English leopard tort owners please help

[Leopardtort]

Hello everyone I am wondering if there are any leopard tort owners on this forum who live in England? I have done a lot of reading about my leopard torts diet and a great deal of the advice is American (which i have found very useful) and offers diets which include items which I can not get hold of in this country. I adopted Henry my leopard tort in April from a family who moved abroad and wer keeping him in sawdust in a snake enclosure and feeding him a bag of mixed lettuce and nothing else. Henry is now in correct housing and heating. His shell is smooth and he is a healthy size and weight. He is currently eating radicchio, dandelions and some cabbage sprinkled with neutrobal. He is refusing to eat Timothy hay or any dried foods. Can anyone please advise me of any easy obtainable foods in England please? Or advise me of any trick to try and get him to eat the Timothy hay?

Thank you for your time x

 

[hali]

oww no sorry i am in England and would love a leopard tort but as yet have not - sounds like your doing well though x

 

[Leopardtort]

Thanks I am trying iam on the hunt but i just keep getting contradicting info from dif reptile shops and vets which is confusing me x

 

[Missy]

How old is your tort? I would leave out the cabbage. Young torts usually will not eat dry hay. I got mine to eat it by cutting it very small and mixing it with other wet greens so it would stick. I also offer dry hay first thing in the morning when they are hungry.

 

[egyptiandan]

You can search the forum here and ask questions http://www.shelledwarriors.co.uk/forum/index.php

Your better off trying to get your Leopard tortoise to eat fresh grass first and try the hay after he/she is eating the grass.

Danny

 

[Leopardtort]

How old is your tort? I would leave out the cabbage. Young torts usually will not eat dry hay. I got mine to eat it by cutting it very small and mixing it with other wet greens so it would stick. I also offer dry hay first thing in the morning when they are hungry.

Erm we think two years old as a vet, breeder, reptile shop have guessed so due to his size. I k ow this may sound silly but which wet greens do you feed yours? As I know not to give him spinach and there's that much info out ther which says yes and no to certain ones that now I'm confused which to try.

Thank you for taking the time to reply to the above x

---

You can search the forum here and ask questions http://www.shelledwarriors.co.uk/forum/index.php

Your better off trying to get your Leopard tortoise to eat fresh grass first and try the hay after he/she is eating the grass.

Danny

Thank you Danny I will try x

 

[Yourlocalpoet]

Hi Leopardtort, welcome to TFO. I think I fit the bill, I'm English and I have a Leopard so...
What you're feeding sounds good, maybe phase out the cabbage though. There are tons of things you can feed your Leopard here, I admit timothy hay is difficult for a young tortoise, but plain old grass is a definite. Do you have a garden your tortoise can graze in? Now that its getting cold it might be difficult for you to get your tortoise outside but there's nothing wrong with picking grass, clover and dandelion from your garden and feeding it. I also get bags of Florette which you can get from Tesco or Asda, the crispy salad one contains raddichio, frisee and lambs lettuce only. You could also try buying a seed mix and growing your own weeds? I grow hedge mustard, chickweed, chicory and sow thistle. There are several places you can buy seeds, Shelled Warriors has a good selection, http://www.shelledwarriorsshop.co.uk/index.asp
Hope that helps.

 

[terrypin]

hi im not in England but i do live in the channel islands.i keep and breed leopard tortoises .i currently have several hatchlings here.they are fed a mix of fibrous weeds and finely chopped grasses.it does take time to get them eating grasses when they are to small to go out over winter,but it can be done and the results are well worth the effort.

terry