Introducing "HERMES" the one and only!

[JSW]

Hello Happy Day!
This is Hermes. Yes, named after the Greek Mythological God for Speed, Travelers, Merchants, Messengers and Mischief and more! Look forward to funny and sardonic posts as Hermes is pretty sly...has my heart, too. I hope to get lots of information here and also help when I can. This site is so cool...
XxOo
Jen

Hermes: "Are you watching me?!" ​

 

[Jimb]

Love that face!

 

[JSW]

Thanks Jimb! Is your tortoise a baby? They grow so so fast...

 

[Tom]

Hello and welcome. Glad you found us.

From the pic, it looks like you've gotten some bad advice in care and diet. I hope we can help. Check these out:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-raise-a-healthy-sulcata-or-leopard-version-2-0.79895/

You shouldn't be feeding fruit to your tortoise. It is not good for a leopard. While romaine isn't toxic or bad, its also not "good". Its just taking up stomach space for the foods that your tortoise should be eating.I typed this up for sulcatas, but if you skip all the text and just scroll down, there is a good food list:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/for-those-who-have-a-young-sulcata.76744/

In Tyler's thread you asked about getting another tortoise. They should not live as pairs. Another tortoise will not be seen as a companion. It will be seen as an intruder and resource thief. Groups can sometimes work, depending on age and sex, but not pairs. Also, a baby and a three year old would not be compatible.

Please feel free to question all of this. We are here to talk torts, and your questions will fuel the discussion.

 

[Yvonne G]

Welcome! He's adorable.

 

[JSW]

Hello and welcome. Glad you found us.

From the pic, it looks like you've gotten some bad advice in care and diet. I hope we can help. Check these out:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-raise-a-healthy-sulcata-or-leopard-version-2-0.79895/

You shouldn't be feeding fruit to your tortoise. It is not good for a leopard. While romaine isn't toxic or bad, its also not "good". Its just taking up stomach space for the foods that your tortoise should be eating.I typed this up for sulcatas, but if you skip all the text and just scroll down, there is a good food list:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/for-those-who-have-a-young-sulcata.76744/

In Tyler's thread you asked about getting another tortoise. They should not live as pairs. Another tortoise will not be seen as a companion. It will be seen as an intruder and resource thief. Groups can sometimes work, depending on age and sex, but not pairs. Also, a baby and a three year old would not be compatible.

Please feel free to question all of this. We are here to talk torts, and your questions will fuel the discussion.

Hi Tom,
You are so thoughtful to post such a detailed comment on Hermes. I've been concerned as well and it has taken me a year of research to get to this forum. It is mind blowing how many "advice" sites are worthless and how much time it takes to find the info you need. I'm very embarrassed... but can I ask you just a few questions? I have read a billion places about the appropriate food but no place that says how to get him to EAT it. I will put fresh 'allowable' food in his habitat 2 times a day and he will go 3 days without eating and by then I'm so freaked out he's going to starve I give him what he will eat, ugh! I do spray it with vitamins and sprinkle with calcium and he has a fountain with purified water running all the time. HELP PLEASE!
And even though I hold him all the time and love on him I thought he might be lonely being the only tortoise...

I've already learned so much since I joined and before I was so happy holding him all the time and wondering if I was doing it right and now I know I'm doing everything wrong (sad, depressed face) ..
Thank you for the links and I've already read them but would love more specific ideas from a more experienced owner like you only if you have the time (smiling face)
Jen

 

[Yvonne G]

Mince. The magic word. Take the food he will eat and mince it up until it's mushy and juicy. Then chop up the good greens into tiny pieces and mix the mush into the greens until all the greens are covered in mushy, juicy good-tasting (to him) food. He should eat. Then, over time (a long time, don't get impatient) reduce the mushy stuff and increase the good stuff. This may take a year. Be patient.

 

[JSW]

Mince. The magic word. Take the food he will eat and mince it up until it's mushy and juicy. Then chop up the good greens into tiny pieces and mix the mush into the greens until all the greens are covered in mushy, juicy good-tasting (to him) food. He should eat. Then, over time (a long time, don't get impatient) reduce the mushy stuff and increase the good stuff. This may take a year. Be patient.

