Question abouy variety in diet

[Bvaughn326]

I've had my Russian tortoise for almost 2 months now. I bought him at Petco. All the reading I've done says to offer up a variety of greens for him to eat. Problem is, all he will really eat is kale and sometimes mustard greens but nothing else. I also have Zoomed natural grassland tortoise food pellets, but he has never taken to those, so I stopped offering them to him. Will he be ok if that's all he prefers?

 

[Jodie]

No it's not ok. Welcome to the forum. You are going to have to be persistent. Chop the kale real small and add a small amount of a new food. Once he will eat that add a bit more of the new food. Keep slowly adding new foods a little bit at a time until he gets less picky.

 

[Bvaughn326]

Thank you. Should I persist with the food pellets as well? There seems to be conflicting information about that..

 

[surfergirl]

Do you soften the pellets with a little bit of water? I also have a small Russian that is picky about anything but weeds so I take the grassland pellet and soak them in water. then I blend the weeds up in a food processor or you can chop them real fine and make a mash of the pellets that smells like the weeds she likes. then I taper off on the amount of weeds mashed up in the mix and then they will just eat the grassland pellets moistened with water. I have been doing it with mazuri and repashy as well since she has nothing to do with anything not leaves.

 

[Yvonne G]

You should be able to find quite a nice variety of edible weeds outside right now unless your yard is under snow. My Russians love fillarree, dandelion, lambsquarter, purslane, dock, plantain, thistle, etc. Stop giving him kale for a while. He might not start eating the weeds right away, but he won't allow himself to starve.

Probably the reason he won't eat the manufactured diet is because its made up of grasses. Russians mainly eat broad-leaf weeds and plants and very little grass.

 

[Jodie]

Thank you. Should I persist with the food pellets as well? There seems to be conflicting information about that..

I like grassland tortoise food for fiber in winter when I am forced to feed mostly grocery greens. Just mix a very small amount to start. None of mine eat t good, but they can't help eating some when it is mixed in.

 

[Bvaughn326]

I do wet the pellets but he just ignores or walks all over them. I will keep trying. So glad I found this place. Thank you for the advice!

 

[surfergirl]

just like my little one. I just use grassland as another variety to the diet of mine but it is not critical if they end up not eating it. like Yvonne g said they are fine with eating a variety of weeds, leafy greens and such. It is funny, my hermanns loves everything and two of my Russians love everything but my little RT won't even recognize the commercialized foods exists.