Hello everyone!
This is my first post and I've had a Russian Tortoise for about 2 months now. I figured this is the place to look for the answers.
I admit, at first I made a lot of mistakes while having her before I ran into these forums. Fixed most of the problems but there are still some mysteries remaining.
At first I was always making sure that there's something for her to eat whenever she feels like it. She's way too cute and I don't want her to starve. After googling about obese tortoises and how much Russians can eat, had to change the tactic. Needless to say, it was a mistake to feed her that much Thank god she's still normal sized.
Now I place a ton of food for her to eat and remove it after 20 minutes. I do this once a day. So it's all-you-can-eat buffet everyday but only 20 minutes.
My new problem is, the tortoise needs a place to burrow and I have a box filled with wheat. She digs herself into that pile of wheat whenever she wants to take a nap or sleep or just for fun times. Well hooray, she figured that wheat = food. Now she started eating her place to burrow into. So my question is, can wheat be bad? As in can she become obese by eating wheat? Or is wheat one of those substances that she might eat a bit and get bored and won't become obese of it? Considering I feed her once a day the 20min routine and she may or may not proceed to eat her burrow wheat later before going to sleep
I'd really love to keep the wheat for her to burrow since it fits her box perfectly but I'm cautious and don't want her to become obese :-(
Oh, and one more thing. She's bit over a year old. Is the 20min routine of feeding good for a tortoise her age?
This is my first post and I've had a Russian Tortoise for about 2 months now. I figured this is the place to look for the answers.
I admit, at first I made a lot of mistakes while having her before I ran into these forums. Fixed most of the problems but there are still some mysteries remaining.
At first I was always making sure that there's something for her to eat whenever she feels like it. She's way too cute and I don't want her to starve. After googling about obese tortoises and how much Russians can eat, had to change the tactic. Needless to say, it was a mistake to feed her that much Thank god she's still normal sized.
Now I place a ton of food for her to eat and remove it after 20 minutes. I do this once a day. So it's all-you-can-eat buffet everyday but only 20 minutes.
My new problem is, the tortoise needs a place to burrow and I have a box filled with wheat. She digs herself into that pile of wheat whenever she wants to take a nap or sleep or just for fun times. Well hooray, she figured that wheat = food. Now she started eating her place to burrow into. So my question is, can wheat be bad? As in can she become obese by eating wheat? Or is wheat one of those substances that she might eat a bit and get bored and won't become obese of it? Considering I feed her once a day the 20min routine and she may or may not proceed to eat her burrow wheat later before going to sleep
I'd really love to keep the wheat for her to burrow since it fits her box perfectly but I'm cautious and don't want her to become obese :-(
Oh, and one more thing. She's bit over a year old. Is the 20min routine of feeding good for a tortoise her age?