What about cucumbers?

[reptire]

I've been struggling to get my baby tortoise to eat in the last few days, he only eats a few small bites of greens a day, but today I found out he goes absolutely insane about grinded cucumbers.
Now you guys said that carrots are a big no no, I'm wondering whether cucumbers are similarly unhealthy.
My plan is to grind up cucumbers and add supplement drops (which provides him the vitamins he needs) and calcium. Maybe even grind some wild greens into it and mix it up.

Thanks for the replies in advance.

 

[Yvonne G]

OK, then grind up the cukes so they're mush. Chop up the greens into small pieces and add the mush. stir it all up so all the greens are coated with cucumber mush. I usually add a grated carrot to my baby tortoises' food.

 

[reptire]

OK, then grind up the cukes so they're mush. Chop up the greens into small pieces and add the mush. stir it all up so all the greens are coated with cucumber mush. I usually add a grated carrot to my baby tortoises' food.

Can greens be substituted with diverse multivitamins and calcium while winter passes? It's kind of hard to get suitable greens when everything is buried in snow...

I can write up the exact vitamins the drops (and also the calcium powder) has, if need be.

 

[JoesMum]

Wild greens are harder to source in the winter months, but there's always something you can get in the grocery store.

When you are next there, write a list of the greens you can buy and look them up on The Tortoise Table Plant database to see what is good to feed.

There is more to food than vitamins. Fiber for example is also important and cucumber has very little. Many keepers use pelleted feed from the pet store (Mazuri (USA) or Komodo (UK) for example) in the winter months to supplement the greens they can get. The pellets contain vitamins and fiber.

 

[reptire]

Wild greens are harder to source in the winter months, but there's always something you can get in the grocery store.

When you are next there, write a list of the greens you can buy and look them up on The Tortoise Table Plant database to see what is good to feed.

There is more to food than vitamins. Fiber for example is also important and cucumber has very little. Many keepers use pelleted feed from the pet store (Mazuri (USA) or Komodo (UK) for example) in the winter months to supplement the greens they can get. The pellets contain vitamins and fiber.

The problem with that is I live in a central-european country and I have no idea about those plants' name in my native language, also I'm pretty sure about 2/3rds of them is not even available here.

 

[JoesMum]

Try Google Translate to translate your vegetables into English and see how you get on

 

[GeoTerraTestudo]

It's not that carrots and cucumbers are a big no-no, it's just that they should only be offered as occasional treats. Although they contain less sugar than other, sweeter fruits like strawberries, raspberries, or grapes, all of these items should be offered no more than once per month for most tortoise species. Forest tortoises like redfoots, yellowfoots, hingebacks, and Indotestudos, as well as box turtles, like and need more fruit in their diet, in addition to some meat. But most tortoise species come from drier habitats, and should be eating leafy greens, and for the larger species, grasses as well.

If you're having trouble getting your little guy to eat, there's nothing wrong with giving him some cucumbers or carrots to get his appetite up. However, you may find that (depending on his species) this gives him loose stools or even diarrhea after a while if this is all he gets. The sooner you can transition him to leafy greens and weeds, as well as commercial foods like Mazuri, the better.

BTW - If your little guy doesn't have much of an appetite, make sure his basking spot is hot enough, to allow him to digest his food and keep his immune system up. Sometimes reptiles lose their appetite if they're not warm enough, so you want to rule that out as a factor.