Sulcata won't eat tortoise food!

Sydney.S

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My Sulcata (and leopard) won't eat any turtle food! I have little Mazuri pebbles i soak in water and also ZooMed grassland tortoise food. They won't eat anything if that is all I feed them. How do I get them to eat their turtle food and not only eat lettuce!
 

G-stars

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Chop up the greens they do eat and mix it with the new foods you are trying to introduce them to. It may take a couple weeks before they actually start eating it.
 

Jodie

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I chop the lettuce into small pieces and mix it with the other stuff.
 

leigti

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Can you give them a more varied diet of greens and grasses and not emphasize the pellet food as much. You don't have to feed the pellet food at all if you don't want to.
 

Sydney.S

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I can't feed them grasses right now because theres inches of snow on the ground so I've been feeding spring mix lettuce, but thats about all i feed them! I am trying to vary their diet so I will try to chop up the lettuce!
 

leigti

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Does your grocery store sell wheatgrass? There are also some nice seed mixes from tortoise supply.com or Carolina pet supply.com they grow quickly inside.ImageUploadedByTortoise Forum1422249227.757643.jpgI make mine grow a little faster in the window by planting it in little trays in a litter box and then cover it with an opaque bin. Then you can rotate the trays as the tortoise it's it down.
 

Tom

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Which type of Mazuri do you have? The new LS type or the old type? The LS type is difficult to use in your situation because it doesn't turn to mush.

Try taking a single pellet of old style Mazuri or ZooMed Grassland stuff and soak it until it is mushy. Then thoroughly mix that one pellet in with some spring mix or chopped up greens like endive or escarole, or whatever your tortoise is used to.

In time you can begin to up the ratio of new stuff to old stuff.
 

leigti

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Which type of Mazuri do you have? The new LS type or the old type? The LS type is difficult to use in your situation because it doesn't turn to mush.

Try taking a single pellet of old style Mazuri or ZooMed Grassland stuff and soak it until it is mushy. Then thoroughly mix that one pellet in with some spring mix or chopped up greens like endive or escarole, or whatever your tortoise is used to.

In time you can begin to up the ratio of new stuff to old stuff.
 

leigti

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Which type of Mazuri do you have? The new LS type or the old type? The LS type is difficult to use in your situation because it doesn't turn to mush.

Try taking a single pellet of old style Mazuri or ZooMed Grassland stuff and soak it until it is mushy. Then thoroughly mix that one pellet in with some spring mix or chopped up greens like endive or escarole, or whatever your tortoise is used to.

In time you can begin to up the ratio of new stuff to old stuff.
Oops Is that LS type the smaller pallet?
 

Tom

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Oops Is that LS type the smaller pallet?

The LS is the grass based one. The pellets are much smaller, but the difficulty I found is that when you soak the pellets they still hold their shape and they are pretty rigid and hard, so smaller torts can't bite through them and you can't mush them up in the food. I used my supply of LS by soaking it in with regular Mazuri and then feeding the mixture to larger 20-50 pound tortoises who could easily swallow the LS pieces whole.
 

keepergale

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I am sure the LS is good nutrition but most tortoises much prefer the original formula.
 

Dizisdalife

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I can't feed them grasses right now because theres inches of snow on the ground so I've been feeding spring mix lettuce, but thats about all i feed them! I am trying to vary their diet so I will try to chop up the lettuce!
Hi Sydney. Try some endive and escarole mixed in with the Spring mix. I believe it has a little more fiber and it gives you some variety. If you add a bit of radicchio to that mix your tortoises are sure to go for it.
 

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