I don't know what to do anymore!!! :( (baby won't eat)

[MagicElla]

Turbo, my red footed, seems to NEVER want to eat! What she used to love to eat before, she doesn't even look at now. We've tried everything... Greens, apples, pineapples, mushrooms, tomatoes, bananas, etc... We called the man who gifted her to us, since he breeds them, and he told us to give her some boiled egg every two weeks. We do, and she enjoys that a lot. But in between eggs, it's extremely hard to get her to eat. Sometimes she'll take a tiny bite of whatever is offered and then keeps on moving. She drinks lots of water and enjoys her baths... When she's out of her environment she walks around a lot! When she's in the environment, she tends to just hide out.

She spends the day out on the ridiculously humid and hot weather of south Florida, but she's in a spot which allows her shade if she wants to be cooler. I keep her enclosure humid by spraying it several times a day...The afternoon she spends in my room which is always at around 73-75, with her basking light (although she never basks).

She's still very small, but I'm worried that her inconsistent eating habit might be harmful to her. Her shell seems to be growing nicely, but honestly I have no clue. There's a picture below

Any advice?

This is her trying to tackle the grasslands lol (She proceeded to burrow into the grass and stay there)

 

[Yvonne G]

RE: I don't know what to do anymore!!!

A few years ago, when I had 3 yellowfoot eggs hatch, I had a very hard time getting the babies to eat. I went to the store and bought several jars of the exotic fruit type of Gerber strained baby food. Things like papaya, etc. Then I chopped up some escarole, raddiccio and endive into tiny pieces, added a little bit of the baby food, and mixed it all up together. This got the babies used to eating the greens. Now they eat everything.

 

[pfara]

Hmm.. maybe try upping the temps in your room; activity levels and digestion are aided significantly when the temps are nice and warm. Constant fluctuations of the outside hot and inside cool might be disturbing things. Also, try growing flats or cups of browsing mix/weeds/flowers and put them in the indoor enclosure when fully established. Then, you know he has options and he can pick and choose when and what to eat. Babies seem really timid and tend to hide rather than do anything else. Give it some time and hopefully it works itself out

 

[Redstrike]

We could use some more information. What are the temps inside the enclosure as opposed to your bedroom? What is your general feeding regime? When the tortoise is outside, is it eating grasses & weeds?

 

[Blgreek08]

They love fruits. Mine love strawberries. You should try what I used to do with my iguana. Juice some berries and out them in a spray bottle. Keep it in the refrigerator and most the food with it. Just find the babies fav fruit.

Also make sure your humidity is 80 or about and your temps are in like the 80s. Mine eat so much better and more since I fixed that!

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[sibi]

Do you have a temp gun to measure temps inside the house, inside his enclosure, inside his hide? If not, I suggest to get one at home depot or lowe's. It's not expensive, and this way you can really measure the correct temps that your tort should be in. It may make the difference between eating normally and eating so so.

 

[skottip]

I live in S Florida also. The weather is perfect for RF's. Why do you take her inside if you don't mind me asking?
You can't duplicate mother nature and your inside temps might have something to do with her lack of hunger. Have you tried Mazuri yet?

Scott

 

[SANDRA_MEISSNEST]

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hi I would leave her outside where she get some Sun and also shade, did you try giving her a cucumber and ripe avocado? Offer her some worms.

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I forgot, maybe she got worms like round worms, I would take some poop to the vet and let it checked out because if she does have too many she won't eat anymore

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[Redstrike]

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hi I would leave her outside where she get some Sun and also shade, did you try giving her a cucumber and ripe avocado? Offer her some worms.

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I forgot, maybe she got worms like round worms, I would take some poop to the vet and let it checked out because if she does have too many she won't eat anymore

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I would advise against avocados for redfoots.

 

[MagicElla]

Thanks guys!!! We got her to eat some cantaloupe and strawberries the other day, and she seems to like mushrooms a lot. I bring her inside because I don't have a patio/garden. I go outside with her for her daily walk time, then I leave her enclosure outside during most of the day for her to get sun. The humidity is perfect outside. But by the end of the day, I have to bring her in because I don't want to risk having anyone steal her if I leave her overnight. I have a thermometer in her enclosure, it's usually around 73-76 in there. I keep it as moist as possible. She likes to hide out, but we've discovered that if we put her in a separate box for feeding, she'll concentrate more in her food than if we leave her in her enclosure. She goes in there every night for feeding time

I'll continue to try different things, although this week seems to have gone better with the cantaloupe and strawberries. Tomorrow we try Papaya! I figured tropical fruits might be best since they are tropical torts Here's a pic of her dinner two days ago

 

[SANDRA_MEISSNEST]

Im very happy for u:shy:

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[Redstrike]

Fruits are great as part of a varied diet, but don't go too heavy on them. It's a great way to have a parasite bloom as your tortoise is a hind-gut fermenter. I generally aim for 1/week or once every two weeks.

Can we get some more details on your weekly diet regime?

Also, I generally aim for 78-80 on the cool side of my enclosure and 84-86 on the warm side. 73-76 isnt bad but it seems a little cool...unless she is outside and can bask, then it's probably fine!

 

[Michael in MO]

when was the last time you gave your tort some cuttle bone (with the back removed)? maybe it's looking for that puzzle piece to keep her growth revved up.. also if you've only had her for two months your "NEVER" may need to be defined more of a day or week wise for the group..

 

[MagicElla]

Fruits are great as part of a varied diet, but don't go too heavy on them. It's a great way to have a parasite bloom as your tortoise is a hind-gut fermenter. I generally aim for 1/week or once every two weeks.

Can we get some more details on your weekly diet regime?

Also, I generally aim for 78-80 on the cool side of my enclosure and 84-86 on the warm side. 73-76 isnt bad but it seems a little cool...unless she is outside and can bask, then it's probably fine!

We give her fruits around twice a week, since it seems she likes those best. Every other day of the week, her dies revolves around mushrooms and varied greens (romaine lettuce, spinach, kale). She is mostly outside, which can go up to 90-95 sometimes when the sun hit directly, but usually it's shaded and stays at around 80-85. When she's inside in the 73-75, she has a basking light on the other side which takes the temp up to 78-80. She never ever basks though. She likes to hide. Even when she's outside in natural sunlight, she prefers hiding.

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when was the last time you gave your tort some cuttle bone (with the back removed)? maybe it's looking for that puzzle piece to keep her growth revved up.. also if you've only had her for two months your "NEVER" may need to be defined more of a day or week wise for the group..

We used to have a cuttlebone in her enclosure all the time, but she didn't seem to like it. We took it out because she never ate any. And by never I mean the first two months. We've had her for a bit less than three months now. She's still a tiny tort. Smaller than the palm of my hand. She gets direct sunlight every day and she gets water baths/spray downs every day also.

 

[sunshine_hugs]

Fruits are great as part of a varied diet, but don't go too heavy on them. It's a great way to have a parasite bloom as your tortoise is a hind-gut fermenter. I generally aim for 1/week or once every two weeks.

This might be taking things a little off topic, but can you explain this a little more for me? I'm genuinely curious about the hind-gut fermenter.

During certain seasons where I live (and there are wild redfoots), there is an abundance of fruit (especially mango)...during that season, the redfoots here eat fruit almost daily. After the season is over, they seem to survive mostly on flowers, leaves, weeds, some grass, carrion, and occasional fruit.

Should I be limiting my tortoises fruit intake during mango season to keep them healthy?


And I'm glad your little one is eating, MagicElla. Great news.

Edited for spelling. :shy:

 

[Redstrike]

Fruits are great as part of a varied diet, but don't go too heavy on them. It's a great way to have a parasite bloom as your tortoise is a hind-gut fermenter. I generally aim for 1/week or once every two weeks.

This might be taking things a little off topic, but can you explain this a little more for me? I'm genuinely curious about the hind-gut fermenter.

During certain seasons where I live (and there are wild redfoots), there is an abundance of fruit (especially mango)...during that season, the redfoots here eat fruit almost daily. After the season is over, they seem to survive mostly on flowers, leaves, weeds, some grass, carrion, and occasional fruit.

Should I be limiting my tortoises fruit intake during mango season to keep them healthy?


And I'm glad your little one is eating, MagicElla. Great news.

Edited for spelling. :shy:

Hind-gut fermentation is common in a lot of herbivores. It simply means the food they process sits in their intestines (mainly the large intestine) and/or cecum for a good period of time after it has passed through the stomach. The bolus (food) sits in a stew of symbiotic bacteria within the hindgut of the animal and more nutrition is extracted from it. This is really important for animals that eat a lot of high fiber foods. Put some high energy (via sugar) fruit in there in large quantities for extended periods of time and there is potential for symbionts to proliferate and start causing problems. Many will probably debate me on this, but it makes sense to me. Here's a great article by Mark that may articulate what I'm trying to say better: https://sites.google.com/site/tortoiselibrary/nutrition/hind-gut-fermentation

Wild redfoots are going to be opportunistic and have been documented stuffing themselves with fruit during the wet season. I've read some articles that claim they will sit by fruiting trees waiting for the spoils to drop from the branches, then gorge themselves for as long as they can. From what I have read, it seems their fruit intake is transient so they may stuff themselves a half dozen or so times a year (based on what I've read). Their diets consist of ~25% fruit. I try to replicate this in captivity, and my approach is once every week or two, but you can achieve this on any time table/quantities that work for you and your tortoises.

 

[sunshine_hugs]

Thanks for the info, Chris. I was just feeding fruit as it came into season (trying to replicate what they would find in the wild here). Once every week or two makes total sense.
Oh, and I appreciate the link to the article as well.

 

[biochemnerd808]

I know that there are several 'right' ways of feeding a redfoot - the one that I am choosing (might change) is alternating days of: greens - fruit - greens - animal protein - greens - fruit - greens - animal protein etc. On the days where fruit or animal protein, greens are also offered, along with the other. The animal protein is sprinkled with calcium (since our RF came from a situation where she didn't have enough calcium).

Thanks for the info, Chris. I was just feeding fruit as it came into season (trying to replicate what they would find in the wild here). Once every week or two makes total sense.
Oh, and I appreciate the link to the article as well.

 

[HerbsMommy]

Poor Turbo is she pooping? Maybe she's backed up? When mine was backed up, I mixed grass in with his food and the course fiber flushed him right out and he's been fine ever since. Maybe mix some in with her eggs since that's what she will eat?

 

[MagicElla]

She poops, and drinks incredible amounts of water! I found that she LOVES Broccoli... But I read today somewhere that I'm not supposed to give her too much Broccoli? This is so complicated! Lol but she's been eating a little better since we switched her to morning feedings instead of nightly ones hopefully it keeps getting better! Here's a picture of this morning's feeding...