I've had my sully Blastoise for almost two months now and he is doing great! His new growth looks beautiful and smooth, he's grown a half inch and lost his egg tooth. His personality is so funny. He's a stubborn little turd and I am sure that when he is bigger, he will be all sorts of problems. He also knows that he is cute enough to get away with his antics. I feed him a spring mix in the morning with some mazuri and a mix of weeds in the afternoon. When he is up and waiting for breakfast, he rams into the side of his enlcosure over and over again until food is on his feeding rock. He is very particular about wanting it at the same time every day and in the same spot. For some reason he always wants the piece of food farthest from him, so he stretched out over his pile of food, kicking his greens into the substrate and Making a big mess. When I have him outside I either have a wire cage top over him that's 2' x 3' or I am standing directly over him because we have lots of large birds in the area. He does not agree with either option. He will graze in the middle for a bit but before too long he has rushed to the Edge of the cage or my foot and he tried to bite his way out. He has quite a bit of spunk.
I am feeding him mazuri now, but I had hoped to avoid it. I have been an an exotic pet owner for many years and mazuri has a food for almost every species but it is a brand mostly ignored by private owners because although it is affordable an easy, it is also very low quality food. Even now I hate that I am giving him a food made primarily of processed corn and soy but he would not eat the zoomed pellets and I wanted him to have more fiber. I think he does not like the zoomed because it has a very strong hay scent. This makes me wonder when my little guy will start to eat hay. Especially for the impending winter, there will be no weeds. Is greens and mazuri high enough in fiber? When do young tortoises generally start eating hay?
Oh and I forgot to mention the digging. He loves to dig. He had 2 inches of coco coir and I added peat moss to his coco coir substrate so that he now has 4 inches. He's already dug all the way down again. He even manages to get substrate on his shell while digging so when he hunkers down for the night, he is almost completely buried.
I am feeding him mazuri now, but I had hoped to avoid it. I have been an an exotic pet owner for many years and mazuri has a food for almost every species but it is a brand mostly ignored by private owners because although it is affordable an easy, it is also very low quality food. Even now I hate that I am giving him a food made primarily of processed corn and soy but he would not eat the zoomed pellets and I wanted him to have more fiber. I think he does not like the zoomed because it has a very strong hay scent. This makes me wonder when my little guy will start to eat hay. Especially for the impending winter, there will be no weeds. Is greens and mazuri high enough in fiber? When do young tortoises generally start eating hay?
Oh and I forgot to mention the digging. He loves to dig. He had 2 inches of coco coir and I added peat moss to his coco coir substrate so that he now has 4 inches. He's already dug all the way down again. He even manages to get substrate on his shell while digging so when he hunkers down for the night, he is almost completely buried.