# Tortoises and vacation



## GeoTerraTestudo (May 14, 2011)

We feed our Russians a little bit everyday, but how long can a tortoise go without food? We are going to be gone for 5 days at a time on three separate occasions this summer. Would it be all right to give our tortoises a little more food on Day 1 and then leave them without food four another 4 days (making sure our home stayed a comfortable temperature), or would we need to hand them over to a tortoise-sitter while we're gone?


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## Maggie Cummings (May 14, 2011)

It is my thinking that if you give them more food on day 1 they eat it all in one sitting and the excess of food stretches their stomach and that makes them hungrier for the next 4 days. I recommend either a tort sitter or a neighbor to feed on day 3. That feeds them every other day. You feed on day 1, neighbor feeds on day 3 and you are home on day 6. I think it is cruel to make an animal who is used to eating every day to go without food for so long...


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## tortoisenerd (May 14, 2011)

I'd pretty much agree with Maggie. I'm fine leaving my tort alone for a few days at a time now that he's out of the fragie stage, but thats feeding on day 1 (am) and day 3 (pm) most likely (such as a Fri-Sun trip). When we've gone away any longer than that we've done a sitter, twice taking him to someone's house, and this most recent trip, having a sitter come every other day. Lights/heat on timer, safe water dish, emergency info and instructions left, etc. The sitter seemed to work out better because he didn't have the moodiness like when he gets transferred--he ate great while we were gone and when we got home. For a hatchling, a tort in a new enclosure, a sick tort, etc, I would not leave them even 1 night without a sitter. Sure, I've heard of people leaving their torts even a week or two (often turning off heat and having them in a slow down period)..they cam go a long long time without food, but I don't think they should.


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## Starjelly (May 15, 2011)

Should you feed Russian torts every day on a regular bases or every other day?


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## RV's mom (May 15, 2011)

RV has the run of the back yard, eats on her own schedule. We feed only treats. Having said all that...

We have a sitter come over (every other day, minimum - depending on weather) who checks and refreshes water, checks on RV and gives treats, walks the yard and then takes care of the cats. We do have our priorities... ;P

Even if RV were the only animal in our care, we'd still have our friend over to check and water.

teri


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## GeoTerraTestudo (May 15, 2011)

Starjelly said:


> Should you feed Russian torts every day on a regular bases or every other day?



Thanks everyone for your advice on vacation. But I would like to know the answer for the above question on a day-to-day basis as well. How much food is too much? I think it's better to feed a little bit every day than a lot every other day; the torts seemed really to look for food on days we didn't feed them, so we switched to everyday. But how much should we give them each day? Our torts only get to go outside on nice days when we can watch them (we don't have a back yard), so they are basically indoor torts.


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## Jacob (May 15, 2011)

Yes, it Would Be Great To Have A Close Friend Or family Memeber to drop of food!
Or Even give it a Soak


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