Redfoot Hatchling Question

[gatoruss]

My Redfoot is about 5 weeks old (born Mar 8th) - I have had him for about 5 days. So far, I have been feeding it spring greens and romaine lettuce.

My question is, to the best of my knowledge, I have not seen him poop....how frequently should he poop? I am using cypress mulch as a substrate....could he have pooped, and I haven't seen it?

Dumb question - what does/should the poop look like?

Thanks!

[Laraine]

Hi Russ,
At 5 weeks old the poos are small, plus redfoots can sometimes eat it, yuk I know, but it happens! I bathe mine every day, I have youngsters as well, you will notice the poos more in a nice warm bath then in the table enclosure. They don't poop every day, so don't worry, it will be a small brown pellet shaped poop, but will be more soft than hard. Lovely topic! Will be soft and squishy if done in the bath!

I think your Redfoots diet needs a bit more variety. I was wondering what do you mean by spring greens?

I will tell you what I do, which was advised by the breeder, I alternate days for feeding, for example, one day they will have fruit, the next day weeds and a small amount of some Romaine or Crispy salad, then the next back fruit and so on. I also give mine a chestnut mushroom once or twice a week with their weeds, I just give 1 x mushroom between the three of them.
For fruit,
Papaya, Melon, mango, strawberries, raspberries, plums, pear, apple, peach, grapes. As more fruit comes into season and arrives in the shops they will get a wider selection.

Each feed, they also get nutrabol sprinkled on it.

[gatoruss]

At 5 weeks old the poos are small, plus redfoots can sometimes eat it, yuk I know, but it happens!

I had a dog like that once...learned not to kiss him.


The "spring greens" are comprised of "baby lettuce"....tango, baby romaine and radicchio.

Today I feed him some apple, romaine and turnip greens. He doesn't seem interested in the apple. In the past I have given him some carrot with his greens, but has shown no interest.

I will pick up some of the fruits you mention and a mushroom for tomorrow.

BTW - here is our routine....His light (100 watt T-rex active heat flood) goes on at 5:50. After 2 hours he has not moved out of his hiding place, so I soak him for 10 minutes and then place him on his food. He typically eats for about 30 minutes and then wanders off (sometimes to bask, sometimes to hide). There is always food left over. I leave the food in his enclosure, and he usually eats again. At night when the light turns off (it is on a timer), I remove the food.

Appreciate ytour help.

[Laraine]

One good thing about having Redfoots, you get a healthier diet with more fruit available in the house! We have a fruit salad everyday, that way I always have fresh fruit available for them.

[gatoruss]

In the morning when I first offered food, my tort focuses on the greens, and has ignored apple and carrot when offered with greens. However, I leave the uneaten food in his enclosure until the end of the day, yesterday in the afternoon he did eat some apple.

Today, I am thinking that I will offer fruit only - mellon and pineapple and see what his reaction is.

[gatoruss]

Okay I have a poop reference now....funny...my 5 year old daughter was holding the tort (supervised of course) and we were offering him some food..suddenly she said "eeewwww!" and am inch long poop was in her palm! She looked up at me and said, "At least he's safe to hold now!

[pawsplus]

Welcome, Russ! Glad you joined! Yeah, I have to say that I rarely saw Beasley's poop when she was little unless she did it while soaking. I soaked her daily for the first year or so, then every other day. Now (she's 10) she is soaked 2X a week (and she has her own pool, of course). She still sometimes goes when soaked, but now she's big enough for me to see her poops in the enclosure and clean them up.

[gatoruss]

Originally Posted by pawsplus

Welcome, Russ! Glad you joined! Yeah, I have to say that I rarely saw Beasley's poop when she was little unless she did it while soaking. I soaked her daily for the first year or so, then every other day. Now (she's 10) she is soaked 2X a week (and she has her own pool, of course). She still sometimes goes when soaked, but now she's big enough for me to see her poops in the enclosure and clean them up.

Thanks!

[pawsplus]

Oh, and definitely get him off the lettuce! Find a nice place where you can pick dandelions and other weeds (look at the weeds forum -- some are only in the UK but we have a lot here, too) and pick him fresh weeds daily.

I was SO MAD when I got home and found that the guy who cut my grass WEED WHACKED where I had told him to leave it alone!! All my weeds are gone! WWWAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! Fortunately, it's raining a lot and they'll grow back, but .