Pellets

[NATURALIS]

Originally Posted by pagan queen

Errrrmmm.....You providing your tort with weeds is not a natural diet. How do we know if they are getting the correct amount of nutrients? Also supplementing the diet with neutrabol and calcium isn't natural and more likely to cause problems with over dosing than giving a complete pelleted diet.

hmmm, can i just ask what your basing this on ??? , after all there is no such thing as a complete pellet.

[Pussygalore]

also unless you are a plantologist (if theres such a thing) its very hard to feed the right amount of different things, the majority stick to the dozen or so weeds/plants that they recognise or feel safe with and more often or not its just not providing the right balance of food. For those like me who aren't plantologists (and don't intend to be) adding pellets balances out my weed/plant diet. Nearly all of the pyramidding is caused not just by pellets but a combination of things, however overfeeding of the pellets is harmfull so a couple for a young tort, well soaked is plenty, not as the container says 'feed ad lib' even my adults only have half a dozen of one and a couple of another. I'd always say underfeed rather than the other way and always offer greens as well, if the tort is still hungry he'll move on to them, mine do.

[Atrinka]

I have tried mine with pellets and they won't touch them-I've mixed them in with their fresh greens and they refuse to even eat that when the pellets are mixed through , anyone any ideas how to get them to eat them as I want to use them periodically during winter they are zoo med grassland tortoise food.

[TortBabe]

You could perhaps try a different brand, such as Komodo or T-Rex pellets, they may prefer different ones

[NATURALIS]

Originally Posted by Atrinka

I have tried mine with pellets and they won't touch them-I've mixed them in with their fresh greens and they refuse to even eat that when the pellets are mixed through , anyone any ideas how to get them to eat them as I want to use them periodically during winter they are zoo med grassland tortoise food.

i think grasslands are just fibre pellets which are fine to feed , try soaking them until they swell up and fall apart then mix them well in to the greens .

[Alan1]

Originally Posted by Atrinka

I have tried mine with pellets and they won't touch them-I've mixed them in with their fresh greens and they refuse to even eat that when the pellets are mixed through , anyone any ideas how to get them to eat them as I want to use them periodically during winter they are zoo med grassland tortoise food.

Probably the will if you keep tyring, sometimes they don't take to them right away. They would probably eat T-Rex but don't know if that would do for a sulcata

[Tr@cey]

Originally Posted by pagan queen

I was using the word "you" as a term for the tort owner in general not you personally. You said, "the same as they would eat in the wild" I am saying we can not provide the same, so it can't be called a natural diet.

Let me rephrase - The only diet that we can be sure is good for them is a natural diet, the same as they would eat in the wild.

Any diet be it pellets, pellets/weeds or strictly weeds with supplements is not a natural diet in my opinion. And we cannot possibly know what the long term effects are.

Therefore in answer to the OP's original question - We are unable to give a catergoric answer either way on pellets.

[Anita Sayles]

For me it's a weed/flower diet... I have some pre alpin and some flowers that I've been drying all summer, so I'll mix a bit of that into the fresh foods in the winter for variety.
I'm a pretty new keeper, no expert but I like the idea of a weed diet. As time goes on, it may turn out that I've made mistakes, but I'll be able to put my hand on my heart and say I did what I thought was best

[NATURALIS]

This graeca has lived in a garden in the uk eating just weed's since 1923 , he's never had any pellet's , my point is if it isn't broke why try to fix it .

[Alan1]

The natural ranges of torts is being taken over more and more by farmers, the torts are still there but they are eating the crops so in many cases in the wild now torts are actually eating the same plant every day, it will be interesting to see how that pans out in the years to come, whether they are still healthy, pyramided or whatever. I read somewhere that life expectancy in the wild is only 30 years anyway so no matter what they eat, they may reach that anyway