Incorporating meat/protein in diet?

[ben32hayt]

Hi everyone,
I was wondering how Redfoot tortoise owners incorporate meat-protein in their redfoot's diet. Do you guys use canned food? Hard boiled eggs? Ect.? Also what do you find to be your redfoot tortoises favorite protein source? All inputs wanted!
Thanks, Ben

 

[dmmj]

I tried lean dog food, no go, I raise earth worms and night crawlers, he is not a fan of those, he eats them but no enthusiasm. He goes bonkers over snails and slugs though, as soon as I figure out how to raise snails, I will.

 

[naturalman91]

i give a hard boiled egg stripped of the whites to only the yolk once a month mixed with a tiny bit of fruit to get his interest without the fruit i doubt he'd be interested in it at all

 

[Yvonne G]

I occasionally feed my YF and RF tortoises moistened Purina Pro Plan cat food. I've recently discovered a refrigerated cat food at the pet store that I now use occasionally too. Chicken is listed as the first ingredient. When I feed them hard boiled eggs I mash the egg (in the shell) with the heel of my hand and they eat it shell and all.

 

[christinaland128]

My reds enjoy salad shrimp chopped, hard boiled egg, and mushrooms. But this (protein) I've read should only be 10%of their diet. My reds go BaNaNaS for mushrooms!

Ooh I'm totally trying the egg shell. Has calcium, very nice. And makes sense because in the wild they'd eat some shell if they wanted/bodies needed.

 

[ben32hayt]

I tried out a new technique of incorporating protein in my redfoots' diets. First I used Yvonne's idea of mashing the hard boiled egg in the shell. Then I took two hibiscus flowers and placed the mashed hard boiled egg around the petals of the flowers. I then twisted the top of the flower and tied it with a blade of grass. It was less messy than just eating the egg alone.

 

[lismar79]

Then I took two hibiscus flowers and placed the mashed hard boiled egg around the petals of the flowers. I then twisted the top of the flower and tied it with a blade of grass.

Its like a tort taco! Genius!

 

[CharlieD]

My 9 month old RF has not been interested much in any 'stationary' protein sources as of yet (eggs, cat food, chicken, etc), but he is pretty ravenous about any moving food source like worms or snails.

 

[Flipper]

Excellent idea!