Feeding. How often

[Legmaker72]

So, knowing what the Marginated is supposed to eat, how often should they be fed?
Do you just keep a supply of food available in their enclosure all day/night?
Are there routines that are recommended ?
Thanks all I look forward to hearing what everyone does.

 

[wellington]

Babies should have food available all day. I feed my hatchling leopard in the morning a pile a little bigger then she is, also doing a warm soak then too. Then in the afternoon at her second soak I feed again. What's left over in the next a.m. Is discarded and fresh and same routine is started then next day. Be sure to have a shallow water dish sunken even with substrate fill 24/7 too

 

[Legmaker72]

Babies should have food available all day. I feed my hatchling leopard in the morning a pile a little bigger then she is, also doing a warm soak then too. Then in the afternoon at her second soak I feed again. What's left over in the next a.m. Is discarded and fresh and same routine is started then next day. Be sure to have a shallow water dish sunken even with substrate fill 24/7 too

Thanks !

 

[Tom]

I don't subscribe to any of the feed them light, or skips days stuff. Tortoises are grazers. I let them graze.

House them correctly and feed the right foods and this will not be a problem.

 

[SteveW]

I have food available all day. I have noticed that my marginated will come and go, 'snack' I suppose, where other species seem to chow down and move on.

I second the idea that the withholding of food in the name of natural conditions is without basis. Feed the right stuff and keep it coming.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Welcome.
From a SE Floridian

 

[Legmaker72]

I have found that I can put a huge amount of food in her housing and she will scarf down the entire thing. I can do this 3 x a day and she will keep eating.
She wasn't fed this much before I got her recently and she is having some messy loose stool issues.
Not sure if it's the increase in food amounts or possibly the stress of the new move....
She can sure eat though....

 

[tglazie]

Baby margies eat all day. I've had this experience with all the baby Testudo I've raised. When they're indoors, they trudge around beneath the lights, and they eat continuously. When they're outside, they graze, then hide, then graze, then hide, alternating in this pattern multiple times per hour. Here in South Texas, when the temp jumps over ninety five, I find that they go into hiding, and I keep a nice insulated shelter with cool, moistened soil inside.

As for the runny stools, I would keep an eye on this. He's in a new place, and so this may be stressing him out. Ensure that he has access to good, natural foods (his primary diet should be various weeds; dandelion, various thistles, various plantains, kidney weed, various clovers, hibiscus flowers and leaves, Chinese maple flowers and leaves, mallows, etc.). With my large group of babies, I usually just throw a bunch of stuff I picked into a big pile and let them go at it, but when I had a solitary kiddo, I would either pick a small amount of twenty different things or alternate with a different item every day of the month. Tortoises like variety, and they tend to get bored with everything except lettuce. They never get tired of lettuce. It's like Testudo crack, and it should be used very, very sparingly for that reason.

But yeah, there is such a thing as overfeeding one's tortoise, though, but usually the tortoise will let you know when that happens by not eating all of the food. However, I must say, margies are fairly conservative compared to other species I've kept. I've found Hermanns tortoises, in particular, to be completely and utterly insatiable. I have a little four year old who eats more than my adult margies, though when you see him move about his enclosure, there is no mystery as to what he does with this energy. And don't even get me started on sulcatas. They can turn a five acre plot into a mud pit.

T.G.