I have a 6 month old horsefield tortoise. I sprinkle his food three times a week with calcium powder. I’ve noticed that when I do he’ll try and bite the powder off his feeding slate first rather than go for the food. Once I sprinkled a bit too much in and it formed a small pile on a leaf and before I could grab it, the tortoise had stuck his face in and was eating the powder rather than the leaf! Yes, there is a fresh cuttle fish bone AND calcium block in his enclosure which he never touches. He eats, poops and pees normally and is very active and normal in every other way. Is this something I should be worried about or just a normal tortoise quirk?
Tortoise likes his calcium powder a little too much?
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Hello, and welcome to TFO!
It's hard to say if you should be concerned.
When we put cuttlebone in, sometimes the tort will ignore it for months, then suddenly gobble down the entire thing all at once. Torts can tell if they need more calcium. So we don't get concerned about it, unless he is eating a cuttlebone every day, which did happen once that I remember.
So I would usually say don't be concerned. But on the other hand, it is not good to take in more calcium than is needed. Too much and it blocks the ability to utilize other minerals.
Another possibility is that he is trying to find another mineral that he isn't getting enough of. We believe this is why torts sometimes insist on eating stones, dirt, or substrate.
What I would suggest you do is leave the cuttlebone in the enclosure, and give a small pinch of calcium powder 2 or 3 times/week, just like you are doing.
I am thinking you are in Durham, England? Then I would order 2 supplements from Amazon or Swell or wherever you can find them. One is a multivitamin. There are different ones...I use Reptivite. The other is a mineral supplement, called Miner All. It comes with or without vitamin D3. If your calcium powder has D3 in it, you can order the MinerAll without it.
You give a tiny pinch of each of these once a week, just in case anything is missing from his diet over the long term.
It's hard to say if you should be concerned.
When we put cuttlebone in, sometimes the tort will ignore it for months, then suddenly gobble down the entire thing all at once. Torts can tell if they need more calcium. So we don't get concerned about it, unless he is eating a cuttlebone every day, which did happen once that I remember.
So I would usually say don't be concerned. But on the other hand, it is not good to take in more calcium than is needed. Too much and it blocks the ability to utilize other minerals.
Another possibility is that he is trying to find another mineral that he isn't getting enough of. We believe this is why torts sometimes insist on eating stones, dirt, or substrate.
What I would suggest you do is leave the cuttlebone in the enclosure, and give a small pinch of calcium powder 2 or 3 times/week, just like you are doing.
I am thinking you are in Durham, England? Then I would order 2 supplements from Amazon or Swell or wherever you can find them. One is a multivitamin. There are different ones...I use Reptivite. The other is a mineral supplement, called Miner All. It comes with or without vitamin D3. If your calcium powder has D3 in it, you can order the MinerAll without it.
You give a tiny pinch of each of these once a week, just in case anything is missing from his diet over the long term.
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