# leopard tortoise will only eat lettuce



## natyann (Mar 29, 2009)

My 2 1/2 year old leopard tortoise will only eat green leaf lettuce. I have pulled it all out of his habitat and given him acceptable foods, but he still has not eaten anything for almost 3 days. Even mixing small amounts of lettuce up with it, he will not eat. How long before he gets hungry enough? Any experiences or alternative food sources? I need to get him on a new diet. Dont have the ability (space) to grow all of his food. Any ideas?


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## tortoisenerd (Mar 29, 2009)

Hi there; welcome to the forum! What have you tried feeding him that he didn't like? Have you tried spring mix?


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## Maggie Cummings (Mar 29, 2009)

natyann said:


> My 2 1/2 year old leopard tortoise will only eat green leaf lettuce. I have pulled it all out of his habitat and given him acceptable foods, but he still has not eaten anything for almost 3 days. Even mixing small amounts of lettuce up with it, he will not eat. How long before he gets hungry enough? Any experiences or alternative food sources? I need to get him on a new diet. Dont have the ability (space) to grow all of his food. Any ideas?



I agree with Kate...have you tried to feed him spring mix? It's a decent diet for a grazing tort if you sprinkle a bit of hay lightly over the greens. Most of us here feel grasses, weeds, blossoms and leafs added to spring mix makes a fairly good diet....


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## natyann (Mar 29, 2009)

tortoisenerd said:


> Hi there; welcome to the forum! What have you tried feeding him that he didn't like? Have you tried spring mix?



He wont eat most veggies, even the "treat" veggies, grassland tortoise food, timothy hay. He burrows and builds his own forts out of the timothy hay and grasses that he is supposed to eat. He loves them as a hiding place but not as food : (


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## Yvonne G (Mar 29, 2009)

You won't be able to get a baby tortoise to eat hay. Its just not something they will eat until they get to be three or four years old. If you go to www.carolinapetsupply.com or www.oxbow.com you will find a product there called "salad style hay." This is a very palatable, cut-up hay of dried grasses. Like Maggie said, purchase Spring Mix (you can find this in the produce section of the store in the packaged lettuces. Moisten the Spring Mix and sprinkle just a pinch of the salad style hay over the spring mix. The hay will stick to the Spring Mix, which is a VERY tasty mixture of baby greens. 

Yvonne


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## Jentortmom (Mar 29, 2009)

Try chopping the spring mix up in small pieces, adding the hay Yvonne suggested or send your timothy through a coffee bean grinder, then chop up the green leaf lettace really small and mix a small amount in w/ the spring mix & hay. It might encourage him to eat the other stuff. This has work for me in the past.


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