Redfoot Diet

[Alb317]

Question 1: How much should you feed a redfoot?

I have read to offer a certain amount and let them eat as much as possible then remove. Why? This does not happen in the wild I presume.

Question 2: My redfoot seems picky, How can I adjust to ensure sound growth and optimal nutrition without vegetables?

My tort seems to not like vegetables that much. I have offered several different varieties and he will barely touch them. Loves some fruit though.

 

[Redstrike]

1. There are many schools of thought here. The bottom line is your tortoise's metabolism is much slower than warm blooded birds and mammals, requiring a reduced volume of food to meet their daily caloric intake. There are multiple methods to ensure you don't overfeed, but once you get the hang of it, it's really easy to key in on a good quantity.

Some feed their tortoises like fish, only providing what they can eat in 15-20 minutes, then remove any excess foods. Others alternate feeding and fasting days for sub-adult and adult tortoises. I like to provide a decent amount of low-calorie foods, like native weeds and grasses with only small amounts of more sugary foodstuffs (fruits/vegetables). I generally provide my redfoots with a volume (not mass) that is about 3/4 their size of greens each day and provide a fruit treat 1 a week that is no larger than their head. Once they are a year old, I put 1-2 fasting days and/or a very light day in each week. The light days I only give them ~ half of what I normally would. You're going to find all kinds of different diet regimes, choose one that works well for you and your tortoise(s).

2. Tortoises are creatures of habit, keep presenting the foods and they'll eventually see them as edible. Some never warm up to particular food items but the key is to keep offering.

This site has some excellent information on feeding and good food options which I generally follow:
http://tortoiselibrary.com/

I also would recommend picking up a copy of Mike Pingleton's "Redfoot Manual" if you can swing the cost ( http://www.pingleton.com/redfoot/redfoots.htm ). It's an excellent reference and discusses all you need for starting out with redfoots. If you buy it at his website, it will come signed.