Russian Hard Food Options

[lbpotter3]

Hey everyone, I'm a 1st time Tort owner. I have a Russian named Czar who is a few months old. He eats his blends of greens and plants well but is uninterested in his hard food or his calcium block. I have the Mazuri blend and I'm worried about his beak growing too much if he is only eating soft foods. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I am sprinkling a powder calcium on his greens so he is still getting it.

 

[wellington]

The pellet food should be soaked.
Calcium should only be a tiny pinch twice a week.
Feed on a flat stone or piece of tile.
If he grazes during the warm months, ripping off the weeds will also help with beak.

 

[Tom]

Hey everyone, I'm a 1st time Tort owner. I have a Russian named Czar who is a few months old. He eats his blends of greens and plants well but is uninterested in his hard food or his calcium block. I have the Mazuri blend and I'm worried about his beak growing too much if he is only eating soft foods. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I am sprinkling a powder calcium on his greens so he is still getting it.

Hello and welcome. Most of the care advice given in pet stores and found on-line is all wrong. They don't need hard foods, and if you are feeding something hard, like pumpkin for example, it should be finely grated so they don't choke on it. We have a valued member here that lost a tortoise a few months back when it choked on a chunk of some squash that had been cut up for it. More about that here:

Public Service Announcement - Tortoise Food Chunks

I was reminded today that not everyone knows that "hard" foods like opuntia, cucumber, carrots, or this time of year, pumpkin should not be cut up and fed in chunks. Chunks of these types of food will be swallowed whole by tortoises and can cause them to choke to death. It doesn't happen every...

tortoiseforum.org

Also, I've never seen any tortoise chew on those pet store calcium blocks. I tried a half dozen different ones over several years in many housing situations with many tortoise species. They never touched them, other than walking past or over them to get where they were going. Cuttlebone is sometimes ignored for months, but most of them will usually partake over time.

Give this a read for the correct care info. There is a care sheet for your temperate species near the bottom.

Info For New People. Please Read This First.

Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...

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[RosemaryDW]

Hello and welcome. Most of the care advice given in pet stores and found on-line is all wrong. They don't need hard foods, and if you are feeding something hard, like pumpkin for example, it should be finely grated so they don't choke on it. We have a valued member here that lost a tortoise a few months back when it choked on a chunk of some squash that had been cut up for it. More about that here:

Public Service Announcement - Tortoise Food Chunks

I was reminded today that not everyone knows that "hard" foods like opuntia, cucumber, carrots, or this time of year, pumpkin should not be cut up and fed in chunks. Chunks of these types of food will be swallowed whole by tortoises and can cause them to choke to death. It doesn't happen every...

tortoiseforum.org

Oh no Will, when did this happen? I was out of the country for a while, maybe I missed it.