My red foot won't eat anything but pellets

[Angrycowgoesmoo]

I have been having troubles with my red foot. He won't eat anything but pellets. I leave a bowl of pellets and a bowl of veggies in and he still won't touch the veggie bowl. I ever putted a strawberry on the top hoping he would at least eat it but he always goes to the pellets. I think he was fed those pellets when he was being raised is there any way that I could do to make him eat the veggies more? I also changed his house so since that day he barely eats the greens anymore or come out

 

[CtTortoiseMom]

I would not give pellets at all and instead give fresh, greens grasses and weeds.

 

[Crucian Gold]

I have been having troubles with my red foot. He won't eat anything but pellets. I leave a bowl of pellets and a bowl of veggies in and he still won't touch the veggie bowl. I ever putted a strawberry on the top hoping he would at least eat it but he always goes to the pellets. I think he was fed those pellets when he was being raised is there any way that I could do to make him eat the veggies more? I also changed his house so since that day he barely eats the greens anymore or come out

Try rolling a bit of soft fruit such as mango, strawberry or banana in the pellets. Cover the fruit as thickly as you can. You can also try making a paste of the pellets and mixing it well with finely chopped greens such as collards, romaine or mixed organic greens. Don't make the pellets available without a healthy food attached. It make take a while but eventually they will be eating the diet that is better for them without pellets.

 

[Angrycowgoesmoo]

Well I give it as a choice in a diff bowl with his normal food in a different bowl but he just won't eat it even if I take it out he wouldn't eat anything

 

[Robert]

Well I give it as a choice in a diff bowl with his normal food in a different bowl but he just won't eat it even if I take it out he wouldn't eat anything

He will eat it when he gets hungry enough. Sometimes it's hard to break habits. Tough love.

 

[Angrycowgoesmoo]

Okay I will try to just leave the pellets out and only put in greens

 

[Madkins007]

To keep things really simple, just leave the pellets out of the meals for a while. While I like what pellets can do, I am often a bit frustrated that the molasses and similar ingredients make them more attractive to tortoises that get used to them then less sweet offerings. Some people even call pellets addictive.

Offer fresh food daily- varying it as much as you can in case they just don't like what is offered- and it will eat the other stuff when it is hungry. Offering some fresh fruit may help- banana, strawberry, apple, etc. I don't suggest sweet fruits as a routine diet item, even for Red-foots, but it is not a big deal to use it to get them off pellets.

Once it starts eating fresh stuff, don't offer the pellets again for a while, and then introduce it back slowly and in small amounts so it gets used to eating a lot of different things.

 

[Angrycowgoesmoo]

I have just tooken the pellets out. I decided to just feed him it by doing what his previous owner did which was he would pour some water on the pellets till it's all moist and not hard and mix it with the greens so he gets both the good stuff in the greens and pellets

 

[Geochelone_Carbonaria]

I had the same problem myself without knowing it.

I bought a young male a couple of years ago, and he was about five years then, and I later found out that he was raised on German crappy dry tortoise pellets. I could not figure out why he refused to eat fresh greens and fruit. But after nearly a week, he started to eat "normally" like the rest of my RF's.

So my advice is just to keep it simple; do NOT give him pellets anymore, only fresh greens and fruit, and he will start to eat normally after a couple of days when he gets hungry !

Simple as that...

 

[Angrycowgoesmoo]

Well I didn't give him the pellets today and he seemed just fine. Except he didn't eat all of the food he just ate half of it.

 

[Geochelone_Carbonaria]

Well I didn't give him the pellets today and he seemed just fine. Except he didn't eat all of the food he just ate half of it.

See ? You're doing just fine ! Don't worry, it will all go to a normal state, once he settles down and adjust himselve to the new routines.