Tortoise keeps trying to eat my clothes?

[kitrose]

I have an almost-two-year-old Eastern Hermann's tortoise who is otherwise healthy, has proper husbandry, and a great appetite.

I hand-feed him part of his food every single day, but the past few days he's been completely focused on biting the fabric of my shirt and trying to eat it. I feed him in my lap on towels, so he has easy access to my shirt, but he doesn't seem to be comprehending that it isn't food! He'll just continue to try and bite at the fabric no matter how many times I redirect him towards the actual food.

Is this a sign that something is missing in his diet? Or just normal curious, stubborn tortoise behavior? He hasn't ingested any threads or actual pieces of fabric, but this can't continue, right? I can try to just hand-feed him in his enclosure or not at all, since I know it's more for my benefit than his, even though he is quite social and enjoys head rubs and attention and such.

He gets mostly grocery store food due to the climate that I live in, but it's a wide variety of leafy greens that are good for him, supplemented with calcium and Mazuri.

 

[wellington]

You should be leaving him in his enclosure and hand feeding if you want.
Certain colors attract tortoises. Usually white, red, orange, yellow. Most bright colors.

 

[Tom]

I have an almost-two-year-old Eastern Hermann's tortoise who is otherwise healthy, has proper husbandry, and a great appetite.

I hand-feed him part of his food every single day, but the past few days he's been completely focused on biting the fabric of my shirt and trying to eat it. I feed him in my lap on towels, so he has easy access to my shirt, but he doesn't seem to be comprehending that it isn't food! He'll just continue to try and bite at the fabric no matter how many times I redirect him towards the actual food.

Is this a sign that something is missing in his diet? Or just normal curious, stubborn tortoise behavior? He hasn't ingested any threads or actual pieces of fabric, but this can't continue, right? I can try to just hand-feed him in his enclosure or not at all, since I know it's more for my benefit than his, even though he is quite social and enjoys head rubs and attention and such.

He gets mostly grocery store food due to the climate that I live in, but it's a wide variety of leafy greens that are good for him, supplemented with calcium and Mazuri.

Its normal for them to try to sample things. Just keep your clothing out of the way.

There are plenty of "natural" food in NY, and if you are land locked in the concrete jungle of the big city, you can grow your own in pots or planters.

If you must use grocery store foods, it is important to use the right ones, and to add in the correct amendments for your species to add fiber, calcium and variety. All of that is explained here in this thread, and again in the temperate species care sheet at the bottom of this thread:

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...

tortoiseforum.org

 

[kitrose]

Its normal for them to try to sample things. Just keep your clothing out of the way.

There are plenty of "natural" food in NY, and if you are land locked in the concrete jungle of the big city, you can grow your own in pots or planters.

If you must use grocery store foods, it is important to use the right ones, and to add in the correct amendments for your species to add fiber, calcium and variety. All of that is explained here in this thread, and again in the temperate species care sheet at the bottom of this thread:

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...

tortoiseforum.org

Hey, Tom! Thank you so much for the info. I've been looking into indoor gardening and though I'm still in research mode, I'm planning on making that switch after a trip to the store this weekend because I do have a lack of outdoor gardening space due to my living arrangements.

Below I've copy-and-pasted my description of my current husbandry practices from another thread, but if anything needs to be changed, I will of course do so ASAP:

He's a male Eastern Hermann's tortoise, 1.5 years old. His enclosure is a 5 foot by 4 foot indoor wooden enclosure. Basking temp is 90-95 degrees, ambient daytime temp is 80. Nighttime temp is low seventies. Daytime humidity is 80%, at night it's usually high 80s or low 90s.

His substrate is four inches of coconut coir and three-ish inches of cypress mulch.

For lighting I have a 75 watt Zoomed basking bulb and an HO 10 ReptiSun UVB strip light. His basking bulb/ambient lights stay on for twelve hours per day in the winter and fourteen in the summer. His UVB light is on for about four hours per day in the late morning/early afternoon.

Due to my location/climate, his diet is unfortunately mostly grocery store foods, but I'm looking into indoor gardening and that kind of thing. He gets a rotation of escarole, endive, turnip greens, mustard greens, dandelion greens, collard greens, romaine, and clover (not listed in any particular order). I sprinkle crushed cuttle bone on his food three times a week, and he also gets two or three Mazuri pellets three times a week.

He gets soaked in warm water for an hour every single evening and also has access to fresh water in his enclosure 24/7.

 

[zolasmum]

I have an almost-two-year-old Eastern Hermann's tortoise who is otherwise healthy, has proper husbandry, and a great appetite.

I hand-feed him part of his food every single day, but the past few days he's been completely focused on biting the fabric of my shirt and trying to eat it. I feed him in my lap on towels, so he has easy access to my shirt, but he doesn't seem to be comprehending that it isn't food! He'll just continue to try and bite at the fabric no matter how many times I redirect him towards the actual food.

Is this a sign that something is missing in his diet? Or just normal curious, stubborn tortoise behavior? He hasn't ingested any threads or actual pieces of fabric, but this can't continue, right? I can try to just hand-feed him in his enclosure or not at all, since I know it's more for my benefit than his, even though he is quite social and enjoys head rubs and attention and such.

He gets mostly grocery store food due to the climate that I live in, but it's a wide variety of leafy greens that are good for him, supplemented with calcium and Mazuri.

My Hermann's tortoise, aged 24, has enjoyed playing with the fabric hem of my stretchy trousers for years - he loves to pull it and let it spring back - sometimes he gets a bit more into his mouth, but mostly it's the hem. The fabric is dark blue, by the way. He does this mainly when I'm sitting in a chair with my feet on the floor, in his room. He is quite gentle with it,and neither he nor the fabric have come to any harm !
Angie

 

[Tom]

Hey, Tom! Thank you so much for the info. I've been looking into indoor gardening and though I'm still in research mode, I'm planning on making that switch after a trip to the store this weekend because I do have a lack of outdoor gardening space due to my living arrangements.

Below I've copy-and-pasted my description of my current husbandry practices from another thread, but if anything needs to be changed, I will of course do so ASAP:

He's a male Eastern Hermann's tortoise, 1.5 years old. His enclosure is a 5 foot by 4 foot indoor wooden enclosure. Basking temp is 90-95 degrees, ambient daytime temp is 80. Nighttime temp is low seventies. Daytime humidity is 80%, at night it's usually high 80s or low 90s.

His substrate is four inches of coconut coir and three-ish inches of cypress mulch.

For lighting I have a 75 watt Zoomed basking bulb and an HO 10 ReptiSun UVB strip light. His basking bulb/ambient lights stay on for twelve hours per day in the winter and fourteen in the summer. His UVB light is on for about four hours per day in the late morning/early afternoon.

Due to my location/climate, his diet is unfortunately mostly grocery store foods, but I'm looking into indoor gardening and that kind of thing. He gets a rotation of escarole, endive, turnip greens, mustard greens, dandelion greens, collard greens, romaine, and clover (not listed in any particular order). I sprinkle crushed cuttle bone on his food three times a week, and he also gets two or three Mazuri pellets three times a week.

He gets soaked in warm water for an hour every single evening and also has access to fresh water in his enclosure 24/7.

All of your care routine sounds great. With the clover and Mazuri, your diet sound pretty good too, but get some of the dried leaf supplement options from @Kapidolo Farms and get the new "Food Fixer" and some "Herbal Hay" from tortoisesupply.com. If you know any one with horses, grad a hand full of horse hay pellets. You can soak one pellet to mix in for fiber.