They can take a while to get used to the new environment, mine was going on 2wks before feeding.I have read few of the post from Jacqui and looks like this sound is normal. good thing after the recommended soak is he is very active today. Roaming in the closure and climbing. he hasn't eaten anything yet
Cool, sounds like he's settling in. I've never fed meal worms, just earth worms, that's not to say they won't eat them.Hi Anyfoot, we have tried mealworms, but he did not show interest,haven't tried any other live food yet.
Offered him banana,mango and strawberry and found out this morning that he has eaten all the strawberries .
The plastron is concave so we presumed that its a male tortoise. i will try to post some pic for identification.trying not to hold him until he gets comfortable with the new setup.
Hi All,Cool, sounds like he's settling in. I've never fed meal worms, just earth worms, that's not to say they won't eat them.
If you can set up a homemade wormery in your yard it will provide free food.
We also raid the compost bins for worms and slugs too.
What are your temperatures?Hi All,
Zura is not eating properly. i have tried live worms,earthworms,spring mix,weeds,shrimps,squash,sweet potato,types of mushrooms .almost everything on the list of food that hingeback eats but he only eats fruits (strawberry/few bites of mango/papaya/watermelon).
I have seen nibbling spider plant in the enclosure..but he dont eats spring mix/collard/plantain/hibiscus i have offered.
He has not eaten any protein in last 1 month,worried its going to impact his helath .please advise how can i make him eat other food .
Thank you!
Hi All,
Zura is not eating properly. i have tried live worms,earthworms,spring mix,weeds,shrimps,squash,sweet potato,types of mushrooms .almost everything on the list of food that hingeback eats but he only eats fruits (strawberry/few bites of mango/papaya/watermelon).
I have seen nibbling spider plant in the enclosure..but he dont eats spring mix/collard/plantain/hibiscus i have offered.
He has not eaten any protein in last 1 month,worried its going to impact his helath .please advise how can i make him eat other food .
Thank you!
Persimmon fruit too.I'll reel off what we feed, its not a huge variety, and believe me we have tried feeding everything, lettuce,weeds,spinach,Boston fern, the list is endless. They wont even eat tomatoes or cucumber.
We feed
Earthworms, slugs, snails, button mushrooms(they wont eat the brown ones), papaya, mango, plum, kiwi, pear, strawberries,figs,apple, banana,passion fruit, red grapes, melon and once a month I give them 1 tangerine(between 6 of them).
I can count on one hand how many times they have eaten kale, I've caught them eating dried leaves once or twice too.
Occasionally when I have been caught out with no worms etc I've fed dry cat biscuits, they wont eat them when soaked.
You could say they have an acquired taste. lol Plenty above that are on the don't feed or feed in moderation.
I've tried starving these into eating greens to point I just thought ' I'm wasting my time ', because soon as they get a slug again they would hold out for weeks again.I even forced a dry period to see if there diet needs changed, but no. I've tried mixing everything up, they either eat around the greens or just don't eat. I don't think its the same as trying to get another species to eat the correct diet, Well not from what I've experienced anyway.
Put some slugs and worms in a terracotta dish, put your tort so the front is on the dish, spray the tort and the slug/worms then walk away. For months mine wouldn't eat when we were watching, they just froze, as though they thought I couldn't see them as long as they didn't move.
We offer fruit and mushrooms everyday and worms/slugs or snails every other day. They seem very healthy now,(some had toenails missing when I got them, they've grown back, and beaks are finally coming right), and I'm getting fertile eggs now. Weather that proves the diet is right or not, I don't know.
What are your temperatures?
Have you tried slugs yet?
See If you can drop temps so they are 82f and 75f. Mine don't seem to like it too hot, they seem to prefer it at low to mid 70's with the option of upper 70's when they want.Temperature just under the CHE is 84F.coolest temp if 77F,other end of the enclosure. Have 1 150 WATTS CHE and 1 100Watts night bulb for 6X4ft Enclosure. I had hard luck finding slugs/snails. Checking if i can order them online but lots of restriction on buying/selling slugs
I'll reel off what we feed, its not a huge variety, and believe me we have tried feeding everything, lettuce,weeds,spinach,Boston fern, the list is endless. They wont even eat tomatoes or cucumber.
We feed
Earthworms, slugs, snails, button mushrooms(they wont eat the brown ones), papaya, mango, plum, kiwi, pear, strawberries,figs,apple, banana,passion fruit, red grapes, melon and once a month I give them 1 tangerine(between 6 of them).
I can count on one hand how many times they have eaten kale, I've caught them eating dried leaves once or twice too.
Occasionally when I have been caught out with no worms etc I've fed dry cat biscuits, they wont eat them when soaked.
You could say they have an acquired taste. lol Plenty above that are on the don't feed or feed in moderation.
I've tried starving these into eating greens to point I just thought ' I'm wasting my time ', because soon as they get a slug again they would hold out for weeks again.I even forced a dry period to see if there diet needs changed, but no. I've tried mixing everything up, they either eat around the greens or just don't eat. I don't think its the same as trying to get another species to eat the correct diet, Well not from what I've experienced anyway.
Put some slugs and worms in a terracotta dish, put your tort so the front is on the dish, spray the tort and the slug/worms then walk away. For months mine wouldn't eat when we were watching, they just froze, as though they thought I couldn't see them as long as they didn't move.
We offer fruit and mushrooms everyday and worms/slugs or snails every other day. They seem very healthy now,(some had toenails missing when I got them, they've grown back, and beaks are finally coming right), and I'm getting fertile eggs now. Weather that proves the diet is right or not, I don't know.
Put some flat stones in the enclosure, the worms will hide under the stones so you will have a continuous supply once the worms start to breed. Everytime we lift up the food and water dish the torts charge over for the worms that were under the dishes. They ain't daft, they've learnt.Hi Anyfoot, Thank you so much for the detailed response.appreciate it.
I have been trying brown button /portbella mushroom.will try white buttons one.
i have tried keeping earthworm/mealworms in front of him but he don't look interested in them. i have placed earthworms in soil(inside the enclosure) incase he ever wants to hunt and eat. i really hope i gets some slugs soon.
I got him from the Rescue center . they had him for a week and then i adopted him.I'd weigh your Tortoise and make a note of it for future reference. Do you know what the last owners were feeding?
Good job they only had him for a week.I got him from the Rescue center . they had him for a week and then i adopted him.
i reached out to them to know what they were feeding him and list was - Kale, Collards, Romaine, Strawberries, grated sweet potato. NO WORMS or mushrooms at all in his diet which was surprising.I tried sweet potato but he has shown no interest at all.
They also told me to take him out in sun and raise the temperatures of his enclosure to 90F which is not right for Hingeback i believe. so i really dont know if they knew how to take proper care of hingebacks.
I got him from the Rescue center . they had him for a week and then i adopted him.
i reached out to them to know what they were feeding him and list was - Kale, Collards, Romaine, Strawberries, grated sweet potato. NO WORMS or mushrooms at all in his diet which was surprising.I tried sweet potato but he has shown no interest at all.
They also told me to take him out in sun and raise the temperatures of his enclosure to 90F which is not right for Hingeback i believe. so i really dont know if they knew how to take proper care of hingebacks.
Although 99% of the time our hinges eat around the greens, virtually ever day we still offer some sort of green(knowing it will be wasted). Like I've said before occasionally we've seen kale eaten. Well yesterday we put 'wild peppery rocket' in with banana and nectarine, they ate everything (I was very shocked). So to test the theory of whether they only ate peppery rocket because of the fruits juices I washed the food dish out and put just peppery rocket in. Sure enough within they had eaten all the peppery rocketThanks Anyfoot ! This is very informational.