Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have adopted a male Russian. He feels light and the old owner claimed it ate only romaine.
What do you know, She was right.
What can I do? and is this bad for him??

www.russiantortoise.org seems to have a lot of info on the species; try looking for diet info there.

i don't think that they're supposed to eat as much fruit as more tropical species, but i know that, with my redfoot, color is a major attractant with foot. try tempting him with something colorful, like a strawberry or blueberry. or if you can find a spring salad mix with purple "greens," that might help. i bought chard a couple of times (green with red veins), and it definitely caught his eye.

i definitely think that eating only romaine is bad news. especially if he feels light... ideally torts should feel heavy for their size.

Tortoises need varied diets.

Russians like broad-leafed weeds (like dandelion, plantain, chicory), some grasses, and some veggies (a little squash, carrot, etc.)

Romaine lettuce is OK as part of the diet, but not as the only item.

I've had a number of tortoises, lizards, and snakes, and have been able to get all of them to eat a varied diet. It takes patience and a willingness to experiment.

There are several possible ways to approach this:

1) Don't feed him anything for 3-5 days. He won't die. Then start offering him only good items like weeds, greens (collards, etc.), flowers (dandelion, hibiscus, among others). But never give him romaine again.

2) Mix some of the good stuff into a chopped salad with romaine. And I mean chopped. Everything is down to a quarter inch cube. The tortoise can't possible pick out his favorite food.

3) Cave in a let him have romaine, but try desperately to overcome the deficiencies of romaine by using additional vitamin and mineral supplements.

I'd try #2 for starters. Try adding some colorful items into the salad. My 4 russians really love two items: carrot and dandelion flowers. And maybe yellow squash. Carrots and squash aren't great foods, but the color may get the tort to eat the good foods in the rest of the mix. Start with maybe 50-75% romaine, 20%-45% weeds and greens, and 5% carrot/dandelion or squash for color. And try adding in some calcium/d3 powder. If he is living outdoors all of the time, then just use straight calcium without d3. As time goes on, slowly reduce the proportion of romaine, until finally (weeks/months later) romaine is only a small percent of a varied diet of weeds, greens, grasses, flowers and a few veggies.

Also, soaking the tort for about 10 minutes in about 1" of lukewarm water seems to stimulate the appetite sometimes. And helps overcome dehydration and can help them to defecate if they are a little constipated.

Be sure that you have the tort's environment in perfect shape with the right temperature, lighting, substrate and hiding areas.

Go here for some good advice on russians:

www.russiantortoise.net

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np
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Sohni
Northern California

0.1 Baja de L.A. Rosy Boa
0.1 Okeetee Corn Snake
1.1 Rubber Boas
1.0 Leopard Gecko
0.0.2 Hermann's Tortoises
plus my kids' herps:
0.0.1 California King Snake
1.0 Mexican Rosy Boa
0.1 Leopard Gecko

np
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Adam
http://anraviary.cjb.net
0.0 African Sidenecked, 0.0 Northern Diamondback Terrapin, 0.1 Redfoot, 0.1 Sulcatta, 1.0 