# Tortoise calcium block necessary?



## calialli (Sep 3, 2014)

Hi all,
Wow it's been a long time since I've been on the forum. I need to update pictures of Pebbles!
So I've had Pebs for a little over two years now and everything has been going fairly smoothly, but I do have a concern in regards to calcium. I feed her a mixture of kale, dandelion greens, mustard greens, green leaf lettuce, on occasion spinach, (as far as her greens go, she also gets veggies and fruits throughout the week) and I do add the Repashy Supervitamin to her food once per week, as well as the Reptical calcium once per week. I've tried on numerous occasions to add both cuttlebone and the ZooMed Tortoise Calcium Block to her enclosure but she never seems interested and just walks over it. Is there a reason she is doing this? Could it be that she doesn't know what to do with it? Or could it be that she does not need to dose herself with extra calcium? I'm a little concerned because I do not want her beak to overgrow either and although it is fine now I know the cuttlebone/block can help keep their beak trim.

Thank you!


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## G-stars (Sep 3, 2014)

She probably doesn't need it. She must be getting enough calcium from everything else your giving her. I would still leave a cuttlebone laying around though just in case she thinks she needs more. Some of mine eat it more than others.


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## Blakem (Sep 3, 2014)

Leave it available. Sometimes, I'll cut or break off new white pieces and my sulcata likes it. 


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(This is my signature)
Here's some great plant identification websites I use. 

http://www.tlady.clara.net/TortGuide/diet.htm#plantlist

http://africantortoise.com/edible_landscaping.htm

http://m.thetortoisetable.org.uk/m/plants_19.asp


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## ZEROPILOT (Sep 4, 2014)

My outdoor R/F seems to know when he needs/wants it. If I don't make one available to him, I'll catch him trying to eat small coral and rocks. I leave a cuttlebone in his night house.


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## Yvonne G (Sep 4, 2014)

I a "calcium block" necessary? No, but CALCIUM is necessary. You provide it in the form of calcium-rich foods and maybe a sprinkling of calcium powder over the food a couple times a week.


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## Yellow Turtle01 (Sep 4, 2014)

Cuttlebones are good to leave around. She should eat if she feels 'deprived' of calcium... if she isn't then I would sprinkle her food every few days with powder


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## Moozillion (Sep 12, 2014)

My Hermann's, Elsa, ignores cuttle bones. So about 2-3 times a week I'll hold a cuttlebone over her plate of damp greens and scrape it with a knife so that a fine cuttlebone dust showers down and sticks to the leaves. Don't use so much that the greens are heavily coated- you just need a dusting. That way she gets cuttlebone when she eats her greens and doesn't realize it!


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