Aldabra enclosures

[dd33]

I do this for that very reason. I usually put just a few original pieces into the soaking tub with the LS for flavor and smell, and they eat the LS better when I do this.

Our Aldabras and our younger Galapagos have never eaten the original formula, not even one pellet. They are addicted to the LS though. They can easily smell it from 100 feet away and they perk up and move as fast as possible to it. If the pellets spill out onto the grass they eat the grass that they touched and then they eat the LS flavored dirt underneath that.
I can't get our radiateds to transition to the LS though, they were started on the original formula before we got them.

So maybe the trick is just not giving them the original formula until they have become addicted to LS.

 

[Tom]

Our Aldabras and our younger Galapagos have never eaten the original formula, not even one pellet. They are addicted to the LS though. They can easily smell it from 100 feet away and they perk up and move as fast as possible to it. If the pellets spill out onto the grass they eat the grass that they touched and then they eat the LS flavored dirt underneath that.
I can't get our radiateds to transition to the LS though, they were started on the original formula before we got them.

So maybe the trick is just not giving them the original formula until they have become addicted to LS.

I'll have to try that on my next set of babies. I've always introduced the LS with a little 5M21 in it on the assumption that the tortoises wouldn't like the LS plain and wouldn't want to eat it without "enhancement" of some sort. Clearly an incorrect assumption on my part.

 

[incognet]

I'm glad you posted this info. Dietary mistakes are the main reason why these guys get orthopedic problems as they grow. Your diet is far too rich. I suspect small enclosures also play a part.

-Mazuri should only be offered once a week at most, and my island giant mentor suggests 5M21 not be offered to the giants at all.
-Grape leaves are great once or twice a week.
-Mulberry leaves are great once or twice a week.
-Opuntia once or twice. week.
-I've never fed lilac, but if its safe, that is good for variety.
-The food toppers and small amounts of grocery store greens sound good.
-What I am not seeing, and what should be the majority of the diet is weeds and grasses. The bulk of what these tortoises should be eating daily is grass, with all these other things we've been talking about making up 10-20% for some variety. Your baby is too small for dry hay, but you can start soaking horse hay pellets and mixing that in with whatever else you are feeding each day. Grass is easy to grow where you are this time of year. Let the baby graze on its own in a safe pen, or cut handfuls, chop it into short pieces no more than an inch or two for a baby, and mix with everything else. Once they reach 10-12 inches, I start cutting up orchard grass hay into short pieces, soaking it, and mixing that in with all the other foods.

Some of the nicest looking, smoothest, and healthiest Galapagos tortoises and Aldabras are grown outdoors in warm humid climates eating only grasses and weeds in a large pasture.

That website about the calcium is all wrong. Will @Kapidolo Farms has debunked this old myth several times here. Tortoise bladder stones are a by product of protein digestion and they tend to form with dehydration and I suspect a lack of exercise due to small enclosures to be a contributing factor in why the urates are not passed on their own. They are NOT caused by or comprised of calcium. It takes a tremendous amount of calcium to grow from a 50 gram hatchling into a 500 behemoth. A small amount of calcium supplementation a couple of times per week is cheap insurance and cannot do any harm.

Soak water should be in the neighborhood of 85-95. 74 is too cold. Keep that water warm.

I've learned a lot about keeping the island giants in recent years from some very knowledgable people. I hope this info helps you raise yours. Feel free to question any of this. Let's discuss any of it.

P.S. More pics of your gorgeous little baby please.

That makes 2 of us... thank you. We don't have the best hay cubes available locally, so I bought 1lb of Kaytee brand Timothy blend as stopgap until larger quality from Small Pet Select arrives. They've been our preferred supplier of rabbit hay for several years. Thankfully, Olive is not a picky eater; she has finished the majority of rehydrated cube at every meal.

I will continue looking for safe plants near my house... but the local biome is suffering from extended heat wave and I don't see as much diversity in pasture. What's present is often blighted.

We decided to keep giving her a small quantity of leaves (Mulberry, grape, lilac) on days that fresh weeds or living herbs are unavailable. The quantity of Opuntia has been reduced, but it's still offered everyday (for the time being). We'll reconsider daily feedings of this if her stool becomes watery.

Here's the new feeding schedule...


EVERYDAY:

• Timothy hay cubes (~70% of diet)
• Store greens (1/day; small portion)
• Opuntia cactus (~2" long strip)
• 2+ mulberry leaves (seasonal)
• 1-2 grape leaves (seasonal)
• 1-2 lilac leaves (seasonal)

SUNDAY:

• 6+ Mazuri LS pellets (moistened)
• Rep-Cal Herptivite (light sprinkling)
• Rehydrated apple & cuttlebone (?)

MON/WED/FRI:

• Rep-Cal Calcium + D3 (light sprinkling)
• Zoo Med flower topper (light sprinkling)

TUE/THU/SAT:

• "Food Fixer" topper (sprinkling)

I also increased the initial soak temperature to 94F. Olive doesn't seem to mind (based on toilet habits). She was less enthusiastic about our drive to herps-vet on THU. 💩 💩 💩

Doctor D. spent nearly 30 minutes with Olive, and only had praise. We decided against removing the painted number (from breeder/importer) on her carapace. None of us are comfortable with using a solvent (like acetone), and fear that it would do more harm than good.

Olive weighs 1.8lb according to vet's scale. I'll get a more accurate reading this weekend. She's much easier to handle or photograph than my rabbit.