Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey,

Recently I've been switching my tortoises over to the Zoo Med prepared tortoise diets. With so many tortoises, making salads everyday (if not twice a day) for them all becomes very time consuming.

So here's the deal, I've had no problem switching the red/yellow foots onto the forest tortoise diet, but can't get the leopards, sulcatas, etc onto the grassland diet. To switch the forest species onto their diet I just added some overly ripe banana for the first few weeks until they got used to it. Now they love it. I don't want to do the same to the grassland diet because too much soft sugary fruit is no good for grassland torts, so I was wondering if anyone can give me some tips on how to switch the tortoises over?

Thanks,

Justin Morash

Not to sound dumb, but did you soak the pellets in warm water for 5-7 minutes and then make a mash out of it?

My Redfoots, Greeks, and Russians all ate it without any additions as a mash.

Ernie

Hey,

I sure did. I was surprised how much it expands. I bought 80 lbs for the forest diet, not thinking that it would expand three fold. I didn't make the same mistake with the grassland diet though haha.

Thanks,

JM

Switching may be a challenge...I have a G. pardalis that has refused Mazuri for about 5 years now, despite my repeated efforts to get him to eat it. All the others like it however, and I just moisten it and mix it with the high fiber salad, cactus etc. I would let them get good and hungry and just add a few pellets pre-moistened, but don't feed until satiated. Then do it again next day, most will take it I think, a very few just won't. vic h. P.S. let us know how that feed works out, as I have been lambasted for suggesting Mazuri...but it has worked for me.

When I switched my Mountain Tort over to Zoomed, I diced up all his favorites and mashed it into the tortoise food. At first he tried to pick through it, but eventually just decided to eat it.

You might try a mixture of Mazuri and the grassland mixture. My tortoise gets a bit of all three types of foods, along with some chopped greens, and sweet potato as his base diet. I throw lots of other things in for variety as well.

Hope this helps!
-Kory