African Spurred Tortoise not eating....?

Question

I changed my young tortoise's diet after doing some major research on sites such as sulcatastation, etc. and ordered the oxbow hay and grew some grass from seeds that I ordered off the internet. She has not touched her hay in over a week. I broke down from my "tough love" approach and gave her a piece of romaine lettuce and she ate it in about 2 minutes. I have tried wetting the hay down and other suggestions, but she refuses to each the hay or the weed sprouts. I need some fresh ideas.

I've had my tortoise for about 3 months now and she was 12 weeks old when I got her. She has a 4 foot by 6 foot turtle table with 4 areas to burrow into aspen bedding and 2 caves, I bathe her 3-4 times a week, she is taken outside everyday (live in southern AZ) for 20-30 minutes for exercise and sun and longer on the weekends. I have a ceramic heat lamp but have never had to turn it on because the temp stays 85 degrees during the day and 75 at night on her table. When she outgrows her turtle table in a few years I will move her outside to our backyard. She is already the center of attention and loves it!

Thanks for all the wonderful advice! Keep going! Need more!

Answer 1

1. I'm going to assume the other cares, such as pen size, temps, UV-B lighting, etc. are rock solid. If they are not, they need to get fixed before the tortoise will feed well.

2. "Over a week" is nothing. She is just outwaiting you to get what she wants. She has learned that if she waits, you'll break down. These animals are not dumb.

3. Don't wet the hay (mold problems), and DO NOT try dog food. Also, don't give up on the 'forage' (hay, grasses, etc.)

Try this:
Every meal, offer her a good varied salad mix of:
- 50% forage (hay, grasses, yard plants, leaves, flowers, etc.)
- 35% vegetables (dark leafy greens mostly, but also a variety of other colorful veggies).
- 10% fruits
- Less than 5% proteins (mashed hard-boiled eggs and shells, cooked chicken, pinkies, etc.)
- A sprinkle of reptile vitamins with B13,and a dose of calcium supplement.

I generally serve a generous handful of forage, and the rest ofthe diet is about 2-3 times the size of the tort's head. Remove foods as they go bad (fruits fiurst, usually, etc.) but leave the forage in there all the time.

Also- feed babies daily. Feed young torts every other day, and older torts every three days. You don't say the torts size or age, but try feeding it every other day with forage left in 24/7.

Oh- and try different forage foods. Instead of oxbow hay, try alfalfa, etc. Your local feed and grain store probably has stuff you can sample to try out. Just avoid grains (avoid horse feed, as well, for the same reason.)

Answer 2

African Tortoise Diet

Answer 3

romaine is good- veggies and fruit are good. We have 70 yr old spur thighed and they have been eating a ton of romaine, veggies, and fruit with no problems for over 20 yrs. We do supplement with minerals, vitamins and oyster shells (calcium). Our turtles fav fruits and veggies are bananas, apples, and strawberries.
Please note that these turtles get over 2 feet in diameter and over 50 lbs. I hope you have room for him when he gets older. We have 15 spur thighed tortoises at the zoo I work at- because they outgrow their aquarium at about 15-20 yrs.People trying to give us more but we don't have room.
Clyde- our 70 yr old- knows his name and will come when you call- and stick his head out to get scratched. He knows he is big stuff- when the kids come and oooh ahh at him, he will prance around.

Answer 4

yeah I just wanted to let you know that I think your comment on declawing cats sucks...especially seeing as how you say you spend a lot of time with animals. I suppose you would like having your fingers cut off at the first knuckle??? Try it and see....

Answer 5

try a piece of corn on the cob

Answer 6

maybe she doesn't like the hay. give her the lettuce.

Answer 7

Some meat-based cat or dog food.

Answer 8

use freash veggies and cheach her eyes fro n e thing