First off, let me stress that I am NOT a vet nor a scientist nor a nutritionist, so you can take my opinion or leave it.
In MY OPINION, if a tortoise is eating his substrate, there is something in his diet that he's not getting. And if he were living naturally, outside, he wouldn't "eat his substrate," he'd eat some dirt, or some rocks, or whatever is outside on the ground.
There's a big clay cliff in South America where hundreds of parrots go every day and lick the clay (or, eat their substrate).
If I notice one of my tortoises showing an interest in eating dirt, I sprinkle a bit more vitamins and minerals over their food for a few days.
Some of the substrates we use for tortoises really shouldn't be going through their digestive tracts. For example, the cypress mulch that I use is pretty big chunks. So I try to make sure that my tortoises get a well-rounded diet and I use a vitamin/mineral/calcium supplement.
(Please feel free to add to or argue with this thread)
In MY OPINION, if a tortoise is eating his substrate, there is something in his diet that he's not getting. And if he were living naturally, outside, he wouldn't "eat his substrate," he'd eat some dirt, or some rocks, or whatever is outside on the ground.
There's a big clay cliff in South America where hundreds of parrots go every day and lick the clay (or, eat their substrate).
If I notice one of my tortoises showing an interest in eating dirt, I sprinkle a bit more vitamins and minerals over their food for a few days.
Some of the substrates we use for tortoises really shouldn't be going through their digestive tracts. For example, the cypress mulch that I use is pretty big chunks. So I try to make sure that my tortoises get a well-rounded diet and I use a vitamin/mineral/calcium supplement.
(Please feel free to add to or argue with this thread)
