WARNING... Intended for mature audiences.

Another WARNING...Long... Get a Pint, Glass of wine or a Pop.

This is another one of those posts I've been meaning to post and just never got around to it. These are observations and results of one tortoise keeper although there is similar results continuing to mount.

I cautiously started using this diet called Mazuri tortoise diet about 6 or maybe 7 years ago. It seemed like a solution to my problems. Before using this I was going through about $50 of produce a week and roughly two hours to chop and prepare it. It was very time consuming and I don't think I was hitting all the marks as far as nutrition goes even though I carefully selected the darkest greens and had a variety of about 20 different items. I also used a supplement (Centrum) and Calcium carbonate(cuttlebone)

This was the result of the weekly routine...




Like many people on this list I heard horror stories about pelleted diets so I researched this particular diet. I got to be pretty well acquainted with the person who developed and researched the diet. I also looked beyond this because I figured he had a stake in the marketing of this product. I talked to zoo keepers and anyone who had used the diet. Before that time it was only available to zoos. It was developed about 15 years prior to me using it for head starting Galapagos tortoise in those islands.

I figured I'll try it out on a limited basis. As time went on I noticed some interesting results... the first of which was that the animals liked it to an extreme. This was odd considering how some of the tortoises I keep were very finicky eaters. They appear to like it so much so that they can seem to smell it near by and there really is no detectable odor that I can detect.

At first I used it as a supplement with the greens. After a time I increased the Mazuri and decreased the greens. The tortoises outside always had access to grass and whatever forage so they were the first that were fed this diet exclusively. Greens were thrown in occasionally but it wasn't prepared as it was and it was fed more as a treat than anything else. The tortoise diet was the primary source of nutrition. The tortoises I was worried about the most got greens as the primary diet and Mazuri as a supplement. Those tortoise were mostly kept in indoor enclosures.

The Aldabras, Leopards and Sulcatas were the first to be fed the Mazuri diet on kind of exclusive basis because they had the run of the yard and they were feeding mostly on the stuff they found in the yard... grass, weeds, hedges and leaves in addition to whatever they could catch(bugs, dead birds, dog crap...)

They started showing some wonderful growth with the Aldabras being the most impressive. This is my first Aldabra and my baby. It was 4 inches SCL when I got it. That was about 2000. This is him today weighing in at about 100lbs (He was 1/2 pound to start).

As time went on I brought in new animals. The Redfoots were the first that got the diet and did not have the run of the yard so they did not have access to natural forage. Their pen was planted but they wiped that out in a week. They were given about 1/3 greens and the rest the Mazuri diet each week. They started showing me the most impressive growth outside of the Aldabras. As with the other tortoises they loved it and still do.

I mean they really love the stuff...

The Redfoots were the first to show me a 'problem' with the diet. It's more of an aesthetic thing than anything else. If the growth is too fast it does not grow symetrical. There is no pyramiding but it is not symmetrical.

The above girl showed me the most rapid growth. Can pretty much see the growth and the seasonal growth rings. The above is at 4 years in my care... maybe a little more.
Here is another Redfoot in that group. All have doubled in size in my care in that 4+ years.

This is another favorite of mine... Speedy. This guy has been on the net over about 7 years. At first he was the slowest growing Sulcata. He was about 5lbs after 5 years. In the last 2 years this is where he's doubled in size. He started 50/50 and went to 100% of the diet.