# How can I get my Desert tortoise to eat different things



## Avatalak (Nov 11, 2010)

I am wondering if anyone knows how to get your desert tortoise to eat other things. My tortoise seems to only want green beans. I have 1.5 acres, he is free to roam the entire yard along with my sheep, goats & chickens. My sheep and goat eat everything in sight. In spring i will make an area for Franklin only and grow thing he is suppose to eat. In the mean time...I can not get him to eat all the things he's suppose to...I always have dried burmuda grass, alfafa and regular grass growing in the yard...I dont see him eat any of that...maybe a little grass now and then,. I even tried store bought pellet for him and he won't eat that. I am sure he cannot survive on green beans alone.....I am overwintering him because I dont think he has enough nutrients...and I dont want to take my chances...until I know he is eating correctly. Any idea?


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## Yvonne G (Nov 11, 2010)

*RE: New *

Because you are keeping him up this winter, you have a great opportunity to turn his eating habits around. You're going to have to go with the "tough love" way of doing things.

Here is a great list of foods for your type of tortoise:

http://tortoiseforum.org/Thread-Foo...orts-DT-Marginated-Greeks-Russians-Sullys-etc

Just keep offering him some from this list. If he doesn't eat, you can let him go for a week or so without worry. They can go an awful long time with no food.

If after a week he hasn't started to eat, then buy a head of romaine, or even iceburg lettuce. *This is not for a tortoise that already eats well.*

Chop up the lettuce into bite-sized pieces. Also chop up a small amount of something from the list. Just a SMALL amount. Mix it all together. Over the next week, keep offering this mixture, but every day add more of the good stuff and less of the lettuce. You should be able to convert him over in this manner.


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## Avatalak (Nov 11, 2010)

thank you so much for yuor help. I do have that list already. Do you know where I can get some of that stuff on the top of the list that he needs most of....maybe in plant form instead of dried. I didnt know he doesnt have to eat everyday...I am always giving him green beans...so he's probably eating too much. I just got him last March from a little girl that got him form another little girl...and of course I took him in with all my other animals (my kids) I've been learning as I go along... he obviously been taken care of alwas...he comes to me all the time and even knows his name well now. Anyways so I should stop feeding him the green beans and try that...he maybe will eat something else.


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## dmmj (Nov 11, 2010)

mine love the following, hibiscus leaves and flowers, grape leaves, radish tops, mulberry leaves, A good diet is little to no fruits and vegetables. I do give mine the tops of my strawberries that I grow, and he does get some cactus fruit, and once a summer or so he gets some watermelon, but that is only about 5 percent of his diet or so, try hibiscus if you can find them that is a good way to get him to start eating right.


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## Avatalak (Nov 11, 2010)

Thank you so much...I will try some of those.


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## Maggie Cummings (Nov 11, 2010)

Remember one important thing...he can only eat green beans if that's what you offer him. Stop feeding him beans, they are not good for him and when he gets hungry enough he will eat the good food you offer him. I would offer him good food everyday, if he doesn't eat it, oh well. Offer him good food tomorrow and so on, but don't give in and offer him green beans. Legumes really are bad for him and as long as you continue to offer them to him, that's what he will eat...


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## RV's mom (Nov 11, 2010)

I hope you have success with the above advice. I'm going to have to practice tough love with RV, and it hurts to think about it. ouch.

Of what I've learned about torts

you can lead a horse to water
but you can't make a tortoise eat.

they'll do that when they get good and hungry. My failing is that I have a hard time waiting for that to happen.

teri


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## armandoarturo (Nov 13, 2010)

That has happened to me with the tortoises I've rescued...
They wouldn't eat unless it was lettuce... Specially the little ones...
what I did was offer just chopped cactus pads, and after couple of days without wanting anything they finally ate them.
Also try some red opuntia fruits, they love them, and the red color seems to be attractive for them!


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