Daily food amount

Tabby0318

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Hi all

I was wondering how much food my Tabby should be eating. She has days where she eats less, but some days she seems to eat constantly.

She hasn't stopped all this morning, from 9am to 12pm. She has had 3 handfuls of plantain mixed with a few dandelion leaves, some campanula flowers, half a handful of hibiscus leaves (only small leaves as only just sprouted) mixed with mimula leaves, a whole romaine lettuce and a half of another one and 2 leaves of kale. She is still walking round the garden munching on the weeds growing between the paving.

Is this too much or not enough? She usually walks away when she is full and finds a sunny spot to sleep.

She had a bit of diarrhoea last week and although better this week it hasn't firmed up yet. I am soaking her everyday to make sure she is hydrated.


Thanks
 

Maro2Bear

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Greetings. What kind of tortoise? By nature, they are grazers and move & graze and move along and graze and take advantage of food abundances. Soooo, best to just provide food so they can graze if & when they feel like. Of course you don't want to waste food, so provide “just enough”. It’s always good to encourage roaming about the garden & nibbling. Exercise is good for captive tortoises.


good luck
 

Tabby0318

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England
Greetings. What kind of tortoise? By nature, they are grazers and move & graze and move along and graze and take advantage of food abundances. Soooo, best to just provide food so they can graze if & when they feel like. Of course you don't want to waste food, so provide “just enough”. It’s always good to encourage roaming about the garden & nibbling. Exercise is good for captive tortoises.


good luck
Hi, thanks. She is a med spur thigh. She does graze round the garden, but we are in the process of landscaping it, so some areas she can't get to, so we are picking things for her and some shop bought food for filling in between while her flowers grow. It's just sometimes I wonder where she puts it all and worry if we feed her too much.
 

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Guts

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She looks large enough to be getting hay as well.

Can’t really overfeed good foods to a tortoise tbh
 

Tabby0318

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Is it not a sulcata? I could have sworn OP said it was my bad
Hi Guts, no she is a mediterranean spur thigh, fully grown, about 11.5inches long, but eats like a horse lol. My partner would love a sulcata, as there is one at our local animal shelter, but I know how much they need looking after and we don't have a big enough garden. Maybe one day though 😊
 

Guts

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OH
I saw spur thigh and am so used to sullys being called that as well I read “med spur thigh” and thought okay a medium sulcata.

She’s beautiful! I definitely agree with everyone here just feed what they’ll eat in a day of good foods.
 

Moi Hutton

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I have a med spur thigh who is munching away all day at the moment! I feed him two mounds of leaves (which he greedily snaps at) and then he’ll spend the day nibbling the clover in my lawn. I was a bit worried he was eating too much last year but he was such a healthy weight before winter and was in good shape when he woke again for spring I’m not going to worry any more and will let hun roam around grazing like a little sheep! I live in the UK so it’s great for him to get the sunshine and natural grazing while he can.
 

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Tabby0318

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5 Year Member
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Location (City and/or State)
England
I have a med spur thigh who is munching away all day at the moment! I feed him two mounds of leaves (which he greedily snaps at) and then he’ll spend the day nibbling the clover in my lawn. I was a bit worried he was eating too much last year but he was such a healthy weight before winter and was in good shape when he woke again for spring I’m not going to worry any more and will let hun roam around grazing like a little sheep! I live in the UK so it’s great for him to get the sunshine and natural grazing while he can.
What a gorgeous tort 🙂.
Always good to get a bit of reassurance, I will let her carry on as she is. 😊
 

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