Thank You Zovick

[EppsDynasty]

So I suppose I could of sent a PM but how boring. I would like to Thank You for sharing some of your medical wisdom with others, which I was eavesdropping on. There was a thread where you posted about Rep Cal products, Calcium and Multivitamins as supplements. I TRUST your wisdom and immediately got online and ordered those products. Yesterday the first 2 showed up .....



There are still 2 of the Calcium to come, hopefully this week.
It may seem weird or not warranted ..... Bologna. I wanted to say Thank You, our torts will be a little healthier with these Vitamins and Minerals.

 

[zovick]

So I suppose I could of sent a PM but how boring. I would like to Thank You for sharing some of your medical wisdom with others, which I was eavesdropping on. There was a thread where you posted about Rep Cal products, Calcium and Multivitamins as supplements. I TRUST your wisdom and immediately got online and ordered those products. Yesterday the first 2 showed up .....

View attachment 373259

There are still 2 of the Calcium to come, hopefully this week.
It may seem weird or not warranted ..... Bologna. I wanted to say Thank You, our torts will be a little healthier with these Vitamins and Minerals.

Thanks for the kind words, Dana. I appreciate the sentiment.

If you decide you like the products and want to buy more, I would like to point out that you can get them in bulk containers: 7 lb for Herptivite and 8 lb for Rep Cal which will save you considerable $$ if you are feeding a large number of tortoises (and other reptiles as well). LLL Reptile used to carry both products in the bulk sizes, but I can't seem to find the bulk Rep Cal with D3 on the LLL Reptile site today. If they don't carry it, I am sure they would be able to get it for you from Rep-Cal Research Labs, though.

As an aside, very early on, I used to order both products directly from Rep-Cal Research Labs, but looking at their web site today, it may not be possible to order directly from them any longer. You could try it, though, and see if doing so would be more economical than going through LLL. Phone numbers for Rep-Cal Labs are: 1-800-406-6446 and 408-370-9386.

Rep Cal Bulk Herptivite for sale

1

www.lllreptile.com

Rep-Cal Supplements

Good luck to you and your wife with all your projects.

 

[EppsDynasty]

I will use these products for ever I think. I'm a person that is big on giving your body ALL that it needs which includes Vitamins and Minerals. A healthy tort is a Happy tort. We also use the probiotics you let us know about, anything good for our family we strive for.
1 question though......If we feed Mazuri 5m21 how many times per week should we supplement with Vitamins, Minerals and Calcium with D3? We do the probiotics 1 time every week..What do you all think?

 

[zovick]

I will use these products for ever I think. I'm a person that is big on giving your body ALL that it needs which includes Vitamins and Minerals. A healthy tort is a Happy tort. We also use the probiotics you let us know about, anything good for our family we strive for.
1 question though......If we feed Mazuri 5m21 how many times per week should we supplement with Vitamins, Minerals and Calcium with D3? We do the probiotics 1 time every week..What do you all think?

I did not feed Mazuri to my tortoises so cannot speak to that, however, I put both Rep Cal (with D3) and Herptivite on all of my tortoises' foods every day. I used the Bene-Bac (usually in powdered form) once or twice a month.

I used the Bene-Bac paste occasionally as well. I used to put a glob of it on a favorite food item or conceal it inside one and hand feed it to some of the larger adults to save time in administering it.

 

[Tom]

What do you all think?

It depends on the animal. A grown adult male getting a good diet really doesn't need any supplementation. I like to give growing babies or egg laying females calcium twice a week and vitamins once a week or not at all, depending on the diet. Mazuri is balanced tortoise nutrition, so neither calcium nor vitamins should be given on Mazuri days, or you will upset the balance.

I've never used the probiotics and don't see any need for them. I'm not sure what is being given will have any effect or any benefit for a herbivorous reptile.

 

[Tom]

I did not feed Mazuri to my tortoises so cannot speak to that, however, I put both Rep Cal (with D3) and Herptivite on all of my tortoises' foods every day. I used the Bene-Bac (usually in powdered form) once or twice a month.

I used the Bene-Bac paste occasionally as well. I used to put a glob of it on a favorite food item or conceal it inside one and hand feed it to some of the larger adults to save time in administering it.

Good morning sir. May I ask what the diet consisted of during those days?

 

[EppsDynasty]

I did not feed Mazuri to my tortoises so cannot speak to that, however, I put both Rep Cal (with D3) and Herptivite on all of my tortoises' foods every day. I used the Bene-Bac (usually in powdered form) once or twice a month.

I used the Bene-Bac paste occasionally as well. I used to put a glob of it on a favorite food item or conceal it inside one and hand feed it to some of the larger adults to save time in administering it.

Thank You I am am the train leaving the Mazuri Station. We are currently trying to work out the logistics of getting enough of a "Variety Diet" food items. I would love to only be feeding Mazuri when I want not need it a an everyday thing. I like the complete nutrient aspect but we really are moving to a more natural diet.

It depends on the animal. A grown adult male getting a good diet really doesn't need any supplementation. I like to give growing babies or egg laying females calcium twice a week and vitamins once a week or not at all, depending on the diet. Mazuri is balanced tortoise nutrition, so neither calcium nor vitamins should be given on Mazuri days, or you will upset the balance.

I've never used the probiotics and don't see any need for them. I'm not sure what is being given will have any effect or any benefit for a herbivorous reptile.

