Aldabra diet

[Andy27012]

Hello everyone, I have an aldabra hatchling around 262 grams. I am trying to figure out a feeding regimen. I am thinking of the following:

Mazuri LS mond, frid.
Greens Sat, Sun, Tues, Wends, Thurs,

Staples: Endive, Radiccho

Rotate weekly: Collard greens, Bok Choy, Optunia, Butter Lettuce

Occasional: Pumpkin, carrot, bell pepper, banana (maybe 2x a month)

Anything I should add or leave out please let me know. I dust rep cal calcium with vitamin d Tues, Weds, Thurs and herpvite on Wends.

Thanks,,
Andy

 

[Tom]

Hello everyone, I have an aldabra hatchling around 262 grams. I am trying to figure out a feeding regimen. I am thinking of the following:

Mazuri LS mond, frid.
Greens Sat, Sun, Tues, Wends, Thurs,

Staples: Endive, Radiccho

Rotate weekly: Collard greens, Bok Choy, Optunia, Butter Lettuce

Occasional: Pumpkin, carrot, bell pepper, banana (maybe 2x a month)

Anything I should add or leave out please let me know. I dust rep cal calcium with vitamin d Tues, Weds, Thurs and herpvite on Wends.

Thanks,,
Andy

Skip the fruit.

The tortoise needs to be eating grass and weeds. Grow pastures and put the tortoise out there to eat all day when weather permits. If this isn't an option, scrounge weeds, leaves and flowers from safe areas near you.

Avoid grocery store produce when possible. Grocery store greens are not the best tortoise foods. They tend to lack fiber, calcium, and some of them have deleterious compounds in them. If you must use foods from the grocery store, favor endive and escarole as the main staples. Add in cilantro, arugula, collards, turnip and mustard greens, lettuces and many others for variety. You will also need to add some sort of amendment to improve the quality as tortoise food. Calcium is good to add a couple of times per week and soaked horse hay pellets are a good way to add fiber for any species. Soaked ZooMed tortoise pellets of any type are good to add, as is Purina Organic Lay Crumbles for chickens, oddly enough. Go to tortoise supply.com and oder the Testudo seed mix to grow and their Herbal Hay to sprinkle on. Also go to kapidolofarms.com and order up lots of the dried leaf offerings to mix in.

When I can't get weeds or leaves, I cut up heads of grocery store greens, mix in some calcium powder, soaked horse hay pellets, and one or more dried leaf options. A couple of days per week, I will add in some soaked lay crumbles, Mazuri LS, or soaked ZooMed pellets. I mix this all up in a 5 gallon bucket and then dole it out to my herds.

 

[wellington]

Second Toms post. No fruit!
Everything else you mentioned and Tom mentioned is good. Feed daily, enough that s/he can eat on and off all day.
Add as much variety as possible. You can also try orchard grass hay. Cut it into smaller pieces and soak in water to soften a bit. If s/he doesn't eat it, give it about 3-6 months and try again.

 

[Dustin]

No bananas, ever.

I would avoid the carrots too. They have a moderately high sugar content and they may be a bit of a choking hazard because of the way they snap. I have heard a story of someone losing an adult animal to a carrot.

Brightly colored foods like carrots and peppers can be shaved/sliced and mixed with foods that they don't want to eat (like hay) when the time comes.

Like Tom said, weeds and grasses are best (necessary). Grab a basket and a big pair of scissors and hunt around outside.

 

[wellington]

With hunting for weeds and grass though, be sure it has not been treated with insecticides. No the care of the source you are collecting.

 

[Andy27012]

https://www.chewy.com/buckeye-nutrition-gro-n-win-pelleted/dp/164183

Would this be an appropriate horse pellet? Its low sugar and starch if Im reading correctly. Thank you for all the help and suggestions. I will have to revamp my plan for his diet.

