Tortoise attempting to eat rocks/bricks?

[Seiryu]

So I finally changed Thor's indoor enclosure. (Pics tomorrow!) It used to be 4x6 ft. But I changed it to be 4x4 ft for now. Mainly because it's in the corner (only room I have at the moment), and it's really difficult to keep all that substrate moist considering I have my lights mounted.

Anyways, this way I can keep 100% of his substrate moist easily and it's still a good bit of room.

So all of my live plants are now outside for the summer and I decided to add some cinder blocks in his enclosure for sight barriers and to climb through. He attempted to eat / bite at the cinder block for I don't know, 5 minutes before he gave up and went to bed.

I also am trying something new with his water dish. I put rocks around it (like 1-2" rocks, he can't swallow them or anything) and he of course had to try those too!

My question is, even if he somehow manages to bite off very tiny pieces, is this extremely bad or nothing to worry about? We'll see tomorrow if he keeps it up, or if it was just a test (was 7pm when I finished, so he went to sleep fairly fast once I finished).

He has tried eating fake plants in the past, and would not give up trying on a daily basis to eat them, so that's when I moved to live plants.

 

[heyprettyrave]

my tortoise has does this as well, but she has learned to stop. she does it mainly when i put new rocks in there.

 

[Tom]

Try leaving some cuttle bones around the enclosures. They might have a calcium or mineral deficiency and are trying to meet their bodies needs.

 

[goodsmeagol]

my tortoise has does this as well, but she has learned to stop. she does it mainly when i put new rocks in there.

Same with my two Russians, new rocks or boulders, they sniff at for ages even after I make sure they are as clean as they can be as rocks...

 

[heyprettyrave]

oh thats an awesome idea. my tortoise absolutely loves the cuttle bone

 

[goodsmeagol]

Try leaving some cuttle bones around the enclosures. They might have a calcium or mineral deficiency and are trying to meet their bodies needs.

Interesting, thanks for the advice

 

[Seiryu]

Try leaving some cuttle bones around the enclosures. They might have a calcium or mineral deficiency and are trying to meet their bodies needs.

I will try it. But I doubt he has a calcium deficiency. He gets fed twice a day and I sprinkle calcium on every feeding.\ (enough to just about fully cover the pile).

He just seems to have to taste everything.

 

[Tom]

Try leaving some cuttle bones around the enclosures. They might have a calcium or mineral deficiency and are trying to meet their bodies needs.

I will try it. But I doubt he has a calcium deficiency. He gets fed twice a day and I sprinkle calcium on every feeding.\ (enough to just about fully cover the pile).

He just seems to have to taste everything.

Could be some other mineral. Does he ever get a vitamin/mineral supplement? Its not normal to go around trying to eat rocks and bricks.

Just guessing, but I wonder if he's getting so much calcium that its causing an imbalance with the other minerals in his system. Some folks here on the forum use no calcium at all. GB, do your torts try to eat large rocks and bricks?

If they are getting a good varied diet, maybe calcium every day is too much for your tortoise in your situation. I don't really know one way or the other, just trying to throw out some possibilities for you to consider.

 

[Seiryu]

Well I will add, Thor has never been around any bricks or rocks before. The closest thing he has had is his tile feeding surface. So maybe it's just him figuring it out what it is.

No I don't do any other supplementation though. He gets a pretty varied diet. Talking 7-10 different greens a week, plus grass now, and I rarely even use spring mix anymore. The only thing I use out of that is radicchio. Most of the lettuces in spring mix seem to have pretty low nutritional value next to the Turnips, Collards, Radish, Plantain, dandelion, clover (more rare), Chicory and a few other things.

And I thought I was over doing it on the calcium myself, but according to some others, even sprinkling every day isn't enough. I'll have to take a picture and show how much I sprinkle.

I was also under the impression that you couldn't really over dose on pure calcium carbonate, as any extra's not needed will just get flushed out.

 

[Tom]

Well I will add, Thor has never been around any bricks or rocks before. The closest thing he has had is his tile feeding surface. So maybe it's just him figuring it out what it is.

No tortoise I've ever had of any species has ever done this with new, novel large heavy objects like rocks, cinderblocks or bricks. Sometimes they will go up to it and touch their nose to it or sniff at it, but never repeatedly try to take a bite out of it.

---

I was also under the impression that you couldn't really over dose on pure calcium carbonate, as any extra's not needed will just get flushed out.

I've heard this too and it doesn't really make sense to me. You can't overdose them in the sense that it reaches a toxic level, but I do think it can interfere with the absorption of other minerals and trace elements. All that stuff needs to be in the right balance. It sounds like you are feeding a good diet, so maybe all that Ca is messing with your correct balance.

Again, just making an educated guess here. Don't claim to be an authority on such things.

 

[Neal]

My leopards eat rocks from time to time. They are normaly nickle sized, but they pass right through. I talked to Richard fife about this and he said his do the same. And he also said, as did Tom, that it may be a sign of mineral deficiency.

 

[goodsmeagol]

My torts only do it the first or second time they encounter the new rock.
As if "just making sure its not food" is what I thought.

 

[Seiryu]

My leopards eat rocks from time to time. They are normaly nickle sized, but they pass right through. I talked to Richard fife about this and he said his do the same. And he also said, as did Tom, that it may be a sign of mineral deficiency.

Well if this is the case, I'm not really sure how with how many different foods I use, but regardless.

I do have the Herptivite multi-vitamin I use on my lizards once a week. I tried looking up the minerals and everything to list here, but there actually aren't any websites I could find that actually list them, weird.

It has no d3 though, a 2:1 ca/phosphorous ratio and other vitamins. Would this be ok to use at 1 or 2 feedings a week then?

As far as eating the bricks/rocks. So far the lights have been on 3 hours and I havn't seen him try yet. So we'll see I guess.

 

[Neal]

Well if this is the case, I'm not really sure how with how many different foods I use, but regardless.

I do have the Herptivite multi-vitamin I use on my lizards once a week. I tried looking up the minerals and everything to list here, but there actually aren't any websites I could find that actually list them, weird.

It has no d3 though, a 2:1 ca/phosphorous ratio and other vitamins. Would this be ok to use at 1 or 2 feedings a week then?

As far as eating the bricks/rocks. So far the lights have been on 3 hours and I havn't seen him try yet. So we'll see I guess.

It MAY be a sign of mineral difficiency, not definite. It sounds like you provide him a good varied diet so I wouldn't worry about it too much. I've heard some animals eat rocks to help them digest food. Maybe the tortoises just mistake it for food. It could be other reasons or no reason at all.

From my experience it isn't a problem, but that's just my opinion so someone who knows better might say otherwise.