feeding trouble

[billy]

Hi my girlfreind has a african spur tort and the only thing it really eats is lettce (all kinds). No fruit or other veges, is there something wrong? We have had the tort for about a year and the vet says it is healthy.
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[Ravnos]

The staple of their diet is grasses (probably close to 90% of their total diet in the wild). Most common grasses will do fine as long as they aren't treated with fertilizers or pesticides. In captivity a grass diet can be supplimented with moderate amounts of collard or mustard greens, cactus, dandelion, sometimes carrots, and strawberries. Lettuces, even romaine, are pretty much nutritionally useless to them. Many fruits and veggies will frequently be ignored, and even if they do eat them - too much can lead to various health problems; from diarrhea, to bacterial infections, to kidney failure. They aren't fruit eaters, they are grazers and I'd bet if you let him wander around on your lawn he'd try to eat some of the grass. =)

I don't have any care sheet pages off hand, but I'm positive you won't have any trouble coming across some if you do a websearch from any search engine. There are plenty of great pages out there, I remember from when I was researching before getting my own tort.

Rav
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[billy]

Thanks Rav

We have tried mustrad greens, and varios other food items, form care sheets and books we have. However the little guys is not intersted in anything but lettuce. We take it in the grass a lot, and i have only seen it eat once or twice in small amounts. Just recently we have found that it likes ground covering (Maybe a part of the sedum family), but i think that stuff is mostly water with no health benefits at all.

Any suggestions on how we can get the little guy to try new things.

Thanks Bill and Becky

[addsig]

What type of lettuce are you feeding it / Hopefully not the basic iceberg one btw.

As for the tort's eating habits...How old and "small/big" is the tort?
Also ..What specifically have you tried to offer tjhe tort and it won't eat ?
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[billy]

Thanks Lori i didnt mean to be impatent.

The little tort is about a year old estimating. It is about the size of a soft ball ( a little smaller). we have it in a 90 gal long tank, high side heat is 97 to 95 and cool side is between 85 and 80 , and cool side at night never gets below 75.

We buy pre mixed lettuce form the store which have all types of lettuce in them, the little guy only eats iceberg if its part of the mix. Its kind of weird it will eat any type of lettuce we offer it, but when we try mustrad greens, catus, carrots, radish, avocado, peas, cabbage, alflfa, or grass it wont even look at it.

Oh and the tort loves red cabbage.

It is kind of furustrating, because or friend has one that is a little older and bigger and the dang thing eats everythiong and anything.

Also do you know why they like to eat bird poop and rocks in the graden. We have noticed that, and dont know why.
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[Seany]

Don't know about the rocks but sounds to me like he's trying to suplement his diet.
Try giving him Romain. Iceburg is NOT good for him. I'd recomend getting those 3 packs of romain (andyboy makes good ones) as opposed to the mix.
Also, try shredding some broccoli... good luck.
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[Kohm]

If all else fails, put vitamin supplements on his lettuce and give it to him. At least keep him healthy. And keep him off the rocks. Sand ingestion will kill a tort, so needless to say about rocks. But red cabbage is pretty nutritious, though.

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[maturtlerescue]

You can try Walkabout Farms foods. They are a bit expensive, but well worth the price. They have a mix that can be used with leafy greens such as Romaine lettuce. It has everything in it that your tortoise will need.

The Walkabout website can be found at;

http://www.herpnutrition.com/grasslandtortoises.htm

The Walbabout Farm diet can be mixed well with the lettuce. I usually take a large freezer bag and make sure the lettuce is mosit. This allows the mix to stich to the lettuce and the tortoise will automatically eat it when consuming the lettuce. At least you will know that your tortoise will be getting all essential minerals and vitamins not to mention the fiber he/she needs.

Another way to get your tortoise to eat a more complete diet is to wean him/her off what he/she is addicted to. The way this can be done is to first offer mostly the lettuce the tortoise will eat and mix it in with the more desirable food. Be sure to mix this well because tortoises have a great ability to pick out their favorite foods. Then you can slowly introduce more of a variety as you lessen the amount of lettuce you are offering. Works like a charm!

Debbie
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[billy]

Ubfortunatly we have tryed that, it will just eat what it likes lettuce and red cabbage and the rest will just sit there. the durn thing is stubburn it would rather not eat then try somehting new.
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[Kohm]

Tortoises usually eat a variety of stuff. This is one hardcore case. Um ... maybe you can try bread. Just some simple white bread. At least it has some carbo. What fruits have you tried? I know that isn't really their natural diet, but maybe some apple, bananas or grapws may work. I dunno, but many torts like aldabras like them.
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