Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Mazuri fresh water turtle diet, can it be fed to boxies instead of tortoises diet ,I hear some turtle keepers do this and the boxies love it at least 2 x per week, as a suppliment.
I would like to hear your thoughts. ( thanks everyone)

Hi,
I would avoid Mazuri or any other packaged Tortoise/Turtle food as they are a little addictive - that is your Tort will stop eating other food and wait for Mazuri day. And if you stop feeding them the bought stuff they go on a hunger strike (I have never fed my Yellow Foots on the stuff as they refuse to eat it - I think because they tend to only want to eat what I eat - if I eat they just look at me with that sad expression like a dog and search the living room floor for any small crumb they can find).

Also how would you feel been fed a diet of dried lettuce? Personally it does not sound all that appetizing and would stick with fresh food - much better for your Tort.

The following has been reported by other Tort keepers (From Tort dried food in general)
* Stunted growth (There are a few photos of a very large and small tort floating around - small one looks like a hatchling and large one looks like it is about to breed
* Pyramiding
* Fasting/only wanting to eat the tort food
* Death when removing Tortoise food from diet (From starvation)

I supplement my Sulcatas and my Marginated with Mazuri and have had no problems. The key word here is supplement. I know many breeders and long time tort owners who have supplemented with this and have had great success with no pyramiding and healthy slow growth.

I give it a thumbs up!!