26-08-2012, 12:03 PM | #1 |
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Baby redfoot
I've got a new baby redfoot he's (well I say he but who knows, for the time being he will be known as Norman) only a couple of months old, I was just wondering how much he should be eating? He seems to be eating very little at the moment, I know this might just be because he's settling in. But just wanted some advice on how much he should be eating? X
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26-08-2012, 01:14 PM | #2 |
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I take it back about eating very little, he's just polished off one dandelion leaf, one petal of a hibiscus flower, one campanula leaf, a few nibbles of a nastrium leaf and a bit of a nibble on some zoo med forest tortoise food. Is this enough?
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26-08-2012, 01:22 PM | #3 |
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That sounds good alright. I've a little yellowfoot a few months old who has days where he will eat like a pig and others where he will just pick. What's yours poop like. Should be like a little log, solid enough.
My guys staple diet is Nutrazu pellets with greens and some fruit a couple times a week. Are you using calcium supplements?
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26-08-2012, 02:08 PM | #4 |
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I'm using nutrobol every other day at the moment as he doesn't seem as keen on eating when nutrobol is on his food. His poos are like little logs nice and firm but I can squish them between kitchen roll (I always inspect the poop... Gross I know) the main diet is a variety of weeds today was his first time with the zoo med food, he's had a little bit of tomato and mushroom but not too much.
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26-08-2012, 09:43 PM | #5 |
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That sounds good, the poo should be like that. Once he's pooing regularly and eating he will be fine. Yeah I give the same nutrabol to mine, every second day. He doesn't seem to like it either.
Take his weight every 10-12 days and you should notice an increase of maybe a gram or two, maybe more. So long as he's not losing weight he will be fine. Mine has nearly doubled in weight since I got him. I'll post pics tomorrow when I'm at my laptop. Can't do it on my phone. You keeping the humidity up? What kinda set up do you have him in?
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26-08-2012, 10:52 PM | #6 |
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He's in a viv with a heat lamp on a thermostat set to 30degrees, a uv tube, the substrate is tortoise terrain, half covered with bark half covered with sphagnum moss, he has a hide on the sphagnum moss side which he seems to spend a lot of time in. There's a pool of water which he can get in and out of at his leisure, some smooth rocks, I also keep cuttle fish in there. The hummidity is between 70 - 88% and the temperature is around 28- 30 measured on a digital hydrometer/thermometer. I weighed him earlier in the week and he weighed 76g I'm going to weigh him regularly and keep a record. Do you bath your tortoise? My older one loves baths but the baby just stays really still
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27-08-2012, 12:59 AM | #7 |
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No I don't take him out to bath but every morning after I spray down his viv I put him in his pool and he visibly drinks almost every time. I leave him for about 10-15mins and if he hasn't gone over to the food by then I put him in front of it and he starts munching.
Your set up sounds perfect. I say hes a happy little fella. Sure post a pic of him if ya can. Do you give your bigger reds any protein? Slugs snails and worms?
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27-08-2012, 10:20 AM | #8 |
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The older one has some boiled chicken once a week/fortnight. When should I start the baby on protein? My laptops broken at the moment but I shall have a go at putting some photos up using the netbook at some point this week
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27-08-2012, 12:17 PM | #9 |
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Go easy on the meat protein refoots fare better with veggie protein which they will get from peas, beans, mushrooms and the pellet diet.
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27-08-2012, 12:48 PM | #10 |
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Yeah box girl is right, you can offer your baby a small bit of mushroom for now. I keep Hingebacks and I give them worms, slugs and snails every 2 weeks or so. It's what they eat in the wild along with reds and yellows. I stay away from the chicken. Also snails are a great source of calcium. Some people will throw redfoots the odd pinkie and this is ok to do so long as it's only occasional.
Here's how I keep track of mine, weigh and every month or so I trace the carapace circumference. It's a good indicator on size growth because if your like me and looking at your tort every day it's hard to see any difference. This way you can go back and look at the records and see clearly. and this is him last week.
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