Mazuri...

Perca05

New Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2014
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7
Location (City and/or State)
Temecula, California
So I have been feeding my new little leopard tortoise a variety of things, but including Mazuri in all of them. I take 2 mazuri pellets and moisten them, and then smush them into the chopped greens. I swear he/she picks around it. I have tried just putting the moistened pellets on the plate, maybe just breaking it open. No go. How do you get them to eat the mazuri? Should I only offer it until he/she eats it?
 

ben32hayt

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Nov 24, 2012
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try moistening the mazuri and placing the moistened pellets inside an edible flower . then pinch the the pedals of the flower forming a football shaped flower. after you do that you can tie the pedals of the flower together with a blade of grass or stem of a dandelion. my explanation was pretty lame so i will provide a link to a thread which i use this technique with a hard boiled egg. the photos are midway down the thread.

link: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/incorporating-meat-protein-in-diet.95117/
 
M

Maggie Cummings

Guest
This is my personal experience. Mazuri is a decent food, however, if you feed a wide variety of weeds, blooms, grape leafs, mulberry leafs dandelions etc. In other words, a good diet, Mazuri is not needed. I especially believe that young tortoises love the sweet taste of the molasses and will stop eating the greens because they just want the Mazuri.
In fact, I have a 10 year old Hermanni who has always been a real easy keeper, a good eater and a great little tortoise.
I feed my bigger tortoises Mazuri about once a month if they are having loose stools from the produce they've eaten and this month Queenie has decided she was only going to eat the Mazuri and no weeds or greens. So now for 5 weeks I have been going round and round with her about eating correctly. At first I mash up soften Mazuri to mix with her greens, figuring she'd get greens that way...No dice, nothing I have tried has gotten her back to eating a good diet. So in following HermanniChris' advice, she's only offered good weeds and greens and no Mazuri at all. At this point she is tougher than I as she is refusing all food. But I trust Chris and he says Queenie will not starve herself to death, so I am sticking to the no Mazuri policy.
I am telling you this long story so you can see that Mazuri is not necessary, just feed a good diet high in dark leafy greens, weeds etc. Sorry, I really didn't mean to hijack your thread, but I wouldn't offer your baby Mazuri...
 

Flipper

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May 27, 2014
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715
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MO, USA
This is my personal experience. Mazuri is a decent food, however, if you feed a wide variety of weeds, blooms, grape leafs, mulberry leafs dandelions etc. In other words, a good diet, Mazuri is not needed. I especially believe that young tortoises love the sweet taste of the molasses and will stop eating the greens because they just want the Mazuri.
In fact, I have a 10 year old Hermanni who has always been a real easy keeper, a good eater and a great little tortoise.
I feed my bigger tortoises Mazuri about once a month if they are having loose stools from the produce they've eaten and this month Queenie has decided she was only going to eat the Mazuri and no weeds or greens. So now for 5 weeks I have been going round and round with her about eating correctly. At first I mash up soften Mazuri to mix with her greens, figuring she'd get greens that way...No dice, nothing I have tried has gotten her back to eating a good diet. So in following HermanniChris' advice, she's only offered good weeds and greens and no Mazuri at all. At this point she is tougher than I as she is refusing all food. But I trust Chris and he says Queenie will not starve herself to death, so I am sticking to the no Mazuri policy.
I am telling you this long story so you can see that Mazuri is not necessary, just feed a good diet high in dark leafy greens, weeds etc. Sorry, I really didn't mean to hijack your thread, but I wouldn't offer your baby Mazuri...

Yikes! What a bummer! Good luck! I hope she eats soon!
 

lismar79

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I use it to entice new foods such as hay and more grasses for my 10 month sully, if she want the goods then she has to eat the healthy. I do this by mixing it in a food processer. Maybe this would work in reverse as well. My other one won't touch it so I do not make her.
 

Dizisdalife

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So I have been feeding my new little leopard tortoise a variety of things, but including Mazuri in all of them. I take 2 mazuri pellets and moisten them, and then smush them into the chopped greens. I swear he/she picks around it. I have tried just putting the moistened pellets on the plate, maybe just breaking it open. No go. How do you get them to eat the mazuri? Should I only offer it until he/she eats it?
As Maggie pointed out, they can be stubborn. As long as they are eating a variety of greens, weeds, grasses, I wouldn't force my tortoise to eat Mazuri. Offer it once in a while and eventually your tortoise will eat it.
 

Perca05

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Joined
Jun 18, 2014
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7
Location (City and/or State)
Temecula, California
Thank you for the replies. I have been giving him timothy hay, weeds from the yard, grass clippings. He will not eat any of it. Just wants the salad mix from the store. Do I not offer the salad anymore and 'make' him eat his weeds and grass? I don't have access to grape leaves. I have tried offering leaves off of my fig tree and those don't work either. I don't want to starve him. I just bought a hibiscus, so am waiting for it to get some blooms. I also just started a planter of tortoise weeds from seeds at Carolina Pet supply.
 
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