Reptile & Amphibian Forums

if you guys could, could you reply your personal redfoot diet schedule(days and what food) i would just like to switch it up.
thanks variety...variety...variety
dave

i feed my junior every day, but he's only about 3 months old now. i understand that as they grow older, they only need to eat every other day or so to avoid overfeeding, though.

i give him a mix of mostly greens with some fruit. i get whatever looks good in the store generally (you know how some produce looks grody), and feed it to him 'til it's no longer good, and then buy something different to kind of switch it up. the latest thing i got him was a "spring salad mix" with red and green baby romaine, chard, baby spinach, and other leafy bits i can't recall (i'm at work, so i don't have it handy, else i'd list it).

greens i've fed him include chard (the red veins in it attract him especially), parsley, mustard greens, turnip greens. i've offered him shredded carrot but he doesn't care much for it. fruits i've given him are strawberry, blueberry, pear, raisins (i only hand feed him these 'cause they're sticky, and i'd not want him to choke himself when i'm not around to help him). i offered him blackberry but he made this eyes-tightly-shut face and wagged his head from side to side, and won't eat it anymore... guess it was too tart for him, hehe!

also i supplement with herptavite and rep-cal every 3 days (don't want to risk overdosing him) as per my vet.

oh, and once my roommate gave him a tiny piece of a chik-fil-a nugget, which he liked... but i know it's not a good regular thing to give them a lot of protein.

as they start blooming i'll start giving him dandelions and day lilies from my parents' house (they don't spray their yard).

and i also meant to ask: what do you feed yours?

I'm somewhat of a heretic when it comes to our Redfoot's diet. We have 3, 2 year olds and they get a 60-70% fruit, 20-30% greens, 10% Mazuri/low fat cat food diet. In the wild, fruit constitutes from 40% to 70% (depending on the season) of their diet so I just try to mimic nature. In 32 years of tortoise keeping I've found mimicing nature is the best way to ensure a healthy tortoise. The fruits consist of papaya, figs, mango, pineapple, cherries, raspberries, and grapes. Greens are chopped opuntia cactus pads, dandelions, turnip greens, collard greens, kale, and garden weeds. I also use HerpNutrition's Forest Tortoise Mix and calcium carbonate supplementation with every feeding. They get fed 3-4 times a week and get the Mazuri once every 2-3 weeks and the cat food once every 6 weeks. Our three weigh within 5% of what they should, using Dr. Susan Donoghue's tortoise size/weight ratio, have perfect shells, firm fecals, and have had no issues since we purchased them as hatchlings.

Good Luck!

thanks for your reply, im not new to herps by all means my brother got me going when i was 5 or so i rehabilitated monitors when i was 12 i always loved chelonians but i have my first tortoise now. angus the 6 inch redfoot cb.what i feed him is frozen mixed veggies, mango, pineapple, raspberries, and grapes, dandelions,bok choy, collard greens, kale, grasses. h-b egg once a month. thanks -dave