Dealing with a picky eater

[Cinnamon563]

My tortoise is soo picky he will literally only eat romaine and he won't eat anything dusted.
Everyday I make him a nice plate of food usually made up of collards, dandilion, squash and romaine.
Take out the romaine he won't even touch it till he's gone without foot for a few days then he might take a few bites. I try to trick him into eating but he will pick out the romaine. He's slowly loosing weight because of this. Any ideas what to do?

 

[G-stars]

Don't offer romaine. He won't starve himself for to long if he has food. Or you can try cutting it up in small pieces and mix it all together.


— Gus

 

[smarch]

I had to deal with this same thing, it was romaine romaine romaine, no matter how much I hid it he's pull it out and leave everything else. Then when I stopped giving romaine because it wasn't healthy and it had just been one of the greens of the week, he would throw his food everywhere looking for the romaine and then not eat any. It killed to play the tough love thing, but if you wait long enough he'll decide he's hungry and eat. I was also told to chop it up small in the mix so he had no choice, but I was given that advice toward the end of his hunger strike so I never actually tried it. best of luck, Russians are stubborn as heck when they want to be!

 

[Yellow Turtle01]

He's feeling spoiled
Ditto to the above, when I first got my russain (petstore tort ) he would eat nothing but lettuces! I also went with the 'tough love' approach, and I felt SO BAD while I was doing it, but after a few days he lost his resolve and dug into a pile of a nice, leafy weeds.

 

[smarch]

He's feeling spoiled
Ditto to the above, when I first got my russain (petstore tort ) he would eat nothing but lettuces! I also went with the 'tough love' approach, and I felt SO BAD while I was doing it, but after a few days he lost his resolve and dug into a pile of a nice, leafy weeds.

Nank liked the tomatoes, he never through a fit when I made the transition from petstore diet to real greens, but when I give him an occasional tomato treat he goes wild for it! I've still fed some romaine, but that was because of our garden romaine and come winter I will be keeping it out of the rotation so it doesn't happen again.

 

[niklas anderson]

Growing clover mixes,dandilion, plantain and hibiscus are all easy to grow plants that are tortoise safe.These plants will usually lure them into eating,and with grass eating tortoises like a sulcata try growing wheat grass it's so easy and good for them.You can buy wheatgrass on ebay.

 

[Tom]

My tortoise is soo picky he will literally only eat romaine and he won't eat anything dusted.
Everyday I make him a nice plate of food usually made up of collards, dandilion, squash and romaine.
Take out the romaine he won't even touch it till he's gone without foot for a few days then he might take a few bites. I try to trick him into eating but he will pick out the romaine. He's slowly loosing weight because of this. Any ideas what to do?

Now is not the time of year to apply tough love in my opinion. They already tend to have a greatly reduced appetite this time of year anyway. I would finely chop 90% romaine and 10% other good stuff. Mix it all up together and keep feeding him that ratio until he eats it all up. The juice from the romaine will coat the other stuff and eventually he will get used to the other stuff. Springtime is the time to really getting him eating all the good stuff. They are ravenous in springtime. If you've already made good progress in winter you'll have an easier time in spring.

What are your four temps? Warm side, cool side, basking area and over night low? What equipment are you using to maintain these temps?

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Food processor. Good stuff and romaine. He can't pick through mush! Mush is also easy to sprinkle calcium dust or medication, etc.