Zoo Med Natural Grassland Tortoise help

[psutoon]

Hello,

I have been reading that our (Russian Tortoise) RT's can be stubborn and must be patient when trying to adopt new food in their diet.

I have been mixing the Zoomed Natural Grassland pellets with Joe's green's and yet he simply will not eat the minced pellets which are stuck to the greens. I reduced from using 4 pellets to 2 pellets in hopes to have Joe eat what is in his plate but that is not working. It has been almost 2 months now.

Joe will eat any greens I lay out (of course) but still no sign of any acceptance or growing tolerance to the Natural Grassland pellets. How did some of you get across this road block? I see on various YouTube clips of RT's eating the minced pellets mixed with greens with no issues.

So again, any ideas would greatly be appreciated! I even tried sprinkling the "All Living Things Tortoise Pellets", which are the small colorful tiny, thin pellets into the mix of greens and Natural Grassland pellets with no luck still.

 

[Yvonne G]

Well, one of your problems is that Russians aren't big grass eaters. They eat more of the broad-leaf plants and weeds. I really doubt he'll ever take to the grassland pellets.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Aside from being uneaten, a lot of the colorful pellets also offer little in the way of actual nutrition.
have you tried mixing with Mazuri tortoise formula? (Not the L.S.type)

 

[Jodie]

I soak grassland in water so it is a mush, and then mix a bit with well chopped greens. I supplement with this only 1 or 2 times per week.

 

[Tom]

I don't know what you mean by "minced". You cut them up dry?

I take one pellet and soak it until it turns to much. Then I spray the days greens with some water. Then I thoroughly mix up the mushy pellet with the greens. Do this every day. Picky tortoises are hungry tortoises at my house.

I also agree with Yvonne. Russians are not grass eaters and are unlikely to just walk up and eat this food ever, but these pellets are a good way to add fiber to grocery store greens and improve the diet.