florette salad

[pixie-egg]

Hi again,

Right. I'm feeling a bit calmer about my ickle wee fella now. Just one more thing tho...
He's finally started eating with a lot of help from you guys and a lot of patience and tomatoes! He's still going back to bed after but at least he's eating now. I've now managed to cut out the tom's but ALL he'll eat is florette crispy salad. I've tried weeds of course and even pellets but he just won't touch them. Even if I chop everything up and mix with the salad. But I can't go too small as I have to hand feed him so need enough to hold on to.
I'm wondering how long i've got to get him on 'the good stuff' before he starts showing signs of illness or pyramiding? (and yes I understand that there are different contributers). I just want him to have the best and be as healthy as possible. Just this last week he's eaten it with limestone flour but still won't touch nutrobal either. I'm just a bit concerned he's not getting all the vitamins he needs.

Thanks folks. And i'm sorry for asking stuff again. I'm such a worry wort x

[Lolly8]

Try nutrobal with the cucumber.That usually will work.
You can try also romain lettuce for a change.They usually won't refuse to eat this.Try pellets without mixing with anything.Maybe then he likes it.If not then...
Healthy tortoise will not starve and will eat weeds ( all covered with the snow here at the moment though) when it's hungry.
If tort is active and it's behaviour is normal,gets uvb,additional vitamines (nutrobal) I don't think it would be ill because of this choice of food.Most keepers give salad etc. in winter time because of lack of weeds.

[16 shells]

You would have heard this before but some do take time to eat what you want them to, also this is a funny time of the year for being active and full appetites, salad most can't resist but it has nearly zero nutrients. Try not giving any for a while and offer the other option after a couple of day's of nothing.

[shellonia]

I have also been told you can add nutrobal to drinking/bath water but it's a bit expensive so only a pinch.Or mix limestone flour into the substrate

[Alan1]

mine took to t-rex dry formula pellets right away after not eating other types

[Alan1]

romaine and radicchio have a small amount of goodness. iceberg has nowt

[WriterNick]

My little fella loves the radiccio part of the Florette salad (the red lettuce part), I think that it's his favourite thing of all. I always mix it in with weeds but whilst he eats a bit of everything it's always the radiccio that he polishes off completely. I guess now that winter has arrived he will have to eat just florette and pellets (with the odd bit of weed that I've managed to grow) until he hibernates at the turn of the year.
What pellets have you tried Pixie? Mine loves the Komodo dandelion flavour. I could send you a few to try with Eddie if you want?

[pixie-egg]

Lolly8, he's not active at all. I still have to get him up in the morning for his bath then in the afternoon to hand feed him. After each he's right on back to his hide. If I didn't he'd never surface. Longest i've left him is 4 days and couldn't bare it any longer so got him up.

Paul i'm too nervous of him going back to not eating anything to try it for a few days! I've spent 3 months tempting him to eat that I soo don't want to start over if he refuses everything again. I know it's a bad time of the year for torts anyway but he's so small and lost so much weight already I don't want to damage him. I'd never get another so close to winter!!

Alan and Nick. I'm trying komodo dandelion pellets. But thank you so much for the offer of a sample!! I might order some trex ones to try. I've tried these ones at different moisture levels and he's only ever once had a bite and never again. Fussy little so-and-so.

So if I manage to get some nutrobal in him and some pellets will that be enough goodness until I can persuade him to take to a proper diet and not just the salad? Not sure how i'm going to manage those two tho. Might have to get the tomatoes back out they are the only thing i've not had to hand feed him!

[TortBabe]

I'm gonna send my guys over to kick his butt Wee rascal playing you uplike that! I think you should keep getting him up. I had a girl do this with me and I perservered for weeks, I took her hide away as all she wanted to do was stay there all day, and I was constantly putting her under her lamp.
I would try bathing him twice a day in nice warm water, under his lamp to keep him warm. When my Horsfield wouldn't eat I bathed him in Reptoboost, this helped too. Keep trying to hand feed him too. I would dampen the lettuce and try to stick some of the weeds onto the back of them and see if he will take them. Like you say its a bad time of the year,
it sounds like he has the need to hibernate, my horsfield done this too a while back its hard keeping them up when they want to sleep. Don't give up you are doing great, he will be fine

[pixie-egg]

Ha ha ha. He really does need his butt kicked by some big tort Mr's!!
I've been using reptiboost in his baths which I thought didn't do anything but he has started eating. Just not what I want him too! Little bugger.
The table i've got has a built in house which i've blocked off months ago so all he has now to dig under is a fake long grass plant. I felt so mean blocking it off, he spent hours trying to get back in but I deemed it too dark.
I noticed in another thread you said to me about how different he'll be next spring being outside. I can't wait. He had a couple of days when I first got him and he really did love it. He was like a different tort. He was all over. And so fast too!!
I just worry he's not getting enough vitamins and nutrition from his food and cos he's not up long heat and uv, so I worry about his digestion. He eaten every day for about 2 weeks now and still no poo. So still no sample for the vet! X