URGENT! Rescue tortoise serious diet problem

[Southshore]

Hello! I hope all you people are well with your torts!

4 days back I received a rescue tortoise. He has shell with pyramiding so from what I have learnt he has been fed an inappropriate diet.

The problem is, HE IS NOT EATING ANY KIND OF GRASS OR WEED. This is supposed to be 90% of his diet.

HOW DO I GET HIM TO EAT GRASS?

I will ge really grateful for your input. He has gone 3 days hungry!

P. S. Tried to upload image but once I select the image (it shows the name of the image selected) and press upload it says no file. Any solution to this?

 

[wellington]

First pyramiding is not from the diet but being raised to dry.
He looks to possibly have metabolic bone disease (MBD)
Get him well hydrated, warm soaks daily for about a week. Slowly add grass to the diet you are feeding and do not feed fruit.
Add calcium twice weekly to his diet and get him in the natural sun with shade provided.

 

[wellington]

If you post how you are housing him, and what you are using for heat, lights, diet we can help further.

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

In addition to @wellington s advice, you can take a look at this article: introduhttps://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/tortoise-diet/introducing-a-new-diet/c

They worked for me when introduced a healthier diet to my Russian.

For technical difficulties you can make a post on this section: https://tortoiseforum.org/forums/site-help-and-feedback.9/

But it seems like you managed to post some photos eitherway.

 

[Tom]

Hello! I hope all you people are well with your torts!

4 days back I received a rescue tortoise. He has shell with pyramiding so from what I have learnt he has been fed an inappropriate diet.

The problem is, HE IS NOT EATING ANY KIND OF GRASS OR WEED. This is supposed to be 90% of his diet.

HOW DO I GET HIM TO EAT GRASS?

I will ge really grateful for your input. He has gone 3 days hungry!

P. S. Tried to upload image but once I select the image (it shows the name of the image selected) and press upload it says no file. Any solution to this?

Tortoises are creatures of habit. They eat what they are used to eating. It takes weeks or months to introduce new foods and you have to do it slowly, using only tiny amounts at first. You get him to eat grass by mixing tiny amounts of chopped, soft, freshly sprouted grass into a chopped up pile of the tortoises favorite current foods. There should be hardly any at first. It should be barely noticeable to the tortoise at first.

As Wellington said, pyramiding is caused by growth in conditions that are too dry. It is NOT caused by food or the wrong diet.

Here is the current and correct housing and care info:

The Best Way To Raise A Sulcata, Leopard, Or Star Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. Babies hatch during the...

tortoiseforum.org

More helpful info here, and questions are welcome:

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

 

[EppsDynasty]

You can get ANY tort to eat what it is you want them to with patience and consistency. In our Rescue we have encountered many torts fed all the wrong things and now have EVERY tort eating healthy. We have been told repeatedly "My Tortoise won't eat that" and within 2 weeks we reply "well they do now."