# My tortoise misses her food?



## TortoiseAddict (Feb 28, 2012)

When i set the food in her dish she will try to eat it but its like shes misjudging where the food is.... She will take a while then she finally gets a bite and if she misses she will keep trying to bite the same area. Her eyes seem fine and they are open and occasionally she will sneeze and a little snot bob appears and pops. What is going on? :O


----------



## Yvonne G (Feb 28, 2012)

It sounds like a depth perception problem. Maybe she only sees out of one eye. Try putting the food up against a wall so it doesn't move away from her when she bites at it.


----------



## jojodesca (Feb 28, 2012)

I have a one-eyed Box turtle, Lefty, and she misses her food alot..I have to put it on her left side so she can see it....even when she see it out her left eye she has depth perception and misses frequently..I take my time with her since she is "special needs"...you can try it with your pet as well...here is a link for the video i did on youtobe...you can see the depth perception in her actions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbW1FT5Bnkk&context=C3edbc3eADOEgsToPDskLo68lxp1AjtNXDiYptLxhG


----------



## TortoiseAddict (Feb 28, 2012)

jojodesca said:


> I have a one-eyed Box turtle, Lefty, and she misses her food alot..I have to put it on her left side so she can see it....even when she see it out her left eye she has depth perception and misses frequently..I take my time with her since she is "special needs"...you can try it with your pet as well...here is a link for the video i did on youtobe...you can see the depth perception in her actions
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbW1FT5Bnkk&context=C3edbc3eADOEgsToPDskLo68lxp1AjtNXDiYptLxhG



that video reminds me of her! But she still has two eyes and they seem to be ok.


----------



## wellington (Feb 28, 2012)

How is he/she? When I first got my baby leopard, he/she was about two months old and he would do the same thing. He didn't really look like something was wrong, just seem to not get the food on the first few tries. I would stack the food in a pile so when he bit in, hopefully he would get a piece, even if it wasn't the one he was going after. Eventually he grew out of it. However if yours is older, it might be more of a physical problem?



jojodesca said:


> I have a one-eyed Box turtle, Lefty, and she misses her food alot..I have to put it on her left side so she can see it....even when she see it out her left eye she has depth perception and misses frequently..I take my time with her since she is "special needs"...you can try it with your pet as well...here is a link for the video i did on youtobe...you can see the depth perception in her actions
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbW1FT5Bnkk&context=C3edbc3eADOEgsToPDskLo68lxp1AjtNXDiYptLxhG



Awwww I felt so bad for him. I wanted to reach in and help. Poor little guy


----------



## EKLC (Feb 28, 2012)

my tort does this. It drives me crazy because its an act he plays when hes being picky. He'll act like he can't possibly eat this fluffly pile of diced greens, but then hell pry cactus off the floor and swallow it whole


----------



## ascott (Feb 28, 2012)

I have an adult CDT and he has cataracts as well as one eye vision nearly useless....he has compensated for his vision issues with his tenacious desire to get...grab and consume it all...no matter how long it takes...and when he gets himself positioned right he is a formidable match for any hooves vacuum ...he can eat a pile twice his size and still look up at me with his one good eye , head cocked...wanting more...lol

I also have a young RF who came to me as an air biter (did not know this entirely until he began to want to eat finally) back this last September...I first had to hand feed her because she absolutely was not able to...after that I would hold the food down onto the dish and wiggle it so she could focus and then eventually I was able to coax her into eating on her own by starting out with a large pile and stack it high...she would strike out and get the food from the pile and as it was pushed down I would just adjust it up again into a pile and so on until it was gone...now she is eating like 2-3 times per day a pile at least her size plus a little....so..you may need to give a hand to assure your tortoise keeps up strength and perhaps it will be outgrown and again it may not...but helping out allows them to bee successful eaters and I find that is so important...the will is so important...


----------



## Dizisdalife (Feb 28, 2012)

I have seen my sulcata bite air several times. Strange, but it has been rare and he seems to eat fine all the rest of the time.


----------



## pk2610 (Feb 29, 2012)

Does your tort gain weight despite the eating issue? I used to have a baby leopard that missed his food a lot. Unfortunately, he died and he did not gain any weight since I had him. It could be other cause for his death but I think his not being able to target on food has made him unable to gain weight and grow. I would try to hand-feed him as Angela suggested and hopefully heâ€™ll figure out himself or outgrow it.


----------



## IRTehDuckie (Feb 29, 2012)

My sully did that allll the time when he was a baby, he still does it a little bit now, but not often, hes getting better at it lol 


pk2610 said:


> Does your tort gain weight despite the eating issue? I used to have a baby leopard that missed his food a lot. Unfortunately, he died and he did not gain any weight since I had him. It could be other cause for his death but I think his not being able to target on food has made him unable to gain weight and grow. I would try to hand-feed him as Angela suggested and hopefully heâ€™ll figure out himself or outgrow it.


thats what i did with mine, i hand fed him until he got the hang of it.


----------



## ascott (Feb 29, 2012)

I believe that if you are patient and cut up a pile of food and set it on a dish you will know what your goal pile is to feed your tortoise...because while you are hand feeding it seem to begin to feel like you have been there a long time when actually it takes a long time to get that pile off the plate into the tummy of your tort....I also believe that if you do not allow and support successful feedings then the tort can lose their will to thrive and they give up...this is why I believe sometimes your tort can survive by riding on your will when theirs is weak...if I were to have left my little one to her own to eat I am not confident she would have made it through to begin to thrive now.....she was so so feather lite when she got here...and no matter how much she soaked and drank until she began to chow down on her own she did not seem to gain weight...now when I lift her out of enclosure to go outside she actually is beginning to have the weight of a rock..not what I am comfortable with totally but so far she is a slow and steady trekker...so I will accept and celebrate every step of progress....


----------

