Leaving My Russian Tort. for four days... What should I do for feeding?

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Hi,

I am leaving my Russian for four days, what should I do for feeding? I feed Roxy on a large flat rock every morning. I heard that if you put four rocks in with four different servings of food they will eat from one every day. Is this true? I googled what to do and that came up on a site.

Thank you,
Kayla
 

Cowboy_Ken

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I heard that if you put four rocks in with four different servings of food they will eat from one every day. Is this true? I googled what to do and that came up on a site.
Thank you,
Kayla
Hi Kayla,
I love that idea regardless of how whack it is. This is a prime example of the misinformation that is out on there on
"The WorldWideInternetMachine". If only it were that simple.
Tortoises are feast or famine feeders. When food is there, they eat like machines, when none is there, they just chill. More important for 4 days off would be the water source. If you have a large, low-sided water dish this could likely solve that problem.
How warm are the background temps without any lights running? With a russian tortoise, you probably don't need to run any lights while you are gone,(in case he flips under a light with no one there!) which will encourage him/her to go into a mini/short term brumation period. Give maybe double what you'd normally give for a feeding and tell him to watch the house while you're gone. He'll be fine with it.
Then when you get home, give him a nice, warm 20min soak and return him to his habitat with fresh greens and lights.
This should be all he needs. Forget the "1dish for each day" idea. It's cute, gut that's about all. Sorry for being a downer here.
 

Jodie

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That is not true. They are grazers, so will wonder around and eat. I regularly put food in several places each day.
When I leave, I have someone check my tortoises at least twice a day to feed water, and ensure everything is ok.
 

keepergale

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I don't believe what you heard about the separate feeding site being eaten from on separate days is true. Your tortoise will wander around find food and eat opportunistically.
Do you have a Neibor who you trust to pop in and feed your tortoise. Another option is to just leave dry Mazuri or the equivalent in enough volume to last 4 days.
 

Tom

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Best case would be to have a friend or neighbor come clean the water and drop in some food every day.

If you can't do that, then I'd empty and remove the water bowl, and leave a couple of large skinless opuntia pads in the enclosure. These won't rot, and will give your tortoise some hydration too. Soak your tortoise the day you leave or the night before, and soak again the day you return.
 
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seanang168

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I got myself a auto feeder for cats and dogs but the portions that come out are kinda too much. For water i put a water tray and then I got an aquarium pump in a large pail to pump out fresh water to the tray at regular intervals . This is to flush out old water n reduce the chance of mosquito breeding. A bit difficult to control the water pump out though.
 

Tom

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Best case would be to have a friend or neighbor come clean the water and drop in some food every day.

If you can't do that, then I'd empty and remove the water bowl, and leave a couple of large skinless opuntia pads in the enclosure. These won't rot, and will give your tortoise some hydration too. Soak your tortoise the day you leave or the night before, and soak again the day you return.

My post should have said "spineless" opuntia, not skinless…

Damn auto-correct snuck one in on me again...
 

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