oatmeal and brown rice

[Yvonne G]

I took in two full grown male desert tortoises yesterday that had been cared for by a 90 something year old lady for the past 25 or so years. Every year the month before hibernation this lady would cook up some oatmeal and some brown rice and feed it to the tortoises so they would be ready for hibernation. I had never heard of this before. The tortoises are huge for their species, and in great shape.

Any comments?

 

[Maro2Bear]

Yes, lets see some pictures!

 

[tortadise]

Interesting. From a nutritional stand point, those both carry some very good grains and vitamin content. Not sure how well it works for herbivores. But thinking about it more they do have an absorption factor that could "sponge" other items in the gut maybe. Very interesting.

 

[kathyth]

Never heard of this.
Very interesting.

 

[Maggie Cummings]

My comment is at least I post PICTURES

 

[bouaboua]

My comment is at least I post PICTURES

Yeah.......What's wrong with her?? Two full grown male desert tortoises in great shape but no picture?????

 

[Jabuticaba]

I don't think it's biologically appropriate for them, as they wouldn't have that in the wild. That said, it's not very different from feeding Mazuri, imho, except brown rice and oats are higher quality grains and less processed than Mazuri.


May
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[leigti]

If she did it for 25 years and they're healthy and happy, there must be some merit to it.

 

[ascott]

My comment is at least I post PICTURES

LMAOffffff...

 

[ascott]

I took in two full grown male desert tortoises yesterday that had been cared for by a 90 something year old lady for the past 25 or so years. Every year the month before hibernation this lady would cook up some oatmeal and some brown rice and feed it to the tortoises so they would be ready for hibernation. I had never heard of this before. The tortoises are huge for their species, and in great shape.

Any comments?

I say, this is one of those things that worked....if the torts are healthy--then there is no arguing it....however, I would simply question how much did what she offered them really affect them as an overall? I mean, I bet that lady is of the group that allowed those torts to do their thing freely and graze throughout the rest of the year...so this would to me have more of an impact than the "likely" small amount she gave them...likely was like a oatmeal/rice ball...unto itself not a big deal....again, just my opinion and nothing more.

 

[Yvonne G]

My comment is at least I post PICTURES

I posted their pictures here:

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/meet-2014-rescues-63-66.103390/

 

[Tyanna]

That's different and interesting.. Like everyone else's comment. I wonder if she got the advice from someone else or just did it on her own.

 

[Ariza]

Just found this thread. Very interesting! Any more comments about it? Yvonne, do you know how much and how often she fed the grains to the torts the month before hibernation?
Rice and oatmeal have lots of fiber and cleans out the intestines, so it does make sense to me. I do eat lots of brown rice when I get diarrhea. And I doubt they are harmful, even to torts. I'm sure in the wild they browse wild grains and such. I even saw Ariza eating some bird food once.
I'm a vegetarian and just love any grain food. Very infrequently I will offer Ariza tiny amounts of cooked oatmeal or soaked cereal and she just gobbles it up. I wanted to give her more but didn't dare. She's a glutton but if she doesn't like something she'll refuse it, so that makes me feel better about offering new stuff.

 

[bouaboua]

I posted their pictures here:

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/meet-2014-rescues-63-66.103390/

Now I know where MO is coming from! ! ! ! !

Thanks to this old thread. So he can expecting some brown rice in the fall! ! ! !