Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My tortoise has a straight line measurement of 6". He/she has been eating about an adult handfull of romain and red-leaf lettuce for the past 2 days. He/she doesn't really touch the fruit I have been offering and the butternut squash. So, I'm wondering if that amount of greens is approriate for my tortoise on a daily basis???

Also, when I panacur my tort., I'm wondering if I should wait a bit longer until it establishes daily feeding without any problems??? Knowing the accimation process for my tortoise.........I don't want to fall back a few steps by overloading the thing with parasite meds and haulting its progress. Any thoughts???

Lastly, I'm going to get a fecal sample as soon as I can see my vet at work. However, I see him sporadically and he looks at my animals for free. My tortoise is doing fine so far, but I want to know what everyone's thoughts are about a tortoise that is eating daily and when to apply medicine. Additionally, what are the drawbacks to a tortoise that seems to only like greens for consumption as oppose to a tort. that eats a healthy ratio of greens and fruit???

Thank you for your thoughts, responses and comments!

- JustinM.

I have large adult Burmese and along with greens I give an occasional banana that I push some tortoise stick food into and inject some vitamin D3 into during the winter when indoors. Also, they like fresh killed or thawed mice, but I give those only about once a week. A 6 incher would take a dead fuzzy mouse or a small piece of beef.

no great rush on the panacur, in my view.

If you want to try some veggies that the new emys will almost certainly love, try mushrooms (standard market variety, although he would like the pricey oyster mushrooms even more) and yams or sweet potatoes (cooked). Neither one is a good staple, but you can mix with better stuff, like collard greens and turnip or mustard greens (all much better nutrition than any lettuce).

I tried mushrooms today and my tort took a few bites out of it. It seems to like the greens over anything. I'm going to experiment with the tortoise diet gel stuff and add monkey biscuits to tomorrow's feeding. The only thing concerning me is that my tort. has not had any fecal matter yet...I have soaked it 3 times this week, I spray the enclosure religiously every day and I am rubbing vitashell daily for this first week. Either way, it looks healthy and active................I will Panacur in the future and get a fecal exam A.S.A.P. Thanks for all the help! This forum is one of the better ones!

- JustinM.

Monkey biscuits ? Probably way too much protein in them. Chop up the good stuff, like collard greens, into the stuff they love, like mushrooms.