Is it healthy to eat mostly pellets? (T-Rex Tortoise Dry Forumla)

[Cundou]

Hello, I'm new here and thought I'd see if there was anyone here willing to share their thoughts! ^_^

I have a Testudo Graeca who's around 10 years old and as far as I can tell perfectly healthy, though a bit bumpy on his shell as his first owner tended to feed him only lettuce. They did keep him outside a lot during summer though, so I guess he ate something else when he had the chance.

After I got him 5 years ago, I've done my best to find a suitable diet, but it's been tough to find something that is healthy as well as affordable - and available in enough quantity and quality throughout the year.

I have usually given him a diet of weeds in the summer (usually clover and dandelion, both flowers and leaves) and he roams about outside in the garden a lot and may eat whatever he finds, but it's mostly those two I've seen him eat. In winter, I have fed him lettuce (Cos lettuce), squash and the last couple of winters also pellets: T-Rex Tortoise Dry Formula. I sprinkle the food with calcium powder two days a week. Occassionally he's been given a small tomato since he seems to love them.

This summer however, he seems to refuse to eat much besides the pellets, even when he's outside! I have offered him all his favorite food and he hardly touches it, but pellets is very popular if I mix them in, though he leaves everything else behind if he can!

Basically, my question is:
Is it healthy for the little guy to be eating mostly pellets? I've read that the T-Rex formula may be a bit high in protein, so I'm wondering if there is any danger of him getting too much/too little vitamins of any sort. And why won't he eat normal food? Has he just become picky and needs to be "forced" to eat it (by taking away the pellets)?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Missy82]

Hi, I wouldnt recommend pellets at any time of year. I have problems finding suitable food during the winter but there are much better options than pellets such as shop bought leaves. Lettuce is good but not to often as it can be high in oxides especially iceberg. Another good alternative is to grow ur own weed garden, you only need a window sill and u can buy the seeds I have two trays on rotation and koopa my tort loves them. I have seen pictures of torts exclusivly fed on pellets and its not good.
Hope this helps im sure other members have other ideas aswell.
p.s I think its the florette mix of leaves that are best.

 

[dmarcus]

Hello and welcome to the forum...

It could be that he is just not interested in what you have been offering, have you tried dark leafy greens like collards, Swiss chard, kale, etc... You can also try cactus pads... I don't know about any ill effects of eating pellets other than not getting all the nutrients that he needs. I used pellets with a varied diet for a few years but I don't use them anymore. I am far from an expert on this but I am sure someone more knowledgeable will answer this in more detail. I only suggest offering more variety and depending on where you’re at, most grocery stores offer great selection for a decent price...

Also if he is eating grass, he could just be getting all he wants and just doesn’t want anything else...

 

[Cundou]

Hey, and thanks for the replies!
I'm having difficulties with getting proper advice about this as I live in a country with very strict ownership rules for reptiles, and thus the pet stores and even veterinarians know next to nothing about tortoises. When I asked the pet store for advice they just said "pellets should be good, just add it to the normal food" after reading the back of the box (I guess they would say that since they do sell the stuff... but one of them actually claims to know stuff about tortoises, though I have no idea on what level). I told the vets (there are two that I've been to with my tort, there's no more in driving distance) about how I feed him, and they said it was probably all okay - with pellets and all. At least his check-ups have been okay! =)

But what they say doesn't always fit with what I've read on the net and in books, so I get confused with who I should trust and what's right. I want to care for my tort properly, and feeding him is kind of important. He does not eat grass or hay, and seem to be picky about stuff even when he's outside. I wonder if he's just become picky in general!
I found The Tortoise Table today and downloaded their "Edible Plant Collection" brochure, am planning to start growing some of those in there. I'll look for them in the stores and if I can't find them there I guess it's time to go hunting in the wild. I'm worried about running out of food for him though, especially in winter. Any ideas on how much should I aim to grow?

I plan to change his indoor enclosure and add plants to it too. When I get my own private garden I'll build an enclosure there as well for summer, so I hope I'll be able to care for him properly. There's great plans in the future for my little Testudo. But until that happens I need to give him food! It will be at least one year before I can start building and growing things outside.

For now I guess I'll have to try and make him eat something else instead of pellets(?). Is it bad if he doesn't eat for a few days? Maybe he'll start eating the other food again if I just continue to give him that and not pellets. Then again, I always felt like clover and dandelions isn't varied enough. What kind of store-bought things can they eat? The vet said no to kale and cabbage, and well, store products in general... Because they are treated with things that are not good to tortoises I guess. But I dunno, they might not be so bad? At least a little of it, in addition to weeds maybe?

Sorry to be asking so many questions, but I'm glad if I can get a little help here ^^

 

[dmarcus]

Just make sure there is no wait loss and his activity level does not change when he decides to stop eating. There was a few times in the past where I ran out of food to feed my Sulcata and I had to wait 2 days before I had the money to get him anything, and those pellets I had came in handy.

Until you can get things set up the way you want, just use whats available. Even though I have everything I need to feed both my tortoise's growing in my yard, I still on occasion buy them something special from the store like Romaine, or Bok Choy.. Also, until I start getting some good growth from my cactus at home, I still buy it from the grocery store..

 

[Cundou]

That sounds reasonable. I guess it bothers me a little, being unsure about his diet >_> Especially when he suddenly does something unusual. It's the mother instinct!

I'll see if I can start growing some plants this summer for inside at least. I'll check if I can find weeds and wild flowers in the stores, seeds or anything. If not, I'll try and find other edibple plants that can be bought in the stores - I think the edible plants list at The Tortoise Table will be very helpful. What I'm concerned with is whether he'll refuse to eat anything other than pellets xD

But if he refuses, I'll wait a few days, and if he still doesn't eat... Um. I guess I'll be worried again.

