There was a question last week about what and how to feed Leopards and it got me thinking that one of the reasons I chose Leopards as a pet was that from my research it seemed that once set up feeding was not overly difficult, or expensive. I don't know about you but convienience and expense have a lot to do with the quality of care I am able to provide with any pet. Having to feed fresh food everyday would simply not happen, not in MN, not in my house. I have a hard enough time feeding my own family fresh food, let alone a tortoise. Can you imagine if dogs required fresh food daily? There would be a lot less dogs in the world. This is just my take - more power to all of you who do feed your torts fresh food every day, me? I just had to be honest with myself before I even got into this. I thought I would share what I do for mine with pics of my set up. I would love to hear AND SEE what others are doing to feed their Leopards. I would also welcome feedback (but please be gentle - we're all friends!).
I feed my Leopards mostly Orchard Grass or Timothy Hay with some Mazuri. I buy a bale of hay from Oxbow Hay company but its too long even for my adults. For several years I cut up the grass with scissors, but that was a pain so I bought a wood chipper that I run all the grass through to chop it up. This works GREAT because my adults need no further chopping. I have two tall bins, one filled with chopped hay and one with Mazuri. Each morning I fill a small to medium size mixing bowl with a couple handfulls of hay and small handfull of Mazuri. I add water and soak it for 15 minutes or soak until the hay is saturated. I drain and then for the babies I take out a small chunk with 3-4 marzuri and chop that further on a cutting board. I feed the finely chopped stuff to my babies and the rest to the adults. They love it. I find that they get a good amount of their water intake from it - and I think soaking it brings out the smells which they are naturally drawn to. Of course I supplement with fresh when I can (especially cactus pad) but on a daily basis, this works for me, is easy, cheap, and from what I understand it provides them with the proper core nutritional needs:
Ben
I feed my Leopards mostly Orchard Grass or Timothy Hay with some Mazuri. I buy a bale of hay from Oxbow Hay company but its too long even for my adults. For several years I cut up the grass with scissors, but that was a pain so I bought a wood chipper that I run all the grass through to chop it up. This works GREAT because my adults need no further chopping. I have two tall bins, one filled with chopped hay and one with Mazuri. Each morning I fill a small to medium size mixing bowl with a couple handfulls of hay and small handfull of Mazuri. I add water and soak it for 15 minutes or soak until the hay is saturated. I drain and then for the babies I take out a small chunk with 3-4 marzuri and chop that further on a cutting board. I feed the finely chopped stuff to my babies and the rest to the adults. They love it. I find that they get a good amount of their water intake from it - and I think soaking it brings out the smells which they are naturally drawn to. Of course I supplement with fresh when I can (especially cactus pad) but on a daily basis, this works for me, is easy, cheap, and from what I understand it provides them with the proper core nutritional needs:
Ben
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