pelleted diet

[EJ]

Nope... wasn't.

Originally Posted by yuna1971

Ed, ...It probably was....on the big massive thread about 6 months ago.
But got lost in the pages and pages that had to be read to find it...

[EJ]

That's not a real word.

Originally Posted by 16 shells

Mixinmeposties sound's dodgy to me.

[pagan queen]

It seems no one know the answer Ed. With all the shouting you would think someone would be able to tell us.

[EJ]

That's exactly the point. These diets have been around for close to 30 years. If there was fault to be had I'm sure it would have shown up by not. I researched it for about 2 years and cautiously used it for about 3 years... you know my take on it. I still correspond with the nutritionist who oversees the production of the product I use and I talk to the distributors of other feeds.

Originally Posted by pagan queen

It seems no one know the answer Ed. With all the shouting you would think someone would be able to tell us.

[16 shells]

Originally Posted by EJ

That's not a real word.

Made up . I do like to see both sides of the feeding regimes and look for as much info as poss. Still don't see there being that much difference between full on plant feeding and a good pellet even if used as a main and the other's plant's add on's.

[EJ]

So you class yourlsef as a normal person.

Originally Posted by 16 shells

Made up . I do like to see both sides of the feeding regimes and look for as much info as poss. Still don't see there being that much difference between full on plant feeding and a good pellet even if used as a main and the other's plant's add on's.

[onarock]

Ahh, the holy grail of forum threads. Pyramiding and Pellets. To me natural proponents have little to zero knowledge of what their diet is doing for their tortoises. They also cant tell anyone where their diet is excelling of lacking. Also, they cant wrap their heads around the idea that formulated pellets are as good as their small assortment of weeds growing in their yard. Not saying that I am a big advocate of formulated diets, but until they make some sort of home weed nutrient testing kit, I cant find the argument.

[Kirkie]

It's interesting how different this discussion looks these days. Then I realised that most of the people I know who feed tortoises a solely fresh plant diet don't post here anymore. Shame because most of them are long term sucessful keepers and breeders of tortoises and if the often held up visual indicators of a "good" diet such as growth are true, the tortoises of theirs I've seen are testament that feeding a plant diet is as sucessful as any other approach. But, I concur, if you don't understand or can't be bothered to research it, don't do it. Seems to be the way of the world these days anyway. (I know, people just want a low maintenance "pet" right?).
Makes me laugh when I read of the unknown nutritional values of plants. Buy a soil testing kit for starters. The nutritional requirements of tortoises are as unknown on the whole. Just check the nutritional values on pelleted diets to see that even these "experts" can't agree on a base formula. Ouside of the wildly differing protein, fat and fibre level they're basically nutrobal anyway.

[NATURALIS]

Originally Posted by Kirkie

It's interesting how different this discussion looks these days. Then I realised that most of the people I know who feed tortoises a solely fresh plant diet don't post here anymore. Shame because most of them are long term sucessful keepers and breeders of tortoises and if the often held up visual indicators of a "good" diet such as growth are true, the tortoises of theirs I've seen are testament that feeding a plant diet is as sucessful as any other approach. But, I concur, if you don't understand or can't be bothered to research it, don't do it. Seems to be the way of the world these days anyway. (I know, people just want a low maintenance "pet" right?).
Makes me laugh when I read of the unknown nutritional values of plants. Buy a soil testing kit for starters. The nutritional requirements of tortoises are as unknown on the whole. Just check the nutritional values on pelleted diets to see that even these "experts" can't agree on a base formula. Ouside of the wildly differing protein, fat and fibre level they're basically nutrobal anyway.

Dave with you all the way, i can see why most sucessful keepers don't post anymore , my problem is by sitting back and not providing evidence that plant diet's are the best way to go newbie's fall in to the pellet trap . It seem's a shame that there treated like a domesticated pet rather than what they are'' WILD ANIMAL'S '' , from what i've read and seen the last few year's ( since the return of the imported tortoise ) more and more people keeping them just like a pet rabbit or guinea pig with no regard to trying to enrich there live's by giving them heated greenhouse's and large interesting enclosure's for them to investigate instead , keeping them in uninteresting table's , which most are far to small .
Coming back to diet , a lot of pet shops promote pellets because they get repeat business over and over which is another way of making profit ,it also seem's very sad that people arn't even interested in learning to identify basic weed plant's and going for whats easiest for them rather than consider the tortoise which to me seem's wrong should it not be what's best for the animal not what's best for the keeper.
I know people say ''but this isn't the wild '' , very true ! , but considering there wild animals should we all not try to make there live's as interesting as poss , building interesting enclosure's that they can interact with , planting feed plants etc etc , instead of trying to domesticate them feeding unnatural food served in a bowl from there prison cell.

[Alan1]

The people who feed a soley fresh plant diet (I take it that rules out those who use Pre Alpin as well since it aint fresh nor are dried plants) who don't post here anymore may have blinkers on anyway and not be open to anything new no matter what otherwise they might still be posting here