How often do u feed?

[smokinyoda]

So does everyone feed daily or every other day? I have heard mixed ideas so wanted some opinions. I have an adult Syrian Greek and a hatchling Herman. I am feeding spring mix daily to the adult, and every other day to the baby. Also add mazura and TNT once a week as supplement. When it warms up they will be grazing daily, but for now I have to rely on grocery stores.

So what do you think? Can daily feeding cause pyramiding?

 

[Yvonne G]

I put a big pile of food out every morning for my babies. I place it in a far corner from the light. I leave it there all day and don't remove it until tomorrow, when I take up the feeding tile, wash it and put new food on it. I see the babies coming out throughout the day to eat some more. They even munch on the dried up old stuff at the end of the day.

I don't feed my grazers at all. They have to find their own food. If it sparse or lean pickins' thats too bad. Its that way in nature too.

I have some large tortoises that don't have good graze and I do have to feed them, but I feed them every other day. On the off day they have to roam around their habitat and find dead leaves or bits of weeds that have come up.

This is the advantage of having a climate good enough to be able to keep your tortoises outside year round. They all have a warm house to go into when they start to get cold, but I don't have to worry about keeping them in tubs and whether to feed or not.

And no, feeding doesn't cause pyramiding. That happens because of lack of humidity in the habitat. Here's what Richard Fife has to say about it:

"Is Humidity the Key?
Over the years I have tried all kinds of tortoise diets only to become more confused when there were no consistent results in eliminating pyramiding. I understood that the diet was extremely important in raising a healthy tortoise, but it didn’t seem to have a whole lot of affect on reducing pyramiding. About five or six years ago, my wife decided to try a new method for rearing hatching tortoises.

She set up two groups of new hatching red-foot tortoises for her experiment. The first group was set up in a plastic shoebox with dry paper towels (low humidity). The second group was set up in a plastic shoebox with moist paper towels (high humidity). The two groups were kept side by side and fed identically.

Within a few months the difference was astounding. The tortoises in the dry setup had the typical pyramiding we see in captive-hatched tortoises. The second group had no pyramiding whatsoever and looked identical to wild-caught tortoises. We began to try increasing the humidity on several other species of tortoises with the same positive results.

I theorized that hatching tortoises in the wild spend most of the time hidden in moist soil, clumps of moist grass or in the bottom of humid burrows. Even desert species spend much of their lives in the bottom of humid burrows.

In January 2001 I presented my work at the International Turtle and Tortoise Symposium held in Vienna, Austria. I was excited to learn that many European tortoise breeders had come to the same conclusion and were beginning to raise hatchlings in an environment with more moisture.

In 2003 the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna (Austria) finally quantified the importance of humidity in the environment of hatching tortoises, and also showed in their research that high levels of protein had little affect on pyramiding.

The researches in Vienna theorized that during dry periods when food is scare there is little or no growth in hatching tortoises (pyramiding only develops during periods of growth). During periods when food is plentiful the humidity increases, growth is rapid and pyramiding rare.

The researchers also hypothesized “that during dry conditions, dehydration reduces both intra- and inter-cellular pressures on soft cartilage at the areas of bone growth, which could lead to collapse of the soft tissue and subsequent ossification in the collapsed position.”

Other hobbyists in the United States have confirmed that increased humidity in their experiences plays a very important role in reducing pyramiding in hatchling tortoises."

 

[Maggie Cummings]

I feed my babies every morning AND every evening. I feel they are actively growing so they need to eat...I make sure my habitats have an ambient humidity of 60 to 80% depending on the species...

 

[moonraser]

I feed my babies every morning AND every evening. I feel they are actively growing so they need to eat...I make sure my habitats have an ambient humidity of abouut 60 to 80% depending on the species...

Me too I feed my Q twice a day...In the morning right after soaking, she doesn't eat much in the morning and later around 5-6pm I feed her again, she eat a little more in the evening. I don't think I am over feeding her.

 

[DoctorCosmonaut]

Daily.

 

[ChiKat]

I feed my hatchling daily. Since they're still young and need their food I would feed your Herman hatchling every day.
At the end of the day I take up what hasn't been eaten. Nelson tends to eat, then bask for a while, and then go back to eat more later.

 

[purpod]

Salutations Smokin ~

I feed mine daily, and mix it up from spring mixes, to wild picked dandelion greens and such, to prepacked foods specifically made for my Leopards... but yes, I feed fresh daily.

Have a good one,
Purpod

 

[GBtortoises]

Indoors: Every other day, skipping one day a week hatchlings up to old adults. Water young tortoises 3x weekly, adults 2x weekly. Timothy hay and calcium carbonate are available 24/7.

Outdoors: Wild food (weeds) every other day but it gets left in the enclosures and removed at the next feeding. Water is available at all times as is calcium carbonate.

 

[Isa]

Same here, I feed my Hermann daily

 

[Maggie Cummings]

I feed my babies every morning AND every evening. I feel they are actively growing so they need to eat...I make sure my habitats have an ambient humidity of 60 to 80% depending on the species...

Me too I feed my Q twice a day...In the morning right after soaking, she doesn't eat much in the morning and later around 5-6pm I feed her again, she eat a little more in the evening. I don't think I am over feeding her.

 

[jobeanator]

purpod- when you mentioned specially packaged food for your leopards, what does that consist of?

 

[kimber_lee_314]

I feed all my tortoises and turtles (adults and hatchlings) every other day - but then most of the time they are grazing in their pens whenever they feel like it. I weigh mine monthly and they gain plenty of weight each summer.

 

[mctlong]

I hand feed my Russian (adult) greens with TNT once a week. He's on his own grazing through his garden the rest of the time.

 

[tortoisenerd]

My yearling gets fed once a day, maybe a small bedtime snack if we catch him up (literally he will go to his burrow right after you hand feed him a lettuce leaf in the afternoon). He isn't awake enough hours to be fed twice as he picks at the same pile throughout the day and it is actually rare he eats all we feed. We'll take it away in the evening after he is asleep and put out a fresh pile in the morning again. As he gets older I will be concerned more with the amount I feed so he doesn't become overweight. Right now he looks chubby but he is still growing and is active so I don't think it is a problem (and is cute). I guess I have the philosophy that a growing tortoise should eat its fill but an adult may need to go on a diet at times. I would rather feed a small portion than have to feed every other day. He is there waiting on his plate if we are late with the food. We treat the little guy like a human baby.

 

[samstar]

I feed Torty every morning and I feed him Mazuri pellets.
Once in a while like today I feed him lettuce or hibiscus in the late afternoons. So to answer your question, I feed him once a day 6 days a week.

 

[purpod]

Greetings Job ~

The specifically made food for my Leopards is made by Nature Zone, and is called Tortoise Bites. I usually buy the large plastic container (24 oz.) ~ if you get it at a local pet store, it'll cost over $20. bucks, but if you get it from Dr. Smith & Foster online, it is several dollars cheaper & often times there is no shipping charges. (Just a note, Dr. Foster & Smith are much cheaper on many items than the local pet stores.. at least in my area.)

Hope that helps!
Have an incredible day ~
Purpod

 

[Tom]

I put a big pile of food out every morning for my babies. I place it in a far corner from the light. I leave it there all day and don't remove it until tomorrow, when I take up the feeding tile, wash it and put new food on it. I see the babies coming out throughout the day to eat some more. They even munch on the dried up old stuff at the end of the day.

I don't feed my grazers at all. They have to find their own food. If it sparse or lean pickins' thats too bad. Its that way in nature too.

I have some large tortoises that don't have good graze and I do have to feed them, but I feed them every other day. On the off day they have to roam around their habitat and find dead leaves or bits of weeds that have come up.

This is the advantage of having a climate good enough to be able to keep your tortoises outside year round. They all have a warm house to go into when they start to get cold, but I don't have to worry about keeping them in tubs and whether to feed or not.

And no, feeding doesn't cause pyramiding. That happens because of lack of humidity in the habitat. Here's what Richard Fife has to say about it:

"Is Humidity the Key?
Over the years I have tried all kinds of tortoise diets only to become more confused when there were no consistent results in eliminating pyramiding. I understood that the diet was extremely important in raising a healthy tortoise, but it didn’t seem to have a whole lot of affect on reducing pyramiding. About five or six years ago, my wife decided to try a new method for rearing hatching tortoises.

She set up two groups of new hatching red-foot tortoises for her experiment. The first group was set up in a plastic shoebox with dry paper towels (low humidity). The second group was set up in a plastic shoebox with moist paper towels (high humidity). The two groups were kept side by side and fed identically.

Within a few months the difference was astounding. The tortoises in the dry setup had the typical pyramiding we see in captive-hatched tortoises. The second group had no pyramiding whatsoever and looked identical to wild-caught tortoises. We began to try increasing the humidity on several other species of tortoises with the same positive results.

I theorized that hatching tortoises in the wild spend most of the time hidden in moist soil, clumps of moist grass or in the bottom of humid burrows. Even desert species spend much of their lives in the bottom of humid burrows.

In January 2001 I presented my work at the International Turtle and Tortoise Symposium held in Vienna, Austria. I was excited to learn that many European tortoise breeders had come to the same conclusion and were beginning to raise hatchlings in an environment with more moisture.

In 2003 the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna (Austria) finally quantified the importance of humidity in the environment of hatching tortoises, and also showed in their research that high levels of protein had little affect on pyramiding.

The researches in Vienna theorized that during dry periods when food is scare there is little or no growth in hatching tortoises (pyramiding only develops during periods of growth). During periods when food is plentiful the humidity increases, growth is rapid and pyramiding rare.

The researchers also hypothesized “that during dry conditions, dehydration reduces both intra- and inter-cellular pressures on soft cartilage at the areas of bone growth, which could lead to collapse of the soft tissue and subsequent ossification in the collapsed position.”

Other hobbyists in the United States have confirmed that increased humidity in their experiences plays a very important role in reducing pyramiding in hatchling tortoises."