Tort Table info -
  • common Name: Nasturtium
  • Latin Name: Tropaeolum majus
  • Family Name: Tropaeolaceae
Edible, but high in oxalic acid, so feed in moderation.


For @Littlez - yes - lots of ppl use The Table. Mostly geared toward UK plants....so, good for you.
I second nastyriums. Leave 1 or 2 flowers on the plant for more seeds.
 

Erlabella

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So it’s been a while since I posted this thread and I’d like to update you all on my current situation. Diet wise, I have started planted turnips, rutabagas, chards and dino kale. They’re all growing well, so hopefully they’ll be ready to harvest in a few months.
I also started building a 4’ by 8’ enclosure, but it won’t work out unfortunately. My tortoise is only 4 years old and not quite big so I was wondering if a 2’ by 4’ enclosure would suffice for a few years. Then I can upgrade his enclosure once he’s bigger.
 

dmmj

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The size of the :tort: is not the biggest factor most of the time. Russians are hardwired to roam. The bigger the better.
 

katieandiggy

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So it’s been a while since I posted this thread and I’d like to update you all on my current situation. Diet wise, I have started planted turnips, rutabagas, chards and dino kale. They’re all growing well, so hopefully they’ll be ready to harvest in a few months.
I also started building a 4’ by 8’ enclosure, but it won’t work out unfortunately. My tortoise is only 4 years old and not quite big so I was wondering if a 2’ by 4’ enclosure would suffice for a few years. Then I can upgrade his enclosure once he’s bigger.

My tort is only 18 months old and 100grams and his enclosure is 15’ by 8’. You really can’t go too big.
 

RosemaryDW

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It’s not likely he’ll get much bigger than he is at four years, particularly if he’s a he!

Russians are hard wired to GO GO GO, as stated above.

Some owners are successful building a “second” floor if their available space is tight. Is that something that might work for you? If so, you can find help in the enclosure specific section of the forum.
 

Erlabella

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My Tortoise is finally starting to accept food! She/he seems a lot happier with a larger enclosure. I’m not about its gender yet. Here’s a photo a took of him/her.
 

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