Is ‘Mazuri day weight gain’ a thing?

Agathaade

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I’m starting to see a pattern here with my baby Hermann...
I weigh her most days, and while she has gained 8g in the 4+weeks she has been here, most days there is no weight gain, or just a 1g difference.
Her diet is a rotation of plantain, mulberry, chicory, grape, clover with some extra dried fresh flowers like calendula, chamomille...

Then there is Mazuri day!
Once a week I give her one whole pellet (she is 11/12 weeks old) mixed with equal part chopped up Testudo seed mix leaves. She will eat anywhere between half of it to the whole pile.

The next day her weight will have increased by as much as 4g! Then after her soak and two to three poops, she’ll have lost 2g.
Making her weekly weight gain about 2g.

Are those fluctuations too extreme? Am I giving her too much Mazuri?
 

Agathaade

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Here is an example of what I give her on a non-Mazuri day. She typically has some left over at night so I don’t think I underfeed her, do I?

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Blackdog1714

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When they are small the weight gains and losses in grams will drive you bonkers. The goal is weekly to notice gains then focus on the monthly. I suppose it would be exactly same for us if we weighed ourselves mutiple times through the day and especially after certain meals how the weight would flucuate. Grams are so minute they are actually 0.00220462 2 one thousandths of a pound. Ouch hurt my brain. Focus on real tangibles- heat, light, humidity, quality of foods offered, and soaking. They alone can rule your life- for instance what are you doing if the power goes out.... how long until it gets too cold in there. I chased the humidty problem in a Rubbermaid tub for the longest time till I saw Tom say to add hot water to the substrate- kind of obvious but I missed it and the cold water didn't work! You want healthy, eyes open, good activity and good appetite. Otherwise we are always here to help!!!!
 

Maro2Bear

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Here is an example of what I give her on a non-Mazuri day. She typically has some left over at night so I don’t think I underfeed her, do I?

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If thats ALL you are providing for an entire day.....it really doesnt look like enough! Try more greens and a few more Mazuri pellets per day. Why so little?
 

ComeNT8kIt

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So for my Hermann’s I got him at 2 months old and this is basically how I’ve tracked his weight. I weigh mine once a week and he stays on Mazuri, the small pellets, and then a mixture of dark greens and hibiscus flowers daily... I guess I say all that to say I started out weighing him daily and it drove me crazy with stress and paranoia. Weighing him/her Weekly, long as that lines going up. We good.
 

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Agathaade

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If thats ALL you are providing for an entire day.....it really doesnt look like enough! Try more greens and a few more Mazuri pellets per day. Why so little?
Oh, ok!
She already ate one of the leaves when I took the pic, you can kind of see the stem in the photo. She is also sitting on two more, but I can for sure give her more.
I thought I was supposed to give her leaves in an amount that would cover her shell, but maybe I misunderstood what that means.
 

Agathaade

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If thats ALL you are providing for an entire day.....it really doesnt look like enough! Try more greens and a few more Mazuri pellets per day. Why so little?
Wait @Maro2Bear I just realized you said a few more Mazuri pellets per day. That has me confused.
Miguel is a 25g baby.
Do you recommend giving her multiple Mazuri pellets on the day that I feed her Mazuri or... every day?
 

Agathaade

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So for my Hermann’s I got him at 2 months old and this is basically how I’ve tracked his weight. I weigh mine once a week and he stays on Mazuri, the small pellets, and then a mixture of dark greens and hibiscus flowers daily... I guess I say all that to say I started out weighing him daily and it drove me crazy with stress and paranoia. Weighing him/her Weekly, long as that lines going up. We good.

Woah that’s way bigger weekly weight gain than I’m seeing, @ComeNT8kIt !
 

Maro2Bear

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Regardless, it just really looks like you arent providing enough food. Pile up the dish with a handful of greens and a few moistened mazuri pellets. Let your tort decide how much is enough. They are grazers, nibbling along, morning til night. I know you dont want to waste food, but just make sure there is enough for a day of nibbling, grazing and eating.
 

ComeNT8kIt

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Woah that’s way bigger weekly weight gain than I’m seeing, @ComeNT8kIt !

there are Soooo many factors involved with that too. Each individual differs and I’ve had a hard time finding any details on a “general rate of growth” that you can expect. I’m far from an expert but maybe getting the smaller Mazuri pellets and throwing in some with its regular meals. Mine seems to enjoy it especially when it softened with some water.
 

Agathaade

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Regardless, it just really looks like you arent providing enough food. Pile up the dish with a handful of greens and a few moistened mazuri pellets. Let your tort decide how much is enough. They are grazers, nibbling along, morning til night. I know you dont want to waste food, but just make sure there is enough for a day of nibbling, grazing and eating.
Ok, thank you for letting me know. I’ll give her more.
It’s not about wasting food, I grow her food and have plenty. Since I noticed she always has some left at the end of the day, I assumed it was enough. Happy to change that.
 

zovick

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Ok, thank you for letting me know. I’ll give her more.
It’s not about wasting food, I grow her food and have plenty. Since I noticed she always has some left at the end of the day, I assumed it was enough. Happy to change that.
I think that ComeNT8kit is recommending the pellets known as Mazuri LS (the LS stands for low starch) which are different than the regular Mazuri pellets. The LS formula is good for grazing tortoises like yours. The pellets are small, darker in color, and look like longish rabbit pellets rather than being big, fat, and light colored as the regular Mazuri pellets are.

Which are of them you using? You could safely give your tortoise 1/8 of a cup of the LS formula every day if it would eat that much of it. Soak the pellets well first, because they are quite hard and difficult for small tortoises to bite into if not soaked. Be aware that it may take a while to get the tortoise to eat the LS formula. In fact, you might need to crumble up some of the regular Mazuri on it and mix them together to get it to eat the LS pellets at first.
 

Agathaade

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Ah, the LS pellets make sense, @zovick. I use the regular ones but I can add those to mix things up.
I was corresponding with @Maro2Bear who alerted me about giving her more leaves and soaked pellets daily but I am not sure which one they were referring to.

I’ll find some and introduce that.
Thank you both for your help!
 

JMM

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I wouldn't give up entirely on the regular Mazuri pellets--even though they are large, they seem to be much more readily eaten by torts than the LS formula. Both types need to be soaked.
 

AgataP

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My baby sulcata gets fresh grass, weeds and some dandelion flowers in the enclosure I take it out when I see it it’s not fresh means probably few hours and put few new ones.
I stick usually 3 Mazuri wet pellets - he eats maybe one of them than he walks on them and when I look at him via camera I often see him picking up some of Mazuri.
I planted a lot of grass seeds that are coming in, moved weeds with roots - looks like the love the warm humid enclosure so he can graze whenever he feels like it.

Ps. I am obsessed with his weigh gain. I use to weight him 6 times a day ??.
 
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