They eat so much!!!

SinLA

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Is anyone else astounded by how much one little tortoise can eat? This was today. Also, he does ZERO exercise, even in his outdoor 10' x 12' enclosure he rarely moves around... I guess its all low calories, but still...
 

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Tim Carlisle

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lol. Yep. Mine's eating me out of house and home. He's gone thru about 1/4 bale of hay already since Monday on top of the fresh greens I give him daily. I have a ton of escarole, endive, and chicory growing in the greenhouse, but they are not ready to harvest yet. I've been offering escarole and endive that I bought from the store in the meantime, but they are like $7 per head!!!
 

SinLA

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lol. Yep. Mine's eating me out of house and home. He's gone thru about 1/4 bale of hay already since Monday on top of the fresh greens I give him daily. I have a ton of escarole, endive, and chicory growing in the greenhouse, but they are not ready to harvest yet. I've been offering escarole and endive that I bought from the store in the meantime, but they are like $7 per head!!!

$7 per head! I got a giant radicchio for less than $2 last time I was out. Even my farmers market escarole are like $3, but I do get the smallest ones they have...
 

Tom

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This thread entertains me... Heads of lettuce... I literally need several five gallon buckets of food daily. Not exaggerating. I'm not complaining, and I know you guys aren't either, but... perspective...

A whole case of endive or romaine feeds my herd for one day. I can stretch it to two days if I add in a bunch of stuff like weeds or leaves or grass or soaked grass hay.
 

jeannettep

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Yeah reality sets in real quick. Since moving to the ranch & learned a lot about the grasses & plants that grow here. I planned to grow lettuce, etc here over the winter, no problem in South TX. 2 years ago the freeze & no electricity, no way to heat anything except a fire outside, so all my plants died. This winter, I'm ready... so I thought. Solar power for my torts (found out it needed expanded, didn't get a big enough system, which we got running today), generac (75amps is not enough, I'm obviously an electric hog, or perhaps my blood is programmed for 100 degree weather & the house is raised off the ground & built in 1890), heatit cables to go in the plants, then cover, shipping heat packs for the roots. The shipping heat packs did really good for our recent 17 degrees shocking event... the bottom leaf to the prickly pear plants are fine & already putting out new leaves. The heatit cables not so good protecting plants, but it's for plumbing... electric blankets were ok, but you have to remember to turn them back on every 10 hours. XL pet heating pads that don't need the pets weight on it to heat, those did great as did the flat panel coop heaters! Too bad I had to choose what would be saved. But lost all my planned winter greens so I'm sprouting grasses kinda hydroponiclly. Ouch $20 a day buying lettuce etc at the store & that's an hour away! I looked at a larger set up for growing grasses fast, I just have to figure out how to keep it warm. Google- sprouted chicken feed. But I'm a fan of homestead rescue, so I'll have to build something to keep it warm in the winter. I never thought we would see 17 degrees 2 events so close together!
 

pawsplus

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Is anyone else astounded by how much one little tortoise can eat? This was today. Also, he does ZERO exercise, even in his outdoor 10' x 12' enclosure he rarely moves around... I guess its all low calories, but still...
Where did you get that thingy that is holding your greens? How large is it?
 

SinLA

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Yes I got both of mine on Amazon I have a small and a medium size. The link above is one of the ones I purchased. The amount it cost me was less than the amount of ruined, organic, farmers market food that inevitably got pooped on without it
 

SinLA

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The medium should be fine for a red foot. It would be too small for a grown sulcata, but unless your red foot has a really really wide head I think it should be fine.
 

Cathie G

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I just noticed this: There are two kinds of Russian tortoise: those who have escaped and those who will.

LOL
Yes it's pretty funny to watch the little monkeys. You gotta do what you gotta do though with a Russian. And that's watch them like a hawk. And really really try to outsmart them as best you can but don't count on it.😉😁🐢🐢
 

SinLA

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Yes it's pretty funny to watch the little monkeys. You gotta do what you gotta do though with a Russian. And that's watch them like a hawk. And really really try to outsmart them as best you can but don't count on it.😉😁🐢🐢

Meh, my guy is SO lazy (or stupid). He digs down about 1-2 inches with 80% of his shell showing and gives up. Mostly he just sits and watches the world go by, and sleeps
 

Cathie G

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Meh, my guy is SO lazy (or stupid). He digs down about 1-2 inches with 80% of his shell showing and gives up. Mostly he just sits and watches the world go by, and sleeps
Probably just watching until you get out of the way 😜. But Sapphire is about the same until he's not. Then he can get himself in so many predicaments. I've watched him maneuver things around and then flip himself sideways and walk up a wall. Don't trust them 😜
 

SinLA

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Also if tortoises NEED to move to digest, I have no idea how he digests anything. He literally just walks the 18 inches from his food bowl to his hide and back again...
 
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