How much should i feed to my 8 year old Russian

[Jodilee]

Hi I have looked through the boards but cannot find a dfinitive answer to this question. Origami eats maybe 8 chicory leave s a day and maybe half a bok choy leaf. I thinks she'd eat a lot more as I used to give her apple until I learned that fruit was a no no.

Thanks for any info folks.

Heres a couple of fotos of Origami and maybe you can see the damage to her shell which I was told occurred when she was left out in wet weather??

 

[Yvonne G]

That's a pretty nice-looking tortoise. The only thing I see wrong, besides the little scuff mark on top, is the slope to the back part. this might be due to not having enough calcium in the diet. If you are only feeding the food items you mentioned above, that is not enough of a variety for the tortoise. Also, do you put a calcium supplement on the food occasionally? Here's a nice list of food items you can pick from, but don't get into the habit of only using one or two. Change it out weekly and give the tortoise many, many different things:

Red and green leaf lettuce (fed on occasion)
Endive
Escarole
Radicchio
Chicory
Turnip greens
Mustard greens
Kale
Collards
Spring Mix (mixed salad greens)
cabbage (fed on occasion)



With the above veggies one can develop a good diet. Once again (and I can't stress this enough) variety is the key!
Don't feed the same food day in and day out. Mix varieties and choose a different green as the basis every few days.

OTHER GOOD CHOICES
Some other favorites of my tortoises that are available:
Hibiscus (flowers and leaves)
Hosta
Sedum
Mulberry leaves
Hen and Chicks
Ice Plants
Prickly pear flowers, fruit and pads (burn the spines off)
Dandelion
Plantain (not the banana type fruit....the weed plantago major)
Mallow (flowers and leaves)
Henbit
Rose (flowers and leaves....make sure no systemic pesticides were used)
Chrysanthemum flowers
Cornflowers Plagiobothrys ssp
Forsythia (flowers and leaves)
Dayflower Commelina diffusa (flowers and leaves)
Californian Poppy escholzia
Chia Salvia hispanica

To answer your question - if the tortoise has access to a large area and can get plenty of exercise, then you can feed it as much as it will eat. If the tortoise is confined and cant get in plenty of walking time, then just feed a handful of greens about the size of the tortoise.

 

[Jodilee]

Thanks Yvonne, I have only owned her three weeks so i was told she could eat green leafy lettuce and apple..........that is all she has received from her last owner. I have been giving her leafy green lettuce, chicory, dandelion but NO apple anymore. I am right now reading the totrtoise table list of good and bad weeds.........fortunately some of those grow in our garden. There is also kenilworth ivey which can be eaten in moderation but so far she hasn't shown any interest in that.

I don't feed her any extra calcium but i can put that right tomorrow morning.

Would you advise she has a cuttle fish?? They only sell them for budgies in the pet shops here in the Netherlands. Would one suitable for birds be OK?

Its currently quite warm here so she is getting at least a couple of hours outside per day and she almost runs around it. She can really shift if it suits her. She is also a fantastic escape artist. My garden is surrounded by four walls but she looks into every possible crack and space to see if she can get out

I am fascinated by her behaviourso i do wath her for hours and am not yet secure enough to just put her outside and walk away even though she can't get out. She is however only on concrete tiles as our grassy area is in another garden to the side and is bordered by a waterway so i couldn't let her roam there. I', hoping the concrete tiles are not too harsh for her little feet. Its been good for her nails which were too long though.

 

[Yvonne G]

You can buy the cuttlebone that they sell in the bird section. It's the same thing as what we're always talking about here.

Its good that she's getting some outside time. They really need to be outside, and are very much better off, mentally and physically, if they can be outside.