 

[Dustin]

https://www.chewy.com/buckeye-nutrition-gro-n-win-pelleted/dp/164183

Would this be an appropriate horse pellet? Its low sugar and starch if Im reading correctly. Thank you for all the help and suggestions. I will have to revamp my plan for his diet.

Not that. Tom was referring to pelletized hay products for horses. You can get a large variety of hays in pellet form from farm stores like Tractor Supply. For the past 5 years our local Tractor Supply has only carried Alfalfa and Timothy pellets but for the past couple of months they have been getting Teff and Orchard pellets too.

It might take some work to get your little guy to eat any of the pelletized hay products but it would be worthwhile to try it.

Now, some people with giant tortoises feed another horse pellet product called Purina Equine Senior. There are a lot of variants of it but the one in the red bag is the "right one." I think there are two schools of thought for feeding this. One is that it is cheaper than Mazuri LS. The other is that it may have a variety of trace minerals/elements that your grass/weeds or grocery store foods could be deficient in. We feed it but not as a staple part of the diet.

 

[TammyJ]

Can you please post some pictures of your tortoise?

 

[BajatheChickenMan]

Not that. Tom was referring to pelletized hay products for horses. You can get a large variety of hays in pellet form from farm stores like Tractor Supply. For the past 5 years our local Tractor Supply has only carried Alfalfa and Timothy pellets but for the past couple of months they have been getting Teff and Orchard pellets too.

It might take some work to get your little guy to eat any of the pelletized hay products but it would be worthwhile to try it.

Now, some people with giant tortoises feed another horse pellet product called Purina Equine Senior. There are a lot of variants of it but the one in the red bag is the "right one." I think there are two schools of thought for feeding this. One is that it is cheaper than Mazuri LS. The other is that it may have a variety of trace minerals/elements that your grass/weeds or grocery store foods could be deficient in. We feed it but not as a staple part of the diet.

I am trying to get my sulcata hatchling started on some timothy/alfalfa pellets from tractor supply right away to get him used to the hay and starting have some minor success. I've been soaking them to a mush and just coating the various greens with the pellet mush so he basically has to eat it to get at what he really wants. its messy but it appears to be working!

 

[Tom]

I am trying to get my sulcata hatchling started on some timothy/alfalfa pellets from tractor supply right away to get him used to the hay and starting have some minor success. I've been soaking them to a mush and just coating the various greens with the pellet mush so he basically has to eat it to get at what he really wants. its messy but it appears to be working!

That's how you do it. I start with one broken small piece of one pellet for younger smaller tortoises. The mistake most people make is trying to do too much too soon.

 

[Tom]

https://www.chewy.com/buckeye-nutrition-gro-n-win-pelleted/dp/164183

Would this be an appropriate horse pellet? Its low sugar and starch if Im reading correctly. Thank you for all the help and suggestions. I will have to revamp my plan for his diet.

As dd33 said, you want horse hay pellets. Essentially this is just plain dry hay that has been shredded and macerated into tiny pieces and then compressed into a dry pellet. For a little 262 gram baby, Just soak one small pellet in a plastic bottle cap with some water and then when it turns into a mush, mix that all up with the cut up greens and add in some dried moringa or mulberry leaf crumbles (the ones from Kapidolo Farms that I mentioned previously...) or some "Herbal Hay"

Over time, as the tortoise grows, add in more and more of the soaked pellets. In a few years when he gets bigger, you can just dump dry pellets on top of the pile of other foods.

My local feed store carries different brands, but here is one example:

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/standlee-premium-western-forage-premium-orchard-grass-pellets-40-lb-bag

Read the ingredients. You want just plain hay with nothing else added.

It is best to feed your tortoise grass. When you can't do that for whatever reason, grass hay pellets are the next best thing. You can use grocery store greens and lettuce as a delivery vehicle for your soaked hay pellets and dried leaf mix-ins. Start slow with just one pellet. Gradually add more and more as your tortoise grows and begins to recognize the pellets as food. It will take weeks or months to get him used to this new way of feeding, but it is sooooo much better for them, and especially important for the island giants.