Diet mainly of grasses question

Destben

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My leopard tort Torterra is now eating mainly orchard grass hay and wheat grass. She does get a variety of other things daily but this is mostly what she eats as she free feeds during the day. Does anyone else who has their tort on a mainly grass diet notice that their tortoises poop is sometimes whole grass and sometimes it gets stuck in their as my little brother calls it “booty hole”? She’s pooping regularly but I was wondering if it may just be her still getting use to it or what.
 

Tom

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Regular leopards eat mostly broadleaf weeds, leaves, flowers and succulents, and not as much grass. I think you are feeding too much grass. Since these guys aren't adapted to a diet of dry grass, you should probably be taking extra steps to hydrate the meals and also hydrate the tortoise through more frequent soaking and longer duration soaking.

Some grass is okay. Mostly grass is too much in my experience. Fresh grass is better than hay for this species.

The poops sound normal as far as shape and composition, but they should not be getting stuck.
 

Destben

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Regular leopards eat mostly broadleaf weeds, leaves, flowers and succulents, and not as much grass. I think you are feeding too much grass. Since these guys aren't adapted to a diet of dry grass, you should probably be taking extra steps to hydrate the meals and also hydrate the tortoise through more frequent soaking and longer duration soaking.

Some grass is okay. Mostly grass is too much in my experience. Fresh grass is better than hay for this species.

The poops sound normal as far as shape and composition, but they should not be getting stuck.

The wheat grass is fresh and she does get a variety of other things daily but I have been leaving the dry orchard grass for free feeding throughout the day. It seems to be more of the wheat rather then the orchard in the poo though. Should I not offer it daily?
 

Destben

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The wheat grass is fresh and she does get a variety of other things daily but I have been leaving the dry orchard grass for free feeding throughout the day. It seems to be more of the wheat rather then the orchard in the poo though. Should I not offer it daily?

IMG_0382.jpg here is an example picture of the number 2 with the grass and hay mixture she already picked the veggies out of off to the side.
 

Tom

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The wheat grass is fresh and she does get a variety of other things daily but I have been leaving the dry orchard grass for free feeding throughout the day. It seems to be more of the wheat rather then the orchard in the poo though. Should I not offer it daily?
I wouldn't feed dry grass hay to a regular leopard. If you need to use hay, chop it up finely and rehydrate it before feeding it out. I'd feed other things instead.

If you are feeding a high fiber weedy, leafy diet, then I would not offer grass every day. If you are using the grass to add much needed fiber to a diet of mostly grocery store greens, then daily is probably fine.
 

Destben

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I wouldn't feed dry grass hay to a regular leopard. If you need to use hay, chop it up finely and rehydrate it before feeding it out. I'd feed other things instead.

If you are feeding a high fiber weedy, leafy diet, then I would not offer grass every day. If you are using the grass to add much needed fiber to a diet of mostly grocery store greens, then daily is probably fine.

It’s for fiber I just moved for work and haven’t found a good place to get pesticide free weeds yet. I still use the herbal tortoise blend from tortoise supply but that’s the extent of her weeds at the moment. I will cut down on the hay though.
 

Tom

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It’s for fiber I just moved for work and haven’t found a good place to get pesticide free weeds yet. I still use the herbal tortoise blend from tortoise supply but that’s the extent of her weeds at the moment. I will cut down on the hay though.
Sounds good. If the poop is getting stuck on the way out, I would also bump up the soaking. More often and longer duration.
 

Markw84

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Grass fiber does not digest completely and passes through the tortoise. In the wild, a tortoise has to bite off pieces to eat grass. When we offer cut grass, if it is cut in long pieces, the tortoise will eat it and work it into its mouth in those long pieces and it does not get chopped into smaller lengths. When it then passes through, it will come out in the poop as the long fiber and can get stuck or link pieces of poop together. I cut grasses into smaller pieces - perhaps 1" or so in length - when feeding my tortoises. A large tortoise, like a sulcata will not have issues with this.
 

Destben

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Grass fiber does not digest completely and passes through the tortoise. In the wild, a tortoise has to bite off pieces to eat grass. When we offer cut grass, if it is cut in long pieces, the tortoise will eat it and work it into its mouth in those long pieces and it does not get chopped into smaller lengths. When it then passes through, it will come out in the poop as the long fiber and can get stuck or link pieces of poop together. I cut grasses into smaller pieces - perhaps 1" or so in length - when feeding my tortoises. A large tortoise, like a sulcata will not have issues with this.

I will try that as well thank you [emoji4]
 

Destben

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So she was definitely clogged up. I gave her an hour+ soak and she ended up letting enough out to rival my 15lb dogs number 2 (she’s 864ish grams)
 
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