Eating Substrate

[DinosaurNeil]

Hello everyone!
I got my first Russian Tortoise a few months ago and I love having a tortoise! They make great little companions. It has been a learning curve I've never experienced with pets.

I live in Iowa, so the winters are cold so right now I have him in an indoor terrarium and I'm still trying to find that perfect balance of light, heat, humidity, etc. for him and I think I'm getting closer all the time.

Now to the part I'm concerned about. For substrate I first used repti-bark and I found out that he was eating it. Luckily he passed the piece just fine. But after that I switch his substrate to coconut coir. Current I've been using 100% coconut coir. But I find that he eats that too. He goes to his hide and eats and poops. I have tried to feed him a bunch of different things but he always wants to eat the substrate. Now he has eaten some spring mix that I've gotten him a few times, so I know he will eat it. So I'm just wondering what I can do to get him to recognize what is food and what isn't. Or what I should do about the substrate. Unfortunately, I can't be around all day to monitor what he is doing so I'm limited to early in the morning and in the afternoon.

Any help is appreciated!
Thank you!

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi, and welcome to the Forum!

If your pet store doesn't sell this product, buy it online: Miner-all made by Sticky Tongue Farms. It's a vitamin/mineral/calcium supplement and it gives the tortoise the minerals he's looking for when he eats his substrate.

Be sure to keep him well hydrated while he's eating his substrate, and it should all come out just fine. Soak him in warm water daily, even though he many not like it.

 

[Tom]

What are you using for heating and lighting? Coil bulbs for UV? Red or infrared bulbs for heat?

What are you feeding? Mostly grocery store foods? Adding any fiber?

 

[DinosaurNeil]

Thank you for the tip! Much appreciated.

 

[DinosaurNeil]

Tom, I have a long tube bulb for UV and for heat I'm using a 100w infrared bulb (set to about 12-13 inches) for the basking area and lower wattage infrared bulb set a little higher and indirect for general light and heat. I just recently changed up his lighting situation to this to see how it goes. This morning he was out and about and he ate some greens.

For food I have mostly gotten organic leafy greens (collards, turnip greens, carrot tops etc.) and spring mix from the grocery. I also have the grassland tortoise food pellet stuff but I he has never touched it to my knowledge. I also use calcium powder a couple times a week but most of the time he doesn't eat the stuff that I put the calcium on.

 

[mini_max]

My tortoise was doing the same. Getting him to ingest just the tiniest bit of grassland pellets or mazuri stopped it pretty quick. Guess he was lacking fibre or some other nutrition.
If you moisten the pellets and get little bits of the resulting paste on the usual greens, try as he might to avoid it, he'll inevitably ingest a bit. You could even hand feed a piece of lettuce with some grassland or mazuri inside. My tort hates grasslands but is ok with mazuri.