my tortoise is a picky eather what to do

[proudnewdad]

hello out their this might be a dum question but im having trouble feeding my tortoise any ting but romaine lettes i have tried grasses food from the pet store some paste type food and currently trying some zoomed natural grassland tortoise food dry and wet and even mixed in whit romaine lettes and they still wont eat anything but plain lettes what im i doing wrong

 

[egyptiandan]

Have you tried other greens? Have you tried Spring mix that you can get at the grocery store? Hatchling sulcatas don't eat much grass until they are a bit older.

Danny

 

[proudnewdad]

do you mean like ready pack salads no i havent ive tried other stuff i think it was collard greens but they dident like it i wode like to get them off romaine i hear its not the best for them

 

[Yvonne G]

Spring Mix is a pre-packaged mixture of the young leaves of different greens. It is a very nice variety and the young sulcatas take to it very well. You can take a small pinch of hay or grass and sprinkle it over the top of the greens, and eventually they will start to eat it, but not usually when they are very young.

Yvonne

 

[awebb]

Hello all,
I just started feeding my sulcata romain, is it okay to put some of it into hid diet? How much and how often? He is only over 100 days old. About the grassland, something that might help, i put a few into his water dish when hydrate him, hopeing he is tasting the grassland in the water and going to get used to it. I dont know if this method works, but you could try.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hello all,
I just started feeding my sulcata romain, is it okay to put some of it into hid diet? How much and how often? He is only over 100 days old. About the grassland, something that might help, i put a few into his water dish when hydrate him, hopeing he is tasting the grassland in the water and going to get used to it. I dont know if this method works, but you could try.

Romaine has almost no nutrients at all. It is NOT a good thing for them to eat. If you feed a nice variety of different greens, then a leaf or two of romaine is not bad, but romaine on its own isn't good enough.

Yvonne

 

[Meg90]

When I don't want my Greek to be picky...I grate alittle bit of something over all of his greens. He usually ignores the chard, and red lettuce if he can, but if there are pieces of shredded carrot stuck to them, he will eat it.

It might help to do something like that, just to get them eating...they are attracted to brightly colored foods.

 

[awebb]

A question about the natural grassland food. I was told be the pet shop that it is very important to have in their diet, but my tortoise 'bulbasaur' will eat around everything that has the grassland on it, waits for all the food to dry up a little and then eats the spring mix.
On that note, when is a good age or time period to start incorporating different vegetation into their diet's. Instead of throwing all kinds of food at him to waste it.

 

[krissy2288]

when you put the lettuce in make it be wet then squish up the grassland food then sprinkle it over the lettuce, and it should stick to the lettuce. after a while your tortoise will become acustom to the taste. then you can start to put the grassland in there by its self and your tortoise should eat it.

 

[Maggie Cummings]

I don't think you should feed that grassland stuff at all.
I use Spring Mix from the produce section in the grocery store as a
base. Then I add stuff like endive, escarole, radicchio, red leaf and
green leaf lettuces, butter lettuce, collards, dandelions, and kale... I
sprinkle hay over the top and there ya go! Tortoise salad...here's a
couple of links to help you out...romaine is mostly water and really
doesn't add much nutrition.
Instead of putting the food into a water dish to hydrate him, put the tort into a water dish for a good long soak. If you soak him everyday you don't need to make his food soggy. He's not going to want to eat soggy food. Stop that practice...here's a couple of links to Sulcata care sheets study up on these and lean how to care for your tort properly...

http://africantortoise.com/

http://www.chelonia.org/Articles/sulcatacare.htm

 

[Crazy1]

I am not sure grassland food is essential in any torts diet. A good mixture of greens, grasses and hay is though. Remember Pet stores are there to make money and not all are versed in the correct care of torts. As Yvonne stated most young Sullys do not take to hay or grasses.
I personally feel that right from the start a tort should have a variety of greens. I include things like spring mix, hibiscus flowers and leaves, grape leaves, mulberry leaves, rose flowers and leaves, dandelion flowers and leaves, clovers. Escarole, Endive, wondering jew, geranium flowers and leaves, etc. All these different foods I mix up and make into a salad type mix for them. Of course depending on the time of year some of the things make it into the salad mix in summer some in winter. This I find also helps make them a non picky eater. If they get a variety from the start they never get stuck on one particular food.

 

[egyptiandan]

Romaine gets to much of a bad rap Here are the nutrition facts. http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2475/2
You can change it for weight or outer leaf. It's got the most nutrition in the outer leaves

Danny

 

[Tim/Robin]

We have a lot of different species of tortoises (as you can see from our signature) and we try to simplify our feeding as much as possible. We don't want to make a special salad for each tortoise or we would surely feel a bit crazy. We recognize that certain species like certain foods more than other species. Even certain tortoises within that species tend to hog a certain type of food when its offered.

But some tortoises seem to be like our kids...the first time, or even the first several times a new food is offered the torts turn their noses to it and won't eat it. But if we know its a food good for tortoises we keep offering it. We never offer a single food at feeding time, there is always a choice (spring mix, Mazuri, curly endive, squash, cactus,etc). So if they don't like the new item, they won't go hungry. But don't give up, sometimes the tortoise just hasn't grown a taste for it. When we first started offering squash as the season for it started, many torts wouldn't touch it. But now, even the sleepy heads will awaken for squash and its definitely a favorite.

 

[Kristina]

Romaine gets to much of a bad rap Here are the nutrition facts. http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2475/2
You can change it for weight or outer leaf. It's got the most nutrition in the outer leaves

Danny

The thing that I do not like about romaine is that it has a Ca: P ratio of only 0.8:1. A proper ratio should be at least 2:1. For those that may not know, Ca: P is Calciumhosphorus. Too much phosphorus blocks calcium absorption. The amount of calcium should be at least double the amount of phosphorus, and as high as 5 times, or 5:1.

Kristina

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I am not sure grassland food is essential in any torts diet. A good mixture of greens, grasses and hay is though. Remember Pet stores are there to make money and not all are versed in the correct care of torts. As Yvonne stated most young Sullys do not take to hay or grasses.
I personally feel that right from the start a tort should have a variety of greens. I include things like spring mix, hibiscus flowers and leaves, grape leaves, mulberry leaves, rose flowers and leaves, dandelion flowers and leaves, clovers. Escarole, Endive, wondering jew, geranium flowers and leaves, etc. All these different foods I mix up and make into a salad type mix for them. Of course depending on the time of year some of the things make it into the salad mix in summer some in winter. This I find also helps make them a non picky eater. If they get a variety from the start they never get stuck on one particular food.

I agree with Maggie and Crazy, processed food is not essential to any torts diet. If you are feeding a varied enough diet (such as Crazy suggested) then you do not need the processed food. Soybean hulls, corn, wheat, molasses, and other items in many processed foods are things that are not available to wild torts.

Zoomed Grassland Diet contains alfalfa, which is high in protein (median 18%.) High protein diets are associated with pyramiding and growth rates that are too fast.

It also contains a vitamin D3 supplement.

One of the top ingredients is Monocalcium Phosphate, which also contains a Ca: P ratio of 0.8:1.

Just my two cents.

Kristina

 

[Speedy_Tortoise]

I have a question. When you say, "give him a pinch of grass with his food," do you mean like regular lawn grass?

 

[Yvonne G]

I have a question. When you say, "give him a pinch of grass with his food," do you mean like regular lawn grass?

Yes, provided the lawn hasn't been fertilized or sprayed for bugs.

Yvonne