My Star Only Eats Tomato

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satchit

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My Baby Star only eats Tomato , that also twice a day.
I have never seen him/her having water.

Please advice
 

Yvonne G

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I've never taken care of star tortoises, and have no knowledge of how to feed them, however, I wanted to say that a captive tortoise, inside a habitat in the house, can only eat what you feed it. I would stop giving the tomatoes right away, and only give dark, leafy greens. The tortoise may not eat for a few days, but he will eventually eat. They won't purposely starve themselves.
 

bmt123

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He probably gets a lot of water from those tomatoes
 

johnreuk

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I would try and wean it into other foodstuffs, since I believe tortoises will purposely starve themselves. And slow diet change is better than a sudden one. Hope you have success!! My star like a variety of foods, but goes nuts for dandelion and plantain.
 

xXtortoiseloverXx

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try to chop whatever greens u wanna give him with tomato,and once he eating other stuff,then stop give him tomato.
 

patilraosaheb

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As per my breeder, we should not feed tomato to little stars. Leafy's are best. Cabbage and Coriander Leaves they like most and fenugreek leaves is best one.
 

shanu303

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patilraosaheb said:
As per my breeder, we should not feed tomato to little stars. Leafy's are best. Cabbage and Coriander Leaves they like most and fenugreek leaves is best one.

well sorry to interfere but.... cabbage should not be fed to the tortoise
Although not toxic, Cabbage contains goitrogens that interfere with thyroid activity and could damage the liver and kidneys.(source:http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/site/plants_19.asp?catID=621)
 

mctlong

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He won't get all of the nutrition he needs by eating tomato exclusively. He'll get malnourished and sick on this diet. He needs much more variety. He needs dark leafy greens, weeds, grasses.

xXtortoiseloverXx said:
try to chop whatever greens u wanna give him with tomato,and once he eating other stuff,then stop give him tomato.

Agree.

Chop some good leafy greens up finely and mix with chopped tomato. At every meal, reduce the amount of tomato a little and increase the amount of chopped greens. Eventually you'll be feeding all greens and zero tomato and he won't even notice the difference.

Focus on giving a wide variety of foods, not just one or a few things. The more variety he gets, the more nutrients he gets, and the healthier he'll be.


Also, welcome to the forum!!! :)
 

tortoise_man1

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Tortoises will get adictted to sweet foods, that might by why it only eats tomatos.
 

BeeBee*BeeLeaves

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Indeed. Agree with everyone before me. Variety of foods, just like us humans, is the key. Get all those leafy green and weedy good-for-me plants and chop away, mixing in a little of that tomato in so that your tortoise starts to eat the things that are healthier and more balanced for it . I use scissors to prepare my hatchling's meals because he is so little, but it is a great way to get everything to blend together. I put many different things: dandelions, grasses, mustard greens, hibiscus, roses, grape leaves in a small bowl and scissor it all up there. It real blends it well that way. Easy. Remember that our tortoises do everything soooooo slooooowwww. So although it might not seem that an all tomato all the time feeding is doing harm now, later on it will catch up with him/her and health will suffer. Variety and prevention is best with our lovely tortoises. Hope this helps. : )
 
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