Bites everything! Normal?

[RainbowPanda]

So my tort is about 1.5 years old, and she puts everything into her mouth! We have to watch her like a hawk when she is out as she will try and eat everything. Is this normal? Doesn't matter if there is her food right in front of her face, that sofa lint is so much better! Oh, and that random thing on the carpet, tries to eat that too. Words on my shirt or just my clothing in general? Must be food, tries to bite it. Is this normal? We keep referring to it as toddler tort behavior. Does it stop? Or will we have to monitor her every move for the next 50+ years?
She has a varied diet of leafy greens, weeds from our yard in Minnesota (we have a natural prairie garden and use no chemicals on our yard), fruit, hard boiled eggs, mushrooms, super worms, earth worms, etc. (we follow what is recommended in the guide provided on this site and forum for ratios). Therefore, I don't think she is deficient in anything. There is no pyramiding of her shell, she has been growing steadily since we got her as a hatchling. She gets regular soaks and fed regularly (slowly working down from daily to 5 out of 7 days and she is offered a lot of food and eats her fill).

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

You should keep your tortoise in a secure enclosure to avoid any possible accidents.

 

[Tom]

So my tort is about 1.5 years old, and she puts everything into her mouth! We have to watch her like a hawk when she is out as she will try and eat everything. Is this normal? Doesn't matter if there is her food right in front of her face, that sofa lint is so much better! Oh, and that random thing on the carpet, tries to eat that too. Words on my shirt or just my clothing in general? Must be food, tries to bite it. Is this normal? We keep referring to it as toddler tort behavior. Does it stop? Or will we have to monitor her every move for the next 50+ years?
She has a varied diet of leafy greens, weeds from our yard in Minnesota (we have a natural prairie garden and use no chemicals on our yard), fruit, hard boiled eggs, mushrooms, super worms, earth worms, etc. (we follow what is recommended in the guide provided on this site and forum for ratios). Therefore, I don't think she is deficient in anything. There is no pyramiding of her shell, she has been growing steadily since we got her as a hatchling. She gets regular soaks and fed regularly (slowly working down from daily to 5 out of 7 days and she is offered a lot of food and eats her fill).

What sort of heating and lighting are you using? Sometimes this can affect their vision.


Also, the tortoise should never have access tot he things you mentioned. The primary reason, although there are many, is because they will ingest things that they shouldn't. Many tortoises die this way and we see X-ray with all sorts of unbelievable ingested foreign object in tortoises all the time. As Alex said, your tortoise Neds to be in a proper large safe tortoise enclosure either indoors or outdoors, or both at different times, but never roaming loose.

 

[Tom]

What sort of heating and lighting are you using? Sometimes this can affect their vision.


Also, the tortoise should never have access tot he things you mentioned. The primary reason, although there are many, is because they will ingest things that they shouldn't. Many tortoises die this way and we see X-ray with all sorts of unbelievable ingested foreign object in tortoises all the time. As Alex said, your tortoise Neds to be in a proper large safe tortoise enclosure either indoors or outdoors, or both at different times, but never roaming loose.

Too many errors in my post above and editing time has expired, so I'm retyping it here:

What sort of heating and lighting are you using? Sometimes this can affect their vision.

Also, the tortoise should never have access to any of the things you mentioned. The primary reason, although there are many, is because they will ingest things that they shouldn't. Many tortoises die this way and we see X-rays with all sorts of unbelievable ingested foreign objects in tortoises all the time. As Edward said, your tortoise needs to be in a proper large safe tortoise enclosure either indoors or outdoors, or both at different times, but never roaming loose.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Second toms comment above, please never let your tortoise roam the floors of your home, these aren’t domesticated animals, they only thrive in environments that best mimic their own, the floors of our home are not only too cool and hazardous, but also make for very stressful conditions that will definitely take its toll health wise over time. It’s simply not worth the risks.

I’d encourage reading through all these links carefully, as Tom mentioned certain lighting can effect their vision, but you also want to make sure the substrate you’re using isn’t an impaction risk if your tortoise is displaying these behaviours.

This housing thread covers correct equipment(uvb, heating bulbs, lighting etc), correct levels, importance of a closed chamber for red foots(only way to maintain the humidity you need indoors), appropriately maintaining the humidity(they are prone to shell rot so this is important! No misters or humidifiers), safe substrates, there’s lots of visual examples for everything, a diet list and a really handy diet link to check out! If going with a greenhouse, the lower the ceiling height, whilst still allowing for recommended bulb height, the better! But I’ll add some more ideas below for closed chambers

Young red foot/ cherryhead set up

Hello there! In this thread I’m going to include some information on an effective example of a starter enclosure for a red foot/cherry head😊 Care advice for these guys is painfully behind, fb pages, YouTube, pet stores, they’re all repeating the same outdated advice, this forum is made of...

tortoiseforum.org

This includes different closed chambers, some work better than others

Visual inspiration

Hi guys! I’ve had some lovely messages complimenting me on my care sheets I made for all the visuals they include! That makes me so happy because as a visual learner myself, that was my goal🥰 I’ve recently had some requests for some more visual inspiration for set ups that can house babies/...

tortoiseforum.org

Lastly, this one here is good to go over and keep on hand, it’ll help you avoid the wrong bulbs, substrates, housing etc, I always encourage double checking purchases on the forum too before buying

Common keeping errors

Hello everyone! I’d been a long time lurker on this site long before joining just under a year ago now, over that time I’ve seen these husbandry issues come up time and time again, sometimes with dire consequences☹️ I thought this thread might serve as a good visual guide for these common...

tortoiseforum.org

Please let us know if you have any further questions after reading them, welcome to the forum