 

[dmarcus]

Yes if he goes more than a few days then you should worry, also it's okay to offer a little fruit just to get him to eat something.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Cundou:

Welcome to the forum!!

May we know your name and where you are?

You can buy any of the dark, leafy greens that you can find in the produce section of the grocery store. But if the tortoise is outside, I'll bet he's finding enough food to keep him full.

 

[Tom]

Hello and welcome to the forum. I'm dying to know which country you are in.

Which ZooMed food are you using? The Grassland one or the Forrest Tortoise one? My initial inclination is to say that, no, pellets alone probably are not adequate. However, I don't know that anyone has ever raised a tortoise just on pellets and evaluated the results. It MIGHT be okay. About the grocery store foods: My opinion is this: If those vegetables are deemed safe for human consumption, I believe they are also safe for our tortoises. I have been feeding grocery store foods to tortoises since 1986 with no problems that I am aware of. I like kale, endive, escarole, collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, carrot tops, parsley, Italian parsley, cilantro red or green leaf lettuce, butter lettuce, watercress, bok choy, chard, red chard, etc... I also like spring mix (called rocket mix in the UK). Its an easy way to offer some variety. About protein: It is not the "evil monster" we all once thought it was. A little bit of plant based protein is actually essential to their good health.

If your temps are warm and your little guy is passing up appropriate foods, then he's probably not hungry and just being picky. They can go weeks with no food at all and be fine, so I would not worry about letting him get hungry for a few days to test the theory.

 

[October]

If you would like to grow some of your own tort food, carolinapetsupply.com and sulcataseed.com both sell pre-mixed seed mixes. Very easy to grow.

 

[Cundou]

Hey, thanks a lot for the advices everyone! I'm from Norway, for those who wondered, and my real name is Cathrine. (I updated my profile information now so it should look more pro now =P)
The man of the house (read: tortoise) is named Ronny - I guess that would be translated to Ron were it a novel ^_^

I do have him outside several hours a day whenever we're home (mainly weekends). At weekdays he's usually sleeping when I come home from work (his days starts at 7:30 am and ends at 3 pm it seems), so I leave him be. It's too cold at night here so I bring him in in the evening anyway. It's not really a proper enclosure, just a dog fence with some anti-bird defense which I decided to put up after coming outside one day and seeing a Magpie sitting on top of him. They are very interested in the strange creature walking around, so I prefer not taking chances.

Anyway, since I'm currently renting and planning to move, I can't and won't use a lot of energy and money on making a proper outdoor enclosure for him yet. I have a flowerbed and a shelter for him though, so I do have space to plant a few things. And well, while he's out there he usually just tries to walk through the fence, as the space he has never gets big enough, even though it's at least four meters long and three meters wide at the moment... (he's about 20 centimeters long, so you'd figure that was enough, but I guess it's too boring in there)
Well, the point is, he might be eating in between the times I look out at him. But he's been eating differently this summer compared to the previous ones, as in, whenever I've offered him his usual summer diet during weekdays he doesn't eat much at all.

But I'll give it another try! Tomorrow I'll pick some wild growing roses from behind our house, and dandelion, clover, and maybe I'll find something else with the help of my new plant booklet. We have a lot of raspberry bushes too; can they eat the leaves? By the way, I've always wondered, but is it normal for all tortoises to eat grass? I've never seen him eat any, that's why. Perhaps he's just the kind of guy who prefer exclusive food?

 

[Cundou]

Small update: Today I served him a big green breakfast with clover, dandelion and wild rose petals, and by the time I left for work he was already chomping it down. I guess he wasn't that hard to convince after all xD

I still wonder whether they can eat raspberry leaves though. The Tortoise Table didn't have it listed, as far as I could tell. Does anyone know? We have tons of it behind our house, so it would be a great source of food.

 

[-EJ]

In norway you should be able to find NutraZu. I think that is a better pelleted diet but T-rex is not bad at all.

Tortoises do very well on pelleted diets alone and T-rex is one of them.

You mentioned the tortoise is kept outdoors. Dark leafy greens are important for keeping the beak trim. You can feed the diet dry but make sure there is plenty of water for the tortoise.

Hello, I'm new here and thought I'd see if there was anyone here willing to share their thoughts! ^_^

I have a Testudo Graeca who's around 10 years old and as far as I can tell perfectly healthy, though a bit bumpy on his shell as his first owner tended to feed him only lettuce. They did keep him outside a lot during summer though, so I guess he ate something else when he had the chance.

After I got him 5 years ago, I've done my best to find a suitable diet, but it's been tough to find something that is healthy as well as affordable - and available in enough quantity and quality throughout the year.

I have usually given him a diet of weeds in the summer (usually clover and dandelion, both flowers and leaves) and he roams about outside in the garden a lot and may eat whatever he finds, but it's mostly those two I've seen him eat. In winter, I have fed him lettuce (Cos lettuce), squash and the last couple of winters also pellets: T-Rex Tortoise Dry Formula. I sprinkle the food with calcium powder two days a week. Occassionally he's been given a small tomato since he seems to love them.

This summer however, he seems to refuse to eat much besides the pellets, even when he's outside! I have offered him all his favorite food and he hardly touches it, but pellets is very popular if I mix them in, though he leaves everything else behind if he can!

Basically, my question is:
Is it healthy for the little guy to be eating mostly pellets? I've read that the T-Rex formula may be a bit high in protein, so I'm wondering if there is any danger of him getting too much/too little vitamins of any sort. And why won't he eat normal food? Has he just become picky and needs to be "forced" to eat it (by taking away the pellets)?

Thanks for any help!

 

[dmarcus]

Glad to hear that he was eating this morning!!