food coloring?

[eric joranson]

I have a baby sulcata ( 8 months old) that has a food addiction to kale; due to the previous owner. I have been soaking Zoo med Grassland tortoise pellets till its nice and soft; then using small bits of kale stuck into the moist pile. I have managed to trick him into eating most of it. But without the kale bits; he will not touch it. My question would safe to soak pellets in a green vegetable food coloring. He seems attracted to green and red veggies; and wonder if pellet piles were green in color; I might not need to use the kale bits. ( I also grow both clover and grass trays which he really goes for.)

 

[Bee62]

I would not soak pellets in green vegetable food coloring, because a tortoise smell and taste her food.
If you mix up kale and pellets the tort smells the kale and eat the whole food because he`s unable to choose only the kale.
It`s better to mix the ( well soaked ) pellets with the greens you feed.
Please try if your tort eats other greens and weeds and gras. Kale can be feed, but not daily.
My little sulcatas love lambs lettuce and chicoree.

 

[Grandpa Turtle 144]

Eric
Why not grind some kale and dry food together into a powder And sprinkle it over the grass ( less kale every week) ?

 

[eric joranson]

I would not soak pellets in green vegetable food coloring, because a tortoise smell and taste her food.
If you mix up kale and pellets the tort smells the kale and eat the whole food because he`s unable to choose only the kale.
It`s better to mix the ( well soaked ) pellets with the greens you feed.
Please try if your tort eats other greens and weeds and gras. Kale can be feed, but not daily.
My little sulcatas love lambs lettuce and chicoree.

Mine is into a variety of different greens (espically chicoree) and grasses; but alone and not in the pellet mush, Seems its only the desire for kale that he will go for the pellet mash. He/she really likes cabbage; but I only use it as a treat once a week; and would like to do the same with kale. I always try and present a variety; but we are in winter now; and the grass and dandelions I saved (froze) from last summer/fall are just about gone. And keep usually devours all the clover I can grow and seems to be another favorite; although when I mix it in with the pellet mash; he ignores it as well.

 

[Bee62]

My little torts don`t like pellets too. But I do not force them to eat pellets.
I think it is as like having a child: A little child will not eat things that an older child will do.
For example: Someone told me, that sulcatas are not interested to eat hay until the age of 3 or 4 years. So I offer them hay but when they don`t eat hay it is no bad luck.
So if your tort eats greens and grasses let her or him do so. And in spring and summer you can add several weeds and blossoms to the diet. I think they know what they need.