Hibis kiss

[redfootraider]

Was feeding my red foot tortoise some greens n since I know I need to vary I tried giving him some romane lettuce n he ate that very good n then I tried giving him a leave of hibiscus n a leave of romAne lettuce n he only ate the lettuce n not the hibiscus I wonder y he doesn't eat the hibiscus? I also fed him dandelion greens n the flower n he eats those as well just not the hibiscus

 

[dmarcus]

Not all tortoises will eat everything that you feed them. If he won't eat it now, try it a couple weeks later and see but, he may just not like hisbiscus leaves...

 

[Morty the Torty]

Mine won't eat them either, just the flowers

 

[Jacqui]

Tortoises are just like us, they have their likes and dislikes. Some things they never learn to like and other things are like candy to them. One way to sometimes get them to eat something new is to hide it with their favorite foods. Like taking the romaine and chopping both it and the hibiscus leaves up small, then mix them together well. Or coat the small hibiscus leaf pieces with something like baby food peaches or plums. Basically trick them into eating it and slowly start having more leaf matter and less fruit.

 

[dmmj]

My RF does not like the leaves, but loves the flowers.

 

[Yvonne G]

I have several rose of sharon (a type of hibiscus) trees in my "rain forest." I've NEVER seen the tortoises in that area eat any of the leaves or fallen flowers. However, a few months ago I had to partition off a section for a couple of redfoots that I'm babysitting. The section had a very small rose of sharon tree in it...about 3' tall. The redfoots actually pushed the tree over with their plastron and ate the leaves off the tree.

 

[redfootraider]

Actually that is wat I did cuz I bought a hibiscus plant n I wasn't gonna just give it away so I mixed in some romAne n some hibiscus n he ate some but not all I guess I'll just keep trying