Manufactured Diet... very long post.

[EJ]

The cartoon is seriously funny and clever.

Originally Posted by caledonia

Well I now have some pellets which I have offered although they have only eaten one pellet between them. I will continue to offer them and if they get round to eating them I will give them along with the limited plants available in winter. (What, not hibernating?!!!) you can only be executed once

[Alan1]

thanks Ed.

Paul, yes I soaked them although it doesn't say to do that

[Ozric Jonathan]

Fish I know nothing about, but dogs and cats have been domesticated for many thousands of years. The dogs we have now are more or less man made animals which do what they are told and allowed to do by human beings. Tortoises are essentially wild animals. Both dogs and cats eat meat which is why they are fed on tinned meat. People used to feed them on meat out of the butchers etc until the pet food industry came along and commercialised this market in order to make profit. Cats in my experinece like to hunt and kill birds and mice and they often eat part or all of what they kill.

So I think these animals are completely different to tortoises.

I agree that we do not provide 40 species of plants for our tortoises to eat. It is also the case that most of the time nothng like that number of plants are available to tortoises in nature either because of seasonal changes.

Personally I will continue to avoid manufactured foods because they contain things that a tortoise in nature would never have. Human food consumption is now dominated in many countries by manufactured foods containing large amounts of fats and salts etc and the availability and use of these foods is directly related to a huge range of health problems in human animals. Our species has become dependent in many case on artificial feeding with disastrous results. Why would I inflict this on another species when its easily avoided?

[dae]

Very interesting post and great pics Ed.

[EJ]

Every single nutritional component in the diets I use and suggest are equally found in the wild.

The only difference is that they've been combined in a ratio that apears to provide good growth and good health without the guess work.

This is kind of like personal beliefs... I don't like it therefore it is bad.

Even though I don't like something... I try it to see if it is actually bad. In this case... I lucked out and my animals are benefiting from it.

Originally Posted by Ozric Jonathan

Fish I know nothing about, but dogs and cats have been domesticated for many thousands of years. The dogs we have now are more or less man made animals which do what they are told and allowed to do by human beings. Tortoises are essentially wild animals. Both dogs and cats eat meat which is why they are fed on tinned meat. People used to feed them on meat out of the butchers etc until the pet food industry came along and commercialised this market in order to make profit. Cats in my experinece like to hunt and kill birds and mice and they often eat part or all of what they kill.

So I think these animals are completely different to tortoises.

I agree that we do not provide 40 species of plants for our tortoises to eat. It is also the case that most of the time nothng like that number of plants are available to tortoises in nature either because of seasonal changes.

Personally I will continue to avoid manufactured foods because they contain things that a tortoise in nature would never have. Human food consumption is now dominated in many countries by manufactured foods containing large amounts of fats and salts etc and the availability and use of these foods is directly related to a huge range of health problems in human animals. Our species has become dependent in many case on artificial feeding with disastrous results. Why would I inflict this on another species when its easily avoided?