How to prevent red foot tortoises from obesity?

willee638

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Hi, I keep 3 red foot tortoises 1 yearling & 2 juveniles. I've only been keeping tortoises for under 2 years & like to know how to tell if my red foots are fat from over eating, I feed them a large variety & assortments of feeds other than Mazuri tortoise diets & they get several hours weekly to roam at outdoor grass fields & sunlight, with the amounts of exercise & vitamin D exposures are the chances less lightly?
 

Chubbs the tegu

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Hi, I keep 3 red foot tortoises 1 yearling & 2 juveniles. I've only been keeping tortoises for under 2 years & like to know how to tell if my red foots are fat from over eating, I feed them a large variety & assortments of feeds other than Mazuri tortoise diets & they get several hours weekly to roam at outdoor grass fields & sunlight, with the amounts of exercise & vitamin D exposures are the chances less lightly?
You have nothing to worry about if ur feeding the right foods. Tortoises are grazers and will nibble all day
 

willee638

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Why do you think they may become obese?
Someone at a reptile pet shop once mentioned if a tortoise eats too much they can get fat & said you can tell if flesh starts to protrude out & they have trouble retracting their limps, since I haven't seen a fat tortoise before I was wondering how to prevent it happening...
 

JoesMum

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Someone at a reptile pet shop once mentioned if a tortoise eats too much they can get fat & said you can tell if flesh starts to protrude out & they have trouble retracting their limps, since I haven't seen a fat tortoise before I was wondering how to prevent it happening...
Hmmm “someone in a reptile shop”….

I am afraid that tortoise knowledge in pet stores, even reptile ones, is usually outdated or inaccurate at the best of times.
 

willee638

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You are absolutely right, pet shop keepers & employees does not actually raise their animals beyond a certain stage of growth & selling point. I was told my Red foot tortoise doesn't eat certain thing but this wasn't true when I researched more & fed them beyond the advice given, the way pet stores keep them without hides & in large numbers with constant bright lamps is to attract customers to the displays windows & the babies are not properly fed & in constant anxiety.
 

TaylorTortoise

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You are absolutely right, pet shop keepers & employees does not actually raise their animals beyond a certain stage of growth & selling point. I was told my Red foot tortoise doesn't eat certain thing but this wasn't true when I researched more & fed them beyond the advice given, the way pet stores keep them without hides & in large numbers with constant bright lamps is to attract customers to the displays windows & the babies are not properly fed & in constant anxiety.
I absolutely agree that the babies are in constant anxiety. Most are for show, diet consists of food dye coloring pellets and no humidity…. They are kept in fish tanks. With hampster hay. I hate it and it bothers me! Ive tried plenty of times to help out local pet stores, word gets shuffled around and then forgotten about because it’s all about the dollar.
 
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