Hibiscus powder

Sticky Feets

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So if anyone has been reading my posts on my super slow growing leo Hoppy, I recently mentioned that he really started eating for me about 2-3 months ago when I found out his breeder was mainly feeding him romaine lettuce, carrots, strawberry tops, and cactus pads. When I first got him I started him straight onto a more appropriate tortoise diet but noticed he was just kinda picking around the food. He would eat the cactus but not much else. So when I found out what he was used to, I started giving him romaine and boy that's when he started growing and eating like crazy. But since that's not a very varied diet, I've been trying to introduce other things to him for about a month now. So far I've gotten him to munch on hibiscus leaves but he still prefers his lettuce and cactus. So I had an idea of drying up the leaves and then crushing them into a fine powder that I could sprinkle onto his lettuce so that he at least gets something more than just lettuce with each bite. He already gets alternating crushed up Mazuri, calcium, and herptivite sprinkled on his food and I figured this couldn't hurt. In terms of fiber and vitamins I'm not sure how much he'll actually get from it since since pinch of powder only has 2 leaves but maaayybe this will get him used to the taste at least. I haven't sprinkled it yet as I just made the powder tonight. Might consider trying this for other plants too just so he can get a taste for them. When I just dump a new plant in his food he doesn't even touch it.

Anyone else have tips on getting a baby tortoise to try new foods? Here's what the powder looks like after I rolled it through my fingers...some of it is dust and some just little flakes that I couldn't crush up any more. It took a few days for the leaves to dry up enough to crush them like this.
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And of course I stored this green concoction in a prescription pill bottle lol
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TechnoCheese

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What if you dried out lettuce, crushed that up, and mixed it in with good food? That way, he would be getting more good food, but with the taste of lettuce? No idea if that would work, lol
 

WithLisa

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I'm sure that's healthy for him, but I don't know if you can get him used to the new plants that way since fresh plants smell and taste very different from dried ones.
It doesn't work when you cut the fresh leaves very small and sprinkle them over the lettuce?
 

Sticky Feets

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I'm sure that's healthy for him, but I don't know if you can get him used to the new plants that way since fresh plants smell and taste very different from dried ones.
It doesn't work when you cut the fresh leaves very small and sprinkle them over the lettuce?
I've been trying this too but not sure how much is actually making it into his mouth since it just pushed around as he goes for the lettuce. I also bought some TNT powder for him last night just to get more of the vitamins in while I'm trying to get him switched over.
 

Sticky Feets

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What if you dried out lettuce, crushed that up, and mixed it in with good food? That way, he would be getting more good food, but with the taste of lettuce? No idea if that would work, lol
I could try this too, I've tried so many different ratios. So far I've found that making a 50:50 ratio with larger pieces work. Since he eventually gets the hibiscus into his mouth
 
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