100% agree..... The supplements would be only on a day where no Mazuri is used, and I am even thinking of making weekends a no Mazuri fed. If I feed supplements I think a 2 day period for them to digest and process would be a better fit.

 

[EppsDynasty]

Probiotics....
O yes .....We are only sprinkling it on torts relatively new to the rescue. Our "regulars" already have a pretty good gut health and flora, I think. The newbies that we have no idea realistically what nutrition was given regularly we give the probiotics as a "Boost".

 

[zovick]

Good morning sir. May I ask what the diet consisted of during those days?

Hello Tom,

As you probably know, most of my life I have lived in areas with long and cold winters such as MA, CO, and CT. This kills most outside vegetation for 6 months of the year or so and prevents tortoises from foraging in outdoor pens for roughly half of the year.

Therefore the winter diet consisted of just about anything which was available in the produce department of my local grocery stores. As you possibly may also know, I have no qualms about feeding any fruits or brassica family items such as spinach, kale, bok choy, etc. to my animals.

That being said, here is a list of foods I used fairly regularly. Romaine, iceberg, red leaf, green leaf, and any other lettuces I could obtain, kale, bok choy, broccoli, cabbages, green and wax beans, carrots, apples, peaches, nectarines, pumpkins, papaya, blueberries, grapes, cherries (with pits), strawberries, corn on the cob, mushrooms, many varieties of bagged salad mixes, bananas, tomatoes, green and yellow squash, cucumbers, sometimes frozen mixed vegetables (thawed), and more items which I probably can't recall at the moment. I also used to buy opuntia tunas from a lady in TX and have her ship them to me, but they were not an everyday food.

In summer, the larger tortoises were kept outdoors and fended for themselves. They were allowed to eat the grasses, weeds, and anything else that grew in their pens. IE, I never bothered trying to determine if any particular plant was "harmful" to them or not and eradicate it or move the animals. In my experience, if it wasn't good for them, they simply didn't eat it. This was very obvious with mushrooms. Some types of mushrooms would be ravenously devoured while other types would be sniffed briefly and passed up by the same tortoise.

I think the above answers the question you posed. If not, let me know.

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

Thank You I am am the train leaving the Mazuri Station. We are currently trying to work out the logistics of getting enough of a "Variety Diet" food items. I would love to only be feeding Mazuri when I want not need it a an everyday thing. I like the complete nutrient aspect but we really are moving to a more natural diet.

100% agree..... The supplements would be only on a day where no Mazuri is used, and I am even thinking of making weekends a no Mazuri fed. If I feed supplements I think a 2 day period for them to digest and process would be a better fit.

I am glad I wasn't able to get Mazuri here in Finland, even though it is hailed as the best tortoise food. I have found the Agrobs better with lower protein content (only 8,8%) and more fiber (27,5%). The Agrobs fiber mix I currently use includes 60 different plants. I have found this more natural of an additive for my Russian tortoise than Mazuri. Of course it took quite the time to introduce it.

Of course calcium and vitamins have to be added separately, but to be it is no problem.

 

[EppsDynasty]

Hello Tom,

As you probably know, most of my life I have lived in areas with long and cold winters such as MA, CO, and CT. This kills most outside vegetation for 6 months of the year or so and prevents tortoises from foraging in outdoor pens for roughly half of the year.

Therefore the winter diet consisted of just about anything which was available in the produce department of my local grocery stores. As you possibly may also know, I have no qualms about feeding any fruits or brassica family items such as spinach, kale, bok choy, etc. to my animals.

That being said, here is a list of foods I used fairly regularly. Romaine, iceberg, red leaf, green leaf, and any other lettuces I could obtain, kale, bok choy, broccoli, cabbages, green and wax beans, carrots, apples, peaches, nectarines, pumpkins, papaya, blueberries, grapes, cherries (with pits), strawberries, corn on the cob, mushrooms, many varieties of bagged salad mixes, bananas, tomatoes, green and yellow squash, cucumbers, sometimes frozen mixed vegetables (thawed), and more items which I probably can't recall at the moment. I also used to buy opuntia tunas from a lady in TX and have her ship them to me, but they were not an everyday food.

In summer, the larger tortoises were kept outdoors and fended for themselves. They were allowed to eat the grasses, weeds, and anything else that grew in their pens. IE, I never bothered trying to determine if any particular plant was "harmful" to them or not and eradicate it or move the animals. In my experience, if it wasn't good for them, they simply didn't eat it. This was very obvious with mushrooms. Some types of mushrooms would be ravenously devoured while other types would be sniffed briefly and passed up by the same tortoise.

I think the above answers the question you posed. If not, let me know.

WOW.......Double WOW !!
Both of you are far more advanced in tort diets than I, but that list just blows me away. If I followed that diet (even without fruits) it would be a world of difference. I have always been told NO FRUITS because of the sugars, which in my opinion made sense. Especially the Desert Tortoise but most torts I thought would never encounter fruits in there "Natural Enviroment" (excluding the prickly pear fruit, which is technically a berry). Life would be a whole lot easier with that big of a grocery list of items to be able to buy. If I were to include fruits but at a natural ratio of say <5% even more easy of a life. I am so blown away of the amount of things available at the grocery store. We too have months of nothing available, some winters even snow several times. I am in the beginning of planning a shipping container indoor grow for my own supply of veggies and lettuces through the winter.