Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Those of you feeding soaked Timothy grass, Bermuda hay, and/or Alfalfa to your torts; are you using the raw form (i.e., straw/grass) or the pellet form? I am using the raw form of these as substrate, however my torts don't seem to be too fond of eating it. I was thinking they might accept the pellet form better as they are aquainted with and like Mazuri pellets. As always, any and all replys are greatly appreciated.

Thanks everybody!

Mike

I feed my leopards timothy and alfalfa hay. The timothy hay, which they greatly prefer, is in its natural form in the shape of compressed cubes that I break down into smaller bits and then soak. The alfalfa hay is in its natural form. I have not used pelleted forms.

My leopards show no interest in the soaked hay unless I add some Pretty Pets or Mazuri pellets. The Mazuri pellets mix better with the hay. I may stop using alfalfa altogether since the torts really don't like it as much.

I went to the pet store to get some more timothy hay in compressed cubes. I was in the small mammal aisle when I saw the Falfa Cravins Timothy Hay Tidbits. 100% timothy hay in small pelleted form.

It was cheaper than compressed timothy ($4.99 for 2.5 pounds of pellets vs $3.99 for one pound of compressed cubes).

I soaked some and tried it with my leopards. They had already eaten today, so maybe this isn't a good test, but they showed no interest in the soaked pellets (which turned into little piles of finely ground wet hay). But when I added some Pretty Pets pellets, they did nibble at it.

I'll continue using it. Pretty Pets doesn't turn into a ball of mush when soaked like RepCal or Mazuri, so it doesn't mix into the hay as well.

They hay pellets have a little more protein (10% vs 6%) and a little less fiber (~25% vs 32%) than the compressed cubes. It does break down into a more finely ground end product, making it much easier to mix with other foods than the hay in either natural, uncompressed or natural, compressed forms.

I guess I'll have to simply try everything until I find what works out best for me, and more importantly the torts. They already get a pretty good diet of backyard weeds (mostly dandylions and bermuda grass) and Mazuri, however I want to diversify it with as much different types of fiberous foods as possible.

Thanks again for taking for taking the time. I appreciate your help.

Mike

Hi bradtort

I wanted to know if you can e-mail me at dragondavy@yahoo.com??
I would like to ask you a few things..

Thanks
DD