Favourite foods? Particularly in Winter!

[Easter Bunny]

Originally Posted by EJ

Mazui tortoise diet... Winter... Spring... Summer and Fall...

How many times a week do you feed your tortoise? Do they have days with no food?

[EJ]

I try to feed them twice a week but they sometimes get it once a week with nothing inbetween.

Originally Posted by LYNNEEASTER

How many times a week do you feed your tortoise? Do they have days with no food?

[alley cat]

Originally Posted by EJ

I try to feed them twice a week but they sometimes get it once a week with nothing inbetween.

Thats neglect

[EJ]

You're phunny.

A little lesson in tortoise natural history... They forage all day long because they have to fulfill their nutritional requirement with nutritionally poor plants for the most part. Outside of wet season plants the majority of the time they are feeding on dried... sunbleached... plants. Sunbleached is important because most of the nutrients are destroyed.

Given a diet that fulfills their nutritional needs... there is not a necessity to constantly eat. If too much is given... they grow quicker than I would like.

How do you equate that with neglect?

Originally Posted by alley cat

Thats neglect

[terrypin]

surely looking at how they forage naturally is the very reason we want to encourage the natural progression of dietary fibre through their systems.tortoises bodies have developed over many years to cope with their normal natural living conditions so deliberately denying them the oppurtunity to maintain a healthy digestive system by only supplying them with what you consider is required to keep them alive is if not negletfull,ill advised.

terry

[EJ]

Why should that be a sure thing? This kind of ties into another thread. They forage because they have to.

If provided the proper nutrition... foraging is not a necessity.

What makes you think they are not maintaining a healthy digestive system? I've found that they have a healthier digestive system given the pelleted diet than any green diet I could provide.

I make no assumptions. I try many different methods and act on the outcome.

I'm not trying to keep them alive... I'm trying to understand how to get them to thrive.

You have your methods... I have mine. I did manage to produce 4 generations of Leopards... that's gotta say something.

Oh... the diet I feed provides plenty of dietary fiber.

Once again... that's a bold assumption that they are not maintaining a healthy digestive system.

Originally Posted by terrypin

surely looking at how they forage naturally is the very reason we want to encourage the natural progression of dietary fibre through their systems.tortoises bodies have developed over many years to cope with their normal natural living conditions so deliberately denying them the oppurtunity to maintain a healthy digestive system by only supplying them with what you consider is required to keep them alive is if not negletfull,ill advised.

terry

[alley cat]

Originally Posted by EJ

You're phunny.

A little lesson in tortoise natural history... They forage all day long because they have to fulfill their nutritional requirement with nutritionally poor plants for the most part. Outside of wet season plants the majority of the time they are feeding on dried... sunbleached... plants. Sunbleached is important because most of the nutrients are destroyed.

Given a diet that fulfills their nutritional needs... there is not a necessity to constantly eat. If too much is given... they grow quicker than I would like.

How do you equate that with neglect?

Thanks for the lesson but that was nothing that I didn't already know.

I don't want to get into the diet you feed as I think everybody has heard all they need to about your views on that!

What I am concerned with is, why you would feed them thier whole quota of food in one helping? convenience on your part maybe?

Your torts may have lovely shell growth and be the weight you think they should be, but what do they do all day every day? (having read a later post it sounds like the Leopards have found something to do with all their spare time)

Ali

[EJ]

With the number of tortoises in each enclosure... some tortoises would not get their fair share if I fed a small amount everyday. Again this is what works for me and my situation to provide the husbandry that allows the tortoises to thrive.

Outdoors... the situation is different... it all depends.

Originally Posted by alley cat

Thanks for the lesson but that was nothing that I didn't already know.

I don't want to get into the diet you feed as I think everybody has heard all they need to about your views on that!

What I am concerned with is, why you would feed them thier whole quota of food in one helping? convenience on your part maybe?

Your torts may have lovely shell growth and be the weight you think they should be, but what do they do all day every day? (having read a later post it sounds like the Leopards have found something to do with all their spare time)

Ali

[rocio]

Originally Posted by LincsBren

I'm over-wintering my babies (due to their age, very recent arrival with me, and the fact they are my first tortoises) and although I am trying to grow some weeds and flowers from seed, I was wondering what else people do when choices of weeds and wildflowers outside are sparse?

There are loads of dandelions around and my two LOVE them but I am trying to feed them a wide variety of food. I'm giving them the odd bit of lettuce (NOT iceberg), some raddicio which they like, and have tried them on a number of different flowers (evening primrose, rose, harebell, geranium, petunia, marigold) and they're not interested in any! I've not run out of things currently growing in my garden so am trying to think of what else I could get hold of.

What about a suitable pellet feed for Hermanns? If I feed this to supplement their weeds during the Winter, how easy will it be to wean them off it in Spring / Summer (as I don't really want to rely on pellet food year round)?

TIA!

Hi there, just a thought but what I do to try and get my two to eat what I want them to eat rather than what THEY want to eat is------whatever it is they LOVE to munch on,I feed it to them but also,with a pair of scissors,I cut up finely the other food. My two adore the pads of opuntia cactus. So I cut this up into small bits then scissor hay or whatever, over the gluey opuntia and they scoff the whole lot down. Might work for you. Rocio

[shellonia]

I've discovered a wonderful solution to weeds being scarce in the winter.Look up the website:tortoiseworld.co.uk.There you will find various nutritional supplements but the 'Ultima' range includes an organic mediterranean weed and flower supplement which you just sprinkle onto any 'greens'you may need to use during the winter months.It has been researched for several years before coming onto the market and you can't find anything better.It has been developed by a renowned Breeder and tried out on his own stock over a long period before being put out for sale.It goes a long way too.