Tortoise Supply Herbal Hay

Meraa12

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Nov 23, 2020
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Phelan
Hello everyone!
about 3 weeks ago I bought my little tort some herbal hay from Tortoise supply. He absolutely loves it so far but I have a question. Can I feed it to him everyday? Does it have enough calcium in it that I don’t need to be adding the calcium powder two times a week? I heard feeding sullys calcium everyday interrupts them from digesting their other nutrients ? Currently, I feed him wheat grass and top it with some herbal hay everyday and 3 times a week I add some Mazuri pellets to it. Also, about 2 times a week I sprinkle a pinch of Calcium powder to his food.

Also how much should I be feeding him? He is 59 grams at the moment. So I have been feeding him 2 grams of food everyday.

Will any please let me know if maybe I’m feeding him too much calcium?
I want to do everything that’s right for him.
I also want to introduce him to new food but don’t know if my weeds outside are safe for him.

here’s a little photo of my guy ready to stop soaking and hit his food!

Thank you all!
xoxoimage.jpg
 

Blackdog1714

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A varied diet is best to keep them from becoming picky eaters it also mimics the wild with when the plant is gone the food is gone so go to another plant.
 

Chubbs the tegu

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You can let him eat as much as he want all day.. no need to measure his food. U should add more variety with weeds and some good greens now and then( escarole, endive, chicory, collards etc. calcium twice a week will be enough and leave a cuttle bone in the enclosure. If u need help identifying safe weeds u can post pics on here and ppl will help. Good luck!
 

Kapidolo Farms

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Tyler, the guy who owns Tortoise Supply and sells the herbal hay, did not want to share the recipe of ingredients as he has been taken advantage of with other proprietary products when he has shared the details.

You might have noticed ZooMed now sells a topper. I'll speculate they got the idea, or at least fleshed it out based on Tyler's product.

So we don't know what is in it specifically or what the nutrient profile is. It's not so expensive to get a nutrient profile analysis done. I think about $85 or so. https://www.foragelab.com/ is the lab I have used.

In the mean time, blowing my own horn, you can get a better bang for the buck with all the stuff I sell, at www.kapidolofarms.com I've had a few products analyzed for nutrient content, and/or found some published account somewhere, that covers every product. I don't endorse the idea of feeding the same wide variety everyday, as then it's lost some of the concept of variety. I suggest using different items rotated throughout the week, so that there is day to day variety.

After water, a none-nutrient dietary need, I have come to find that fiber is the most important other non-nutrient dietary need. So, even the mystery mix from Tortoise Supply is good as it has a high relative fiber content just for being dried stuff. As for calcium content, IDK, but adding high calcium feeds, like mulberry leaves, opuntia cactus, etc., should keep that nutrient well above required amounts. A teaspoon three times a week of nonD3 calcium carbonate / per head of greens seems to be a good amount to cover whatever deficit might be lingering in your leafy greens choice. You don't want to add calcium everyday, as some nutrients suppress/compete others. It's always a good idea to give a break from any one diet item once or twice a week. And fiber helps modulate all the stuff going on inside the gut.
 

Tom

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@Meraa12

Here is that lighting info we talked about:
There are four elements to heating and lighting:
  1. Basking bulb. I use 65 watt incandescent floods from the hardware store. Some people will need bigger, or smaller wattage bulbs. Let your thermometer be your guide. I run them on a timer for about 12 hours and adjust the height to get the correct basking temp under them. I also like to use a flat rock of some sort directly under the bulb. You need to check the temp with a thermometer directly under the bulb and get it to around 95-100F (36-37C).
  2. Ambient heat maintenance. I use ceramic heating elements or radiant heat panels set on thermostats to maintain ambient above 80 degrees day and night for tropical species. You'd only need day heat for a temperate species like Testudo or DT, as long as your house stays above 60F (15-16C) at night.
  3. Light. I use LEDs for this purpose. Something in the 5000-6500K color range will look the best. Most bulbs at the store are in the 2500K range and they look yellowish. Strip or screw-in bulb types are both fine.
  4. UV. If you can get your tortoise outside for an hour 2 or 3 times a week, you won't need indoor UV. If you want it anyway, get one of the newer HO type fluorescent tubes. Which type will depend on mounting height. 5.0 bulbs make almost no UV. You need a meter to check this: https://www.solarmeter.com/model65.html Here in our climate, you shouldn't need indoor UV.
More info on lighting and diet here too:
 

Meraa12

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Phelan
You can let him eat as much as he want all day.. no need to measure his food. U should add more variety with weeds and some good greens now and then( escarole, endive, chicory, collards etc. calcium twice a week will be enough and leave a cuttle bone in the enclosure. If u need help identifying safe weeds u can post pics on here and ppl will help. Good luck!

Okay great! I will get hands on some LED lights this week! Thank you so much!
 
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