# To pellet or not to pellet



## RainsOn (Jun 30, 2014)

Being a new owner of my first Russian, purchased from Petsmart, I am curious about the commercial pellet foods.
Clerk at Petsmart told me my tort did not eat them.
Are the good or bad?
Was Petsmart not feeding a type he liked?
Could it be they did not soak them?
Can a varied diet and Timothy hay make up for the pellets?
Thanx for all the input to come


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## alysciaingram (Jun 30, 2014)

I would definitely just follow the care sheet provided on here by Tom:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/index.php?threads/Russian-Tortoise-Care-Sheet.80698/

That will give you all the best info on what to feed, regardless of the Chain stores advice. Good luck!


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## StarSapphire22 (Jun 30, 2014)

Russians aren't really hay eaters. You can certainly include pellets in a varied diet, but not all pellets are created equal. Brands normally recommended here are Mazuri and Zoomed Grassland. You can soak these pellets and mash them up into a mixture with greens a few times a week. I like to use the mush 2x/week to hide his vitamins.


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## Sheldon the russian tortoise (Jun 30, 2014)

If you have a good varied diet with lots of weeds and different greens you shouldn't need them..... I have more trouble finding edible weeds that have no pesticides so i us the zoomed natral grassland tortoise food and mazuri tortoise chow to fill in my diet.


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## Yvonne G (Jun 30, 2014)

Like was said in post #3, Russian tortoises mainly eat broad-leaf greens, weeds and grasses...so hay pellets or timothy hay would not appeal to him. 

I use Mazuri Tortoise Diet once a week just to have my tortoises be used to the taste so that I have a fall-back food if there's ever a time that I don't have access to fresh food. Some of my species will eat it, some (including the Russians) won't.

I don't encourage people to buy those colored tortoise pellets that we refer to as "Fruity Pebbles", but it seems like Russians WILL eat those in a pinch. So, if your Russian will eat Fruity Pebbles, I'd hold that on a back burner as a substitute food in case there's ever a time when you can't find weeds or don't have access to greens. But not on a regular basis - just in an emergency.


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## RainsOn (Jun 30, 2014)

I am an organic gardener. My yard is free of chemicals.
Good common sense here. 
Thanx everyone


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## Tom (Jun 30, 2014)

All good advice above. I agree.


Here is how I phrase it: They don't "need" the pellets at all, especially if you have lots of other stuff to feed them. However, the pellets can be good for when you run out of the other stuff, or just as a supplement to make sure your tortoise is getting all the nutrients it needs with our rather limited (compared to what they eat in the wild) captive diets.

I also prefer the Mazuri or ZooMed stuff. I feed one or the other twice a week. I soak the pellets and then mix it in with the greens.


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## RainsOn (Jul 2, 2014)

Got it! Pellets for emergency only. Got some.
No fruity pebbles
Thank you


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