Rabbit pellets?

[Hanako]

A friend of mine has a lot of THB. They are mostly fully grown adults and it is a lot of them! I noticed that in the winter she feeds them with rabbit pellets. (In the summer they are all outside grazing). I asked her about the rabbit pellets and she explained that tortoise pellets are very expensive for the number of tortoises she has, whereas Rabbit pellets are cheaper. She felt strongly against feeding them with dog/cat food because it has a lot of protein, but Rabbit pellets apparently have similar composition as tortoise pellets because rabbits also don't eat protein.

What is your opinion about this? Are rabbit pellets harmful, or is it really similar to tortoise pellets?

What do you feed your tortoises (if you have a lot of them) when weeds are not available?

[pagan queen]

I have to admit to feeding my torts on guinea pig pellets and parrot pellets when I have run out of tortoise pellets. There is little difference in the composition except the guinea pig pellets don't have D3, the parrot ones do however. I wouldn't feed it all the time though.

Burgess excel guinea pig food ingredients

Grass, Maize, Wheat, Lucerne, Soya Bean Hulls, Peas, Soya, Oat Bran, Unmolassed Beet Pulp, Yeast, Soya Oil, Ligno-cellulose, Molasses, Calcium Carbonate, Monocalcium Phosphate, Vitamins, Fructo-oligosaccharides 0.25%, Salt, Minerals. Contains Natural Antioxidants. No artificial colours, flavours or preservatives.

Kaytee Exact parrot pellets.

Ingredients:

Ground Corn, Ground Wheat, Ground Oat Groats, Soybean Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Wheat Middlings, Ground Flax Seed, Soy Oil, Dried Whole Egg, Dried Beet Pulp, Dicalcium Phosphate, Calcium Carbonate, Wheat Germ Meal, Corn Sugar, L-Lysine, Salt, Algae Meal (source of DHA), Fructooligosaccharide, Brewers Dried Yeast, Vitamin A Supplement, Choline Chloride, Dried Cane Molasses, Titanium Dioxide, Mixed Tocopherols (a preservative), Yeast Extract, DL-Methionine, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Vitamin E Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Manganese Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Manganous Oxide, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of vitamin K activity), Niacin, Rosemary Extract, Citric Acid, Calcium Pantothenate, Copper Sulfate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Cholecalciferol (source of vitamin D3), Beta-Carotene, Canthaxanthin, Folic Acid, Calcium Iodate, Biotin, Cobalt Carbonate, Sodium Selenite, Dried Bacillus subtilis Fermentation Product, Dried Bacillus licheniformis Fermentation Product, Artificial Colors, Natural and Artificial Flavors. Allergen information: Manufactured in a facility that processes peanuts and other tree nuts.
Guaranteed Analysis:

Crude Protein (min.).................15.0% Crude Fat (min.)......................6.0% Crude Fiber (max.)....................5.0% Moisture (max.)......................12.0% Omega-3 Fatty Acids (min.)............0.5% Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) (min.)....0.05%

[Catwoman63]

That's very interesting, isn't it similar to nutrazu, mazuri etc? X

[burnt toast]

Originally Posted by Hanako

A friend of mine has a lot of THB. They are mostly fully grown adults and it is a lot of them! I noticed that in the winter she feeds them with rabbit pellets. (In the summer they are all outside grazing). I asked her about the rabbit pellets and she explained that tortoise pellets are very expensive for the number of tortoises she has, whereas Rabbit pellets are cheaper. She felt strongly against feeding them with dog/cat food because it has a lot of protein, but Rabbit pellets apparently have similar composition as tortoise pellets because rabbits also don't eat protein.

What is your opinion about this? Are rabbit pellets harmful, or is it really similar to tortoise pellets?

What do you feed your tortoises (if you have a lot of them) when weeds are not available?

Thats interesting hankaro, do you know which brand of rabbit pellets she uses, has she fed them for long? And do her torts hibernate or eat this every day! Are they well? Are they bumpy?

[pagan queen]

Originally Posted by Catwoman63

That's very interesting, isn't it similar to nutrazu, mazuri etc? X

The parrot one I think is very similar. But when you consider the diets of torts and parrots the requirements are similar. They both eat a high fiber diet. The main difference is where they get that fiber from. Birds eat seed and fruit because they can get to that sort of food, whereas torts eat weeds as that is what's available at their level. Also remember, birds evolved from reptiles.

[Hanako]

Originally Posted by burnt toast

Thats interesting hankaro, do you know which brand of rabbit pellets she uses, has she fed them for long? And do her torts hibernate or eat this every day! Are they well? Are they bumpy?

I don't remember which pellets she uses. About two weeks ago when I visited her I saw a huge bag and read on it 'rabbit pellets' or something like that, so I asked her why she has got it when she doesn't have any rabbits, but at that time I didn't really consider it that important to try and remember which brand it was or what else was written on the bag.

Her tortoises are very smooth and appear to be doing well. They look healthy.

She doesn't hibernate, so I would imagine her tortoises eating that the whole part of the year when there are no weeds around. I don't know if she feeds anything else apart of the pellets in the winter, I didn't really asked much about it. But I do know that in the summer they get the weeds. I heard her saying that the tortoises food bill goes down when the weeds are around.

[egyptiandan64]

I have feed rabbit pellets (half of their diet) early on in my tortoise keeping (was before most if not all tortoise pellets got on the market). Had okay results using them, tropical tortoises did best using them and Meds. were up and down. Spur-thighs did well, Marginateds okay and Hermanns not well at all.
As a supplement during the winter they should work just fine and can add quite a bit of fiber to the diet. Shop around and find a pellet that has the least protein (mine was either 12% or 14%).

Danny

[alley cat]

Danny did you feed them dry or soaked? and also what was the problem with the hermanns?

[egyptiandan64]

I soaked the pellets first so they were broken down and added some lettuces to that. Mixed it up and fed it to the tortoises. I never had anyone refuse the mixture. I can only think it was the protein content and at the time I was feeding carrots (oxalic acid) that combined to have them not grow well.
As a supplement (and not half the diet) I think they'd work fine for Hermanns. I just think I over did things at the time. It did make feeding a large group easier.

Danny

[alley cat]

That is interesting, thanks