Not Eating Food, But Trying to Eat Rocks

kai.oki

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I've had my Russian tortoise for close to 3 weeks now. As I mentioned in a previous thread, she had no problem eating for the first week. She'd happily eat out of my hand or off her feeding plate, and would eat anything we put in there (lamb's lettuce, endive, dandelion greens, kale, etc.) But 13 days ago she stopped eating completely, didn't touch anything we put in there.

A couple of days ago, we put some new big rocks in her enclosure. She went to inspect each one, and after a good sniff repeatedly tried to take bites out of them! I read this can be normal, especially if they're lacking minerals in their diet. As an experiment, I tried feeding her something different than the usual leafy greens and weeds- I put the white parts of an iceberg lettuce down in front of her. She immediately went to town, devouring the whole lot. (Don't worry- I don't intend for iceberg lettuce to be part of her diet! I was just interested to see what happened.)

Anyone have a clue why this would be?
 

Crzt4torts

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Are you soaking her regularly? Iceberg has a very high water content...maybe she is a bit dehydrated?
 

kai.oki

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Are you soaking her regularly? Iceberg has a very high water content...maybe she is a bit dehydrated?

I've been soaking her each morning for the last week, since it appeared that she was trying to hibernate (and because she hadn't been eating). So I think she's well hydrated :)
 

kai.oki

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Is she getting enough calcium? My Hermanns like cuttlefish bone

She has one but she's never used it. I put a little calcium on her food every few days, but I imagine she would have been a bit depleted if she stopped eating.

Funnily enough, shortly after posting this thread, she started eating again! Had a few big endive leaves yesterday and the same again this morning. Seems like she's getting back to normal :)
 

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