Feeding daily?

[leigti]

I think the feed every 2 to 3 days idea makes a lot of sense for carnivores. But not really for herbivores or omnivores for that matter.

 

[Alaskamike]

As does mine my friend. Lets all keep learning. To me, and apparently as opposed to Andy, what happens daily in our enclosures is also offering pieces to the "why" and "how" puzzle. I think these pieces ought to be addressed, examined and weighted heavily in our discussions, since we are discussing captive raised tortoises after all.

I agree. Especially important to realize that captive environments can never fully duplicate wild ones. In fact , many more of our " pets" would die of " natural" environmental impacts if we did. In the most vivid example you can look at hatchling survival rates. Many species have a 3-10% survival of hatchlings even in the best of conditions in nature. We lose one baby and feel we've done something wrong.
So we walk a double edged sword. On the one hand we attempt to provide as close as possible the environments these creatures evolved to thrive in , on the other, we try to mitigate the dangers and deficits they would encounter in nature. It is a balancing act. I read somewhere if you want an easy pet - get a cat - not a tortoise. Hahaha . They LOOK easy, quiet, docile and simple. But we who care for them know the detail and effort needed to keep our shelled charges healthy

 

[zenoandthetortoise]

We agree completely.

I offered to have mine X-rayed and Andy declined. My offer was that if my high humidity raised tortoises had any problems that he was suggesting they would, I would pay for the Xrays myself and publicly eat my words. I asked the same of him. If my torts all demonstrated the healthy bone growth that I know they would, thereby proving my assertions correct, then he would pay for the X-rays and publicly admit his incorrect assumptions. He declined, apparently not willing to put his money where his mouth is. Instead he threw hissy fits and called people names for believing the evidence in front of their own eyes in their own homes, instead of believing in and following his speculative theories about what happens in the wild. His own friend joined him here on the forum and said as much. Frances is saintly in my eyes and made the brilliant suggestion that Andy and I both had items of value to add to the discussion. I agree with her.

Thanks for the backstory. That was a discussion I missed. Too bad it went that way. I'm all for hissy fits and name calling, but at the end of the day there's nothing like testing ideas. I've never seen a MBD X-ray of an animal that wasn't in obvious distress. It'd be interesting to see if there is a potential for hidden damage.

Back to the OP regarding feeding, I find it helpful to define what "ideal conditions" would look like. Given that there are limiting factors, such as nutrients, calories, environment, water etc, ideal would seem to be eliminating all external limitations, so genetics alone determine both growth rate and size.
This is a long winded way of saying that I obsess about environmental conditions, food variety and nutrients, but they always have food available.

 

[Merrick]

But also in the wild their are a lot of factors that make them lose calories/nutrients such as extensive foraging I sugest that a big yard is great because then the torts are constantly moving wich is very good for them

 

[Merrick]

Also some foods we give them are higer in nutrients

 

[ChloeCrull]

Hi there, jskahn!


Personally, I provide my two Russian tortoises daily access to food. I usually make them a "salad" (a mix of thyme, rosemary, mustard or collard greens, kale, parsley, radicchio, and chopped of carrots) and every other day. This is only due to the fact that it takes my torts two days (or sometimes only one) to consume their food. If it dries up early, I will replace it immediately as well. Remember to give them a cuttlebone or sprinkle a calcium supplement onto their food at least twice a week!

 

[xiaobochu]

MY two cents here.
I have bred tortoises for 10 years (not too much experience compared with Yvonne and Joe). I feed my tortoises 5 days a week. I do not feed them two days before I soak them. By using this way, I can keep all.my tortoises enclosures clean.

 

[jskahn]

But also in the wild their are a lot of factors that make them lose calories/nutrients such as extensive foraging I sugest that a big yard is great because then the torts are constantly moving wich is very good for them

Honestly, that is something I didn't consider. I always keep my tortoises and turtles in very large enclosures, where they get plenty of exercise. For owners who don't give them the exercise they need, over feeding would be a problem. Although, in too small of an enclosure, feeding isn't the only problem.