How much can a Russian eat? With pictures!

[RosemaryDW]

For those new owners who wonder how much food is “enough,” let’s see what an active, warm tortoise *will* eat. Now this is an outside tortoise with plenty of room, she is going to be hungrier than an indoor tortoise or anything in a small enclosure.

It’s a beautiful day today and this tortoise has been walking near continuously, casually grazing along the way. I had some mallow and gave her a good sized branch.



It was eaten down to the stem; she would have eaten that too if it was a little thinner.



Hmm. How about a little more?



Did a little better on the stem this time, as least on the thinner bits.



Wow! What if I try another small piece?





Okay, this is ridiculous but let’s just see...





The final result:



At this point I stopped, afraid she might explode. She immediately walked over and started on desert primrose.



This is why large enclosures are so important for these small animals; they are wired to walk and eat all day.

 

[Marianna]

Although mine are marginated tortoises (so related), I totally agree! The 3 of them have almost eaten all the edible weeds in their 5000 square feet enclosure in little over 2 months!!! Nature is drying out already due to lack of rain so I started supplying them with food from the garden. Hope I will have enough leaves on my mulberry trees and my vine keeps growing fast enough to help them through the summer which means at least another 5 months. Bulldozers, that's what they are! They either eat or sleep....