How much to feed my Russian?

[Speedy_Tortoise]

How much should I feed my russian tortoise? He has an indoor habitat because where I live he cant live outside. I've heard you are supposed to feed them as much as they can eat in 20 min. daily... is this true? I might be feeding him too much. I feed him a small handfull of food twice a day.

 

[kimber_lee_314]

Everyone has a different answer for this. I feed mine every other day - what they will eat in one sitting and walk away. I routinely weigh mine to make sure they are steadily gaining weight during the spring, summer, and fall.

 

[Stephanie Logan]

I have read on this forum that you feed a tortoise a pile the same size as he is, per day. Within that guideline, there are dozens of details as to what you feed--greens, veggies, squash, a little fruit, sometimes dry food like Mazuri, even a bit of protein.

There are also supplements, such as calcium and D3, that are critically important to proper shell growth, but can delivered in a couple different ways. The requirements vary significantly from species to species, from hatchlings to juveniles to adults, and from tortoise to tortoise.

Russians do have a reputation for being a little on the piggy side. You ought to check out the "Regarding Russians" and "Food and Diet" sections, and hopefully some of the many Russian keepers on this forum will post advice for you here as well.

 

[samstar]

I read somewhere your suppose to feed them 3-4% of their body weight.

 

[GBtortoises]

Ask 10 different people here and you're probably going to get 10 different answers to that question!

Mine are outdoors as much as possible, usually mid April to late October so I don't control their food intake then. Once they come indoors I feed them what they will consume within about 20-30 minutes, every other day. I don't have a set amount of food, it's constantly adjusted based on their activity level and previous consumption.

Russians by design of their harsh natural environment often tend to consume whatever food is in front of them nearly everytime. This is most likely a built in survival technique that assures that they will always have reserve fat and calories to burn for when they have to go underground for months on end to escape climate extremes.

In captivity and especially if kept solely indoors, tortoises in general do not have to face the extremes that they do in the wild. The problem is that while they're life has become easier in captivity they still maintain and practice the instincts for survival. Not constantly monitoring the tortoises diet quality and quantity along with other factors often results in tortoises that are overweight or worse yet show obvious signs of accelerated growth.