Egyptian dietary help

[Clemmys909]

I recently acquired a juvenile male and observed him eating the crushed oyster shell. From what Ive read and was told, crushed oyster shell is the go to substrate for this species. I realize its all calcium and it will dissolve at some point but am concerned about impaction. His regular diet habits have also lessened. Anyone have any suggestions aside from changing out the substrate or heard of this happening before?

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

What did the person you got the tortoise from use as a substrate? That's the GO-TO substrate to use. It seems odd the tortoise would 'all of a sudden' do this, eating the oyster shell substrate if that was the prior substrate.

Oyster shell can indeed cause blockage, like any very slow or no digestible thing.

I used decomposed granite, wet it and let it dry hard in place. I have some areas of substrate that are coco-hunks that stay moist for a choice.

 

[TiffanyVL]

Maybe your tortoise is craving calcium?? I feed my Egyps mostly Mazuri tortoise food which can be purchased online. I first soak the pellets in water then mix in various different dried herbs, weeds with a calcium and or mineral supplement a couple times a week. You could try giving him some wet food so he doesn't get a blockage