My little Rosebud is 100 grams today! Hooray! She is the world's pickiest eater. Only eats dandelions greens, banana and apple, unless you give her a patch of weeds in our back pasture. She really likes Indian ponyfoot, looks a little like clover. She hates berries by the way, little weirdo. Shes about 2 years old and slept all winter. I made her bathe and eat a little every other day but she just had a thimbleful before dozing off again. I was really worried but now she's up all the time and really putting on weight. I've heard she only half a normal size for her age but she's really happy. She bobs at me whenever I feed her and begs to go outside by looking out the windows. Thanks for all the good advice I've been getting.
Pickiest eater
- Thread starter Slow60
- Start date
What temperature is her enclosure? Usually when a tortoise is that lethargic it is too cold.
Can you show us pictures of her from top, bottom, profile/side, head-on, tail end, and pictures of her enclosure., please.
Are we still talking about a RedFoot? She shouldn't have been like that at all for the winter... RedFoots don't brumate.
The soaks are lukewarm/95F the entire half-hour or longer that she's in the water, replenished with warmer before it goes cold., right?
.
Can you show us pictures of her from top, bottom, profile/side, head-on, tail end, and pictures of her enclosure., please.
Are we still talking about a RedFoot? She shouldn't have been like that at all for the winter... RedFoots don't brumate.
The soaks are lukewarm/95F the entire half-hour or longer that she's in the water, replenished with warmer before it goes cold., right?
.
mojo_1
Well-Known Member
a 2 year old redfoot should be 800 to 1000 grams. And they definitely don't brumate
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2014
- Messages
- 29,970
- Location (City and/or State)
- South Eastern Florida (U.S.A.)/Rock Hill S.C.
A Redfoot should not "sleep" all winter, and that weight seems off.
Please elaborate more on the general husbandry with photos of the enclosure, lighting, heating etc so that we can form more helpful theories
mojo_1
Well-Known Member
I'm hoping it was a typo from the original poster. 100 grams is maybe supposed to be 1000 grams.
Littleredfootbigredheart
Well-Known Member
Hopefully that was a typo, but picky eating can be incredibly common, so please be reassured you aren’t alone here
There are definitely a few little tricks you can try, when you chop up the greens, you quite literally want them so chopped they’re looking like a coleslaw lol, try blending it with the mazuri, essentially if she’s wanting to eat the mazuri, she’ll have no choice to take a bit of green in too, ideally we don’t want to rely too heavily on the mazuri as they do kind of get a bit addicted to it, so another trick is blending those greens and squeezing some juice from their favourite fruits all over them, you can mush up some banana in there too to get the ball rolling. Try not to offer fruits high in sugar too often, but remember these guys are fruit eaters, so fruits like figs, papaya etc are fine to feed more as they are lower in sugar, things like banana, apples, grape etc are more of a treat basis. Bit by bit reduce the amount of mazuri and fruit juice you’re adding.
Ultimately it can take a lot of patience and perseverance, tortoises are incredibly stubborn by nature, right now she’s testing the boundaries of how much tasty food she can get by ignoring the good stuff, sometimes it can take a little tough love, keep offering them, sometimes they have to be hungry enough to relent and understand this is a part of their diet.
This article here is a handy little read
I do also second the comments about him sleeping during winter! That is absolutely not normal for a red foot, they don’t brumate and need keeping at stable temperatures year round
There are definitely a few little tricks you can try, when you chop up the greens, you quite literally want them so chopped they’re looking like a coleslaw lol, try blending it with the mazuri, essentially if she’s wanting to eat the mazuri, she’ll have no choice to take a bit of green in too, ideally we don’t want to rely too heavily on the mazuri as they do kind of get a bit addicted to it, so another trick is blending those greens and squeezing some juice from their favourite fruits all over them, you can mush up some banana in there too to get the ball rolling. Try not to offer fruits high in sugar too often, but remember these guys are fruit eaters, so fruits like figs, papaya etc are fine to feed more as they are lower in sugar, things like banana, apples, grape etc are more of a treat basis. Bit by bit reduce the amount of mazuri and fruit juice you’re adding.
Ultimately it can take a lot of patience and perseverance, tortoises are incredibly stubborn by nature, right now she’s testing the boundaries of how much tasty food she can get by ignoring the good stuff, sometimes it can take a little tough love, keep offering them, sometimes they have to be hungry enough to relent and understand this is a part of their diet.
This article here is a handy little read
I do also second the comments about him sleeping during winter! That is absolutely not normal for a red foot, they don’t brumate and need keeping at stable temperatures year round
