Food Size?

[AprilBlair]

I have a 6-8 month old Russian tortoise named Boris. He seems to take bites of food that are too large, so I have been tearing up his leafy greens and cutting his veggies, which have thus far been sweet potato, carrot, and tomato, into a fine dice that has been more manageable for him. I have also started putting a little bit of everything into a blender with his vitamins and calcium and making a little puree that he seems to like. Sometimes I watch him eat and get a little panicked that he is taking too big of bites and that he'll choke. We play tug-of-war with the timothy hay I have in his enclosure, but he appears to have no interest in eating it. Am I over-stressing his eating habits? How big should his pieces of food be? Is there anything other than calcium and multivitamins that I should be giving him? What are some good natural sources of vitamins for him? Am I stunting his eating capability by pureeing some of his food?

Good grief, I've become the over-protective, smothering mother I always loathed. I just don't want to do anything wrong and hurt Boris, or inadvertently have him hurt himself. Thanks for humoring my neurosis.

~April

 

[ascott]

Am I over-stressing his eating habits?

Since there are different levels of OCD P) uh, I have to say----yeah a little..

A tort will work a piece of greens right down, either by several opening and closing of their mouth and directional help by their tongue and then if they need to they will use their front legs/foot....they have done this for most of their existence

A puree is a good salad dressing for larger pieces of greens...please know that them working to eat their food and the act of ripping and tearing helps their beak to be maintained....I also would treat the carrots and fruits as a treat from time to time and not part of each days meal---their body is not designed to process these foods in large quantities....

 

[JoesMum]

I agree with ascott here, tearing at larger foodstuffs help with essential beak maintenance. There really is no need to shred or puree foodstuffs.

If you have a picky tort that is only eating one food stuff, shredding stuff finely so it has no choice but to eat everything is good... otherwise don't bother.

Just like humans, torts need variety in their diet to get the nutrients they need. Their diet should be mostly leafy greens; shop bought is fine, but weeds from outdoors are even better.

Look at what you can buy and what you can find outside (not exposed to weedkillers or pesticides) and look them up on the tortoise table plant database for suitability to feed http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/site/plant_database_14.asp


This diet sheet is good http://russiantortoise.org/edible_plants.htm
And another http://russiantortoise.org/russiantortoisediet.htm
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