Why are they eating the dirt, rocks and twigs?!

[Angi]

Well my new enclosure is about done. I am just waiting for the plants to take root and the ground to harden. The problem is everytime I put my torts in their huge new pen all they want to do is eat rocks and dirt. WHY?! They get calcium. There are weeds and grass they can munch on and a lot of exploring to do, but no...they would rather eat rocks and dirt and anything they shouldn't. HELP! Advice PLEASE!

 

[JoesMum]

Sometimes it's just because they can. It may be a sign of some mineral, not necessarily calcium, lacking in their diet or it could just be testing something new.

What kind of tort do you have and what are you feeding?

 

[Tom]

Yvonne suggested a product called MinerAll to me when my Daisy started munching on too many rocks. There were days when I had gravel at the bottom of her soaking pan. She got plenty of calcium and a great diet, but ate lots of rocks any way. The MinerAll stopped it for me. I'm guessing that an excess of calcium might have created an imbalance of some other mineral.

Maggie is having a similar problem with one of hers right now and some pro-biotics or some poop from a know healthy tort has been suggested to "re-seed" her tortoises GI tract.

 

[Angi]

@ JoesMum- I have CDTs They eat a lot of native weeds, Mullberry leafs, flowers, spring mix and Muzuri one or two times a week.

@ Tom They may not get enough calcium. They get it about twice a week. Should I give more? I will get the MinerAll. If that does not help I will get Pro-Biotic. Do you buy a tort type or just use the stuff for humans?

Thanks

 

[JoesMum]

Your diet is soundung pretty good, but I'm not an expert on CDTs.

As for pro biotic, in the UK we use ReptoBoost

 

[Angi]

Wow I just found Maggies post. It is interesting to read all the great advice she got. Mine are not eatting EVERYTHING like her tort is. Mine just eat whats outside.
I got Reptivite. The pet store here didn't have MinerALL. This stuff has amino acids in it. Is that okay for torts? Sad to say I can hardly read the directions even with my newest glasses on

 

[Tom]

You'll have to order the MinerAll. I don't know about the pro-biotics as I have not needed to use any... yet.

 

[Angi]

Where do you order it from?

 

[lynnedit]

Carolina Pet Supply sells TNT (ground up weeds lots o' calcium) w/ or w/o probiotics.
Pet Mountain (online pet supplies) sells Miner-all (sp). I think the idea of the latter is that it provides more minerals than just calcium

 

[MORTYtheTORTY]

Do you think I should use minerAll on my sulcata's?? They seem to be thriving but what's this minerall stuff?? I put pieces of cuttlebone in the enclosure and they both munch on them and seem to be getting alot and I also bought the TNT without probiotics and supplement that over their food 3x's a week and mazuri once or twice a week depending. I also feed them a variety of everything...tortoise seed mix from carolinapetsupply as well and spring mix without spinach and romaine once a week or less and green leaf lettuce that I alternate btwn the spring mix. I give them variety of veggies once or twice a week...only two kinds each week but it changes weekly and haven't even tried fruits or tomatoes as there are mixed reviews...anyway what's minerALL, should I get this for a sulcata or no?