Diet

[Tartaruga!]

I feed my Herman an assortment, including lettuce (not iceberg!), cucumber, dandelion leaves, geranium (leaves & flowers), spider plant leaves, pansy (leaves & flowers) fuscia (leaves & flowers) and i was giving her a pellet, but stopped after reading it wasnt ideal (she really loved that, would run the length of her enclosure the second she smelt it) but she is very fussy and tends to choose the lettuce. Which I know isn't the best for her. Should I just eliminate the option of the lettuce n cucumber or continue to include it in the mix? The other day I purposely gave none of either n she sniffed everything else, turned her nose up n went n sulked on her basking stone, so I gave in, put down some lettuce with the other leaves n she came running n ate the lettuce!
Plz help

 

[GBtortoises]

Most lettuces are really much better than or more nutrional than Iceberg lettuce and should only be a very small part of a varied, quality diet. There is no real "menu", the list of possible foods is nearly endless, it depends very much on the availability you have in your area.

A Hermann's diet should consist of, but not be limited to: Dandelion, broad & narrow leaf plantain, lambsquarter, sow thistle, crowth vetch, wild chicory, endive, escarole, carrot tops, beet greens, collard greens, kale, spinach, romaine and various other greens. As well as about 20% vegetables consisting of: Squashes, pumpkin, carrot, sweet potato, green & yellow beans, peas, corn and more. This diet should be constantly varied as much as possible. Fruit should not be part of their regular diet but an occasional piece fed to a healthy, active Hermann's will do no harm. Cucumber, much like most lettuces, consist primarily of water and does not have much notable nutrional value. It's not necessarily bad for tortoises, but by consuming it they aren't getting much in terms of nutrion either where they could be if consuming other foods instead.

If your tortoise is hooked on cucumber and lettuce simply stop feeding it altogether and replace it with a more nutrional variety of foods instead. The tortoise may not eat the new selections right away, maybe not for a day, or two but it will not starve. They simply do not do so. They will begin to eat the food that they have access to. They have an extremely strong instinct for survival. But in captivity they can only consume what they have access to, which is up to the keeper. It is our responsibility to ensure that they get a good quality, varied diet that is nutrional for them.

 

[kathyth]

I agree with the above.
I would give my various tortoises, what is good for them. There is plenty of variety.
Dont worry if she turns her nose up. She will just learn to enjoy the food that is healthier.
She sounds like a kid! It works!

 

[Tartaruga!]

That's what I'll do then. Thanks for the advice