Crickets and turtle bone questions

[rylo922]

I was at Petco, and one of the workers there told me that they feed their Russians crickets. Does anyone else do this? Is it ok for them to eat crickets?

Also, do I need to have a turtle bone for my Russian?

 

[mctlong]

Eating a cricket or two would not harm a tortoise, but I doubt they'd ever try to eat one.

A whole bunch of crickets live in my torts' pens, but I've never seen a tort eat one. I wish they would eat some, the crickets are getting out of hand.

 

[wellington]

By turtle bone, you mean cuttle bone, then yes, it is a good thing to have in their enclosure. Cricket question I can't answer.

 

[stinax182]

one if my Russians LOVES worms if any kind and will definitely eat a cricket if it's big enough and i hold it for him. he might be able to catch one, but I've never let one lose to find out haha. he's a sucked for butterworms and my finger as well haha

 

[biochemnerd808]

@stinax182, I'd like to respectfully encourage you to be careful with feeding your tortoise any kind of animal protein. Russian tortoises' kidneys are not set up to digest protein, and it can actually cause renal failure to give them high-protein foods like worms or crickets.
It won't kill a tort to accidentally eat a worm that is stuck to a leaf while grazing, but out-right giving an RT a worm (or several) will cause all kinds of problems...

one if my Russians LOVES worms if any kind and will definitely eat a cricket if it's big enough and i hold it for him. he might be able to catch one, but I've never let one lose to find out haha. he's a sucked for butterworms and my finger as well haha

 

[kanalomele]

Russians are herbivores who have no need for animal protein in any form. As was already mentioned it can be very damaging to give them any significant amount of it. This appears to be yet another example of misinformed pet store employees.

 

[CharlieM]

I was told crickets can carry parasites. Has anyone else heard that?

 

[Happy Tortoise]

RT's should be feda high-fiber and a low protein diet

 

[stinax182]

i never mentioned how often he gets them. i have a chameleon so i always have worms and crickets around, but I've only fed this tortoise literally 6 worms this year haha. granted, i picked out the fattest ones, but I'm very confident that it didn't affect his digestion system at all. i only say this because my other tortoises won't even l look at them so i doubt this users will