Hi, I am a new user & am hoping for some helpful advice!
I have 2 Horsfields tortoises that do not seem to be eating as they should & I'm not sure how to encourage them to eat.
My male is roughly 3 years old & was bought from a friend who only ever fed him tortoise pellets and the younger and smaller female was bought from a petshop.
I have had them for just over a year & attempted to wean the male off his pellets by feeding them alongside fresh food & then gradually reducing the amount of pellets until he didn't get pellets at all. However neither of them have a large appetite and the male started to lose weight so I have had to introduce pellets again a few days a week just to get him to eat. The only time I have seen either of them eat hungrily is after hibernation this year when the female was very hungry for a few days.
I have access to local fields & have picked them clover, vetch, plantain, dandelions etc etc all with no success. I then tried growing my own from seeds in case they didn't like the fact the original stuff was picked but they simply don't touch it despite a patch growing in my garden where they roam. I also buy supermarket fruit & veg for them with limited success - they will not touch carrot, cucumber, tomatoes, apples, peppers but will nibble at pak choi, romaine lettuce and some of the leaves from a bag of mixed herb salad.
I know some of the veg etc I buy is not good for them in large quantities but I am trying to tempt them.
They spend their days outside when it is warm enough & roam the garden for 12 hours a day or so, coming in at night. If it is too cold or wet for them they stay in their vivarium which is heated to about 80 with a thermostat and also has a proper tortoise light.
I bathe and weigh them regularly and their weight does not increase much from week to week, in fact the male did drop weight about a month ago.
Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.
I have 2 Horsfields tortoises that do not seem to be eating as they should & I'm not sure how to encourage them to eat.
My male is roughly 3 years old & was bought from a friend who only ever fed him tortoise pellets and the younger and smaller female was bought from a petshop.
I have had them for just over a year & attempted to wean the male off his pellets by feeding them alongside fresh food & then gradually reducing the amount of pellets until he didn't get pellets at all. However neither of them have a large appetite and the male started to lose weight so I have had to introduce pellets again a few days a week just to get him to eat. The only time I have seen either of them eat hungrily is after hibernation this year when the female was very hungry for a few days.
I have access to local fields & have picked them clover, vetch, plantain, dandelions etc etc all with no success. I then tried growing my own from seeds in case they didn't like the fact the original stuff was picked but they simply don't touch it despite a patch growing in my garden where they roam. I also buy supermarket fruit & veg for them with limited success - they will not touch carrot, cucumber, tomatoes, apples, peppers but will nibble at pak choi, romaine lettuce and some of the leaves from a bag of mixed herb salad.
I know some of the veg etc I buy is not good for them in large quantities but I am trying to tempt them.
They spend their days outside when it is warm enough & roam the garden for 12 hours a day or so, coming in at night. If it is too cold or wet for them they stay in their vivarium which is heated to about 80 with a thermostat and also has a proper tortoise light.
I bathe and weigh them regularly and their weight does not increase much from week to week, in fact the male did drop weight about a month ago.
Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.
