Not eating foods with Calcium or medicine.

[Cherepakha]

Hi guys!
After searching I could not find a significant answer, so I decided to open a thread.
My (presumed) 5 year old Russian is an impish little turtle. We've had her for a little over 2 weeks and in that time she hasn't been eating much, but after a trip to the vet he assured us she was doing fine. He did diagnose little parasites in her and gave us medicine to treat it. But here comes the plot:
she won't eat any foods with the calcium powder or parasite medicine (pills smashed into powder).
How do we get her to eat it? We have tried just sprinkling it over the food, making the food wet and then mixing that water with the powder so she won't see it. We use brocolli to do this as it has a strong smell.
Are there any other ways to make her ingest it? I've been thinking of giving her a bath in water with calcium in it.

Any suggestions are very welcome!

 

[Maggie Cummings]

Offer her cuttle bone instead of calcium powder. I'd put a pill in something she likes, a strawberry maybe. They shouldn't have fruit but a bit of strawberry to hide a pill won't hurt.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Jessica:

When you use calcium powder, you only use a very tiny amount...a small pinch between the thumb and index finger. As to the pill, the way Maggie suggests is a good idea, but because of the small size of the tortoise you may have to break the pill into smaller pieces. I punch out a hole in a strawberry with a sipping straw and insert the pill into the hole. But because your tortoise is so small, I think a straw might be too big for this operation, so figure out a smaller way to make a hole to insert the piece of pill into. Cut a strawberry into bite-size pieces and try to make it small enough to go into the tortoise's mouth in one bite.

 

[ascott]

Awesome....follow the sisters advice...they are bang on

 

[Cherepakha]

Our vet gave us the same advise, we had to cut the pill into 1/8th of its size. Still, the clever little buggar won't eat it. Even smashed into powder. I'll try it with a strawberry.
About the calcium powder: so you say, just a small pinch between two fingers. I used like the edge of a tea spoon, but that was probably too much then.
Thanks for the advise everyone!

 

[Yvonne G]

Yup...it doesn't taste or smell like food to a tortoise so the less calcium you use the easier to get them to eat it.

 

[Cherepakha]

Okay, let's try it