# Starvation day???



## charchar (Jan 30, 2011)

Please help today i went to a shop that sell alot of reptiles and they recommend that u miss a day feeding to give the tortys a chance to digest their food,,,,,, is this right before i starve poor Hugo and Alice????


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## wildponey21 (Jan 30, 2011)

I have hared this too but i don't do


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## Madkins007 (Jan 30, 2011)

It sorta is. In the wild, tortoises tend to do one of two basic feeding patterns- the graze and wander, where they take a few bites and go on to the next plant; and the gorge and sleep, where they find something they like, eat their fill, and sleep it off, sometimes for several days.

In captivity, we tend to offer too much food, with too many calories and carbohydrates, and too little calcium or protein. Many keepers and experts recommend fasting days to help off-set this. Many experienced keepers only feed their adult animals a couple times a week when they are indoors.

If you can limit yourself to smallish meals that are low in carbs and such, it is not such a big deal. My personal version of this is to offer some days of relatively low-nutrient greens or lettuces with a pinch of ground up Timothy hay and a tiny bit of calcium.


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## moswen (Jan 30, 2011)

In winters I feed a smaller amount of food but that's just bc they all seem to slow down a bit. Tula actually only comes out of her hide every few days, so I don't feed her unless I see her out, but I feed her a large amount when she does. even though in the wild they may not find a lot to eat in a dry or cold season, it doesn't mean that they wouldn't like to have something to eat that day. I can live without food for a day too, but I wouldn't want to. I've heard ppl say they only feed their hatchlings every other day. I don't really like this practice but as I've said I do feed a less amount in winter. You certainly won't starve your tort if you do this, but on a level that empathizes with a hungry animal I don't think it's very nice. But, actually after I just read that I don't think there's anything cruel about or wrong with the people that do! I just don't. Okay done lol.


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## charchar (Jan 30, 2011)

Madkins007 said:


> It sorta is. In the wild, tortoises tend to do one of two basic feeding patterns- the graze and wander, where they take a few bites and go on to the next plant; and the gorge and sleep, where they find something they like, eat their fill, and sleep it off, sometimes for several days.
> 
> In captivity, we tend to offer too much food, with too many calories and carbohydrates, and too little calcium or protein. Many keepers and experts recommend fasting days to help off-set this. Many experienced keepers only feed their adult animals a couple times a week when they are indoors.
> 
> If you can limit yourself to smallish meals that are low in carbs and such, it is not such a big deal. My personal version of this is to offer some days of relatively low-nutrient greens or lettuces with a pinch of ground up Timothy hay and a tiny bit of calcium.



Thank u for ur reply i found it very usefull, Hugo sometimes eats a massive [well seems massive 2 me] amount and then spends most of the day sleeping and u explained why, i am going 2 give it a try tomorrow and see how they go!!!! ty



moswen said:


> In winters I feed a smaller amount of food but that's just bc they all seem to slow down a bit. Tula actually only comes out of her hide every few days, so I don't feed her unless I see her out, but I feed her a large amount when she does. even though in the wild they may not find a lot to eat in a dry or cold season, it doesn't mean that they wouldn't like to have something to eat that day. I can live without food for a day too, but I wouldn't want to. I've heard ppl say they only feed their hatchlings every other day. I don't really like this practice but as I've said I do feed a less amount in winter. You certainly won't starve your tort if you do this, but on a level that empathizes with a hungry animal I don't think it's very nice. But, actually after I just read that I don't think there's anything cruel about or wrong with the people that do! I just don't. Okay done lol.



Ty Rebekka i am going to give it a go tomorrow and just keep a eye out for any disstress i think it will be the little man that misses the food lol, i had probs with him being constipated but a change of diet and bathing routine seems to have corrected that ty again


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## Tom (Jan 30, 2011)

I fed light and skipped an occasional day with my brand new baby sulcata hatchlings, back in July of 1998. Everyone thought that slow growth and low protein would prevent pyramiding. Everyone was wrong. Now I have 12 year old stunted, tiny little sulcatas. My males are 43 and 48 pounds. They should be close to 100 pounds at 12 and a half years old.

I don't skip days anymore.


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## GBtortoises (Jan 31, 2011)

While indoors I feed my tortoises every other day, with a two day without food in there also. In other words I feed them Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. They have timothy hay and calcium carbonate available to them 24/7. On the "off" days they are watered. While they're outdoors I still feed them every other day. Outdoors they also have naturally growing plants and weeds to browse on along with calcium carbonate and water always being available. This feeding schedule applies to all tortoises regardless of species, age or size.


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## Madkins007 (Jan 31, 2011)

As you can see, actual practices and experiences vary all over the place. 

To put it another way- how would you raise a baby human or cat? Big, infrequent meals? Small, skimpy meals? No- you try to meet their dietary and caloric needs every day.

The calorie needs of a tortoise are easy to figure- weight in grams to the 0.75th power, times 64 for the daily calorie needs for most tortoises at most ages. You would drop the number for less active tortoises- cool, not feeling great, not in a growth phase, etc., and you can boost the numbers a bit more for very active tortoises- teenage growing phase, mating, laying eggs, etc.

You can also find the daily estimated dosages of calcium, etc. at http://www.tortoiselibrary.com/nutguide.html

The diet section of the Library has a few other ideas you can try as well.


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## charchar (Jan 31, 2011)

Thank you all very much for ur advice, i tryed no food today but had 2 very upset tortys and in the end i gave in to them and just gave them some butternut squash which they enjoyed very much and i am to beleave is a natural wormer??? Well they have both eaten and are now enjoying catching a few rays before bed time x thank you again


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## Yvonne G (Jan 31, 2011)

Just to put an end to the squash/wormer fable: Its the ground up seeds that act as a de-wormer, not the squash or pumpkin.


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## charchar (Jan 31, 2011)

emysemys said:


> Just to put an end to the squash/wormer fable: Its the ground up seeds that act as a de-wormer, not the squash or pumpkin.



Oh ok i will remember that can u buy it or do u need to dry out the seeds and ground them yourself??? ty


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## Yvonne G (Jan 31, 2011)

You do it yourself. If you spread them on a cookie sheet you can dry them in the oven at a very low temperature. Then put them into the coffee grinder.


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## Maggie Cummings (Jan 31, 2011)

charchar...please do some of us a favor...this is not Facebook or a text phone, so please for some of us older folks spell out your words so all of us can understand what you are trying to say. When some of us see text spelling we skip over that thread and go to one we can understand. Thank you...I mean no disrespect, but you want all of us to understand you, don't you?

Now with that said, you would not skip feeding your human growing baby so I don't believe in skipping meals for growing tortoise babies. I have 13 hatchling or yearling tortoises that I am feeding right now and I feed them the way they eat. Meaning, if they eat a little I feed a little, if they eat a lot, I feed a lot but I never skip a meal. I feed them according to what they tell me they need.

I almost go along with what Mark is saying, but I believe in the wild they would munch on branches, rocks, dirt or their own poop, but whatever it is they eat something daily even if it's just a little something. So I feed daily, and I recommend feeding daily and I always grow active healthy animals.


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## moswen (Jan 31, 2011)

HAHA maggie, it took me forever to figure out what OP stood for! (and, now i use it all the time haha!) but i'm 24, so don't just group the abbreviated-text-illiterates into an "old" age group!

also, yvonne, i just separated my seeds out and left the stringy stuff attatched to most of them, then put them into the blender still wet, and even added some water (it was all just getting stuck to the walls and not being ground up very well) then put them in tiny baggies and into the freezer... so will mine not work now?


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## Yvonne G (Jan 31, 2011)

I don't really know, but I can't see why it wouldn't. Its just easier to get them to eat it when its dry, ground up and sprinkled over their food. they might not eat it if its a glob of wet stuff. Try it and see.

("TY" was the one I had a lot of trouble with. Took me an awful long time to figure out it meant "thank you.")


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## charchar (Jan 31, 2011)

maggie3fan said:


> charchar...please do some of us a favor...this is not Facebook or a text phone, so please for some of us older folks spell out your words so all of us can understand what you are trying to say. When some of us see text spelling we skip over that thread and go to one we can understand. Thank you...I mean no disrespect, but you want all of us to understand you, don't you?
> 
> Now with that said, you would not skip feeding your human growing baby so I don't believe in skipping meals for growing tortoise babies. I have 13 hatchling or yearling tortoises that I am feeding right now and I feed them the way they eat. Meaning, if they eat a little I feed a little, if they eat a lot, I feed a lot but I never skip a meal. I feed them according to what they tell me they need.
> 
> I almost go along with what Mark is saying, but I believe in the wild they would munch on branches, rocks, dirt or their own poop, but whatever it is they eat something daily even if it's just a little something. So I feed daily, and I recommend feeding daily and I always grow active healthy animals.



Ok Maggie i am sorry for the text spelling just lazy i guess haha! I sure dont want you good folks to skip my questions as all of your help is gratefully taken, i am not going to skip meals for them again the poor things were disstressed and looking for food most of the day, Hugo even trying acrobatic tricks off his log!!!!!! OPPS,


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## tortoisenerd (Jan 31, 2011)

I personally see no reason to skip days of feeding on a regular basis for adults in captivity...just feed an amount once daily for them to maintain their weight. The only time I do skip days is if we are going on a weekend trip, but them I just put down a huge pile so there is some left for the full day we are gone (for a tort which is past hatchling stage for which I feel safe leaving him up to two nights at a time). Personal preference. My tort gets all moody when I wake up late on the weekend and he has to wait for his breakfast! To avoid your tort being the "typical" overweight captive tort, provide lots of exercise space, avoid high calorie foods, feed an amount such they can maintain a healthy weight (weighing and measuring on a regular basis such as monthly and comparing to a weight chart for the species if available) and ideally, have them grazing (you can set this up indoors with trays sunk into substrate). I personally think the skip some days advice is outdated, but yes, I agree it does fit with what happens in the wild as some days they don't find food (not that they need to "digest" their food)....however, our torts are not wild...they are used to seeing us daily and getting their food.


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