Eating habits

[countrygirlcolorado]

What should be a normal eating habit for a tortoise? Morning? Day? Night? Murtle doesn't seem to come out often. If we pull her out and put her by the food she eats it ALL, but doesn't seem to come out on her own. Maybe she does when I'm not looking but non of the food is gone if she does

 

[wellington]

I feed my leopard morning and evening and when temps permit, he is outside all day to also graze. He has food available at all times.

 

[JoesMum]

How long have you had Murtle? Tortoises can take weeks to settle down properly in a new home and can go along time without eating.

Start out by double checking the temperatures in your enclosure. There are 4 important ones if your tort is indoors: Under the basking lamp, warm end, cool end and overnight minimum. It doesn't take much change in temperature to stop a tortoise eating. Report the temperatures back here along with telling us what type of tort you have... different tort need different conditions.

Next, you must soak your tort for a good 20 minutes every day while it is not eating properly. A tort that is not eating properly doesn't always take enough water and a dehydrated tort won't eat properly. My soaking tips are here

If the weather is hot, it is likely that your tort will eat very early and/or very late in the day and do nothing in between. I leave food out for Joe before I go to bed... he's often eaten it before I get up.

 

[Jacqui]

Most tortoises want to eat when the sun is out (or if indoor the light is on) and they have warmed up from the night. Some species like the forest types of hingebacks are well known for liking the very early and very late hours, even to be eating in the dark.

It does sound to me like either you may have a new animal or your environment is not quite tweaked properly as was suggested above. How old is your tortoise?