Thank you, I will totally try this. One other thing about food? Many of the good things to eat are just available here in Nebraska in the winter and where I live there is no way I would trust even wild food because of all the farming and pesticides, etc. I did figure out by total accident after I did it, that I added sunflower seeds to his substrate and it bloomed like crazy and he ate it right up. I also just planted squash so hopefully.....

 

[Tom]

Expanding on what Yvonne said: I like to finely mince whatever their favorite foods are and then spray with a little water. Then you mince up a tiny tiny amount of the new and better stuff and thoroughly mix it all up. A suggestion that Yvonne has made in the past, if your tortoise like cucumber, is to blend some in a blender and coat the food mix with the slop. Gradually, over time, use less and less of the blended cucumber slop.

If you must use grocery store foods over winter, favor endive and escarole as your staples, but add in lots of variety. Cilantro, carrot and celery tops, mustard, collard and turnip greens, watercress, bok choy, spring mix, arugula, etc… Its also very easy to grow squash leaves indoors in pots and that is good food too. Sunflower leaves are a good one too, but I see you've already discovered than one. It sounds like you are on the right track.

The problem with grocery store greens is threefold:
1. They lack fiber.
2. Many of them lack calcium.
3. Many have a poor calcium to phosphorous ratio.

We can amend the greens and help solve these issues by using a tiny pinch of calcium supplement a couple of times a week, leaving a cuttle bone in the enclosure, and by adding some blended grass hay, real chopped grass, or a soaked ZooMed Grassland pellet and mixing it in with the food each day. "Herbal Hay" from tortoise supply is a graet idea in these cases too.

Enjoy the free goodness of the weeds and leaves in spring and summer.

 

[RosemaryDW]

Toms advice about foods is spot on.

If you happen to find weeds, this threat might help you determine if they are pesticide free.

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread...ng-if-your-weeds-are-safe-photo-heavy.153035/

 

[Grandpa Turtle 144]

Hi Jen

 

[Stuart S.]

Hello and welcome!!

 

[Jimb]

Thanks Jimb! Is your tortoise a baby? They grow so so fast...

My Sulcata is 18 months old, My Hermanns is also 18 months old, and my Leopard will be 9 months old on the 27th.

 

[JSW]

Expanding on what Yvonne said: I like to finely mince whatever their favorite foods are and then spray with a little water. Then you mince up a tiny tiny amount of the new and better stuff and thoroughly mix it all up. A suggestion that Yvonne has made in the past, if your tortoise like cucumber, is to blend some in a blender and coat the food mix with the slop. Gradually, over time, use less and less of the blended cucumber slop.

If you must use grocery store foods over winter, favor endive and escarole as your staples, but add in lots of variety. Cilantro, carrot and celery tops, mustard, collard and turnip greens, watercress, bok choy, spring mix, arugula, etc… Its also very easy to grow squash leaves indoors in pots and that is good food too. Sunflower leaves are a good one too, but I see you've already discovered than one. It sounds like you are on the right track.

The problem with grocery store greens is threefold:
1. They lack fiber.
2. Many of them lack calcium.
3. Many have a poor calcium to phosphorous ratio.

We can amend the greens and help solve these issues by using a tiny pinch of calcium supplement a couple of times a week, leaving a cuttle bone in the enclosure, and by adding some blended grass hay, real chopped grass, or a soaked ZooMed Grassland pellet and mixing it in with the food each day. "Herbal Hay" from tortoise supply is a graet idea in these cases too.

Enjoy the free goodness of the weeds and leaves in spring and summer.

WOW, THANK YOU! I'm realizing how out of his natural habitat he is and this is really great!

 

[JSW]

Hi Jen
View attachment 207514

Thanks! I already feel relieved and supported! What a great group of people

 

[JSW]

My Sulcata is 18 months old, My Hermanns is also 18 months old, and my Leopard will be 9 months old on the 27th.

Pictures?

 

[Rachael403]

Welcome to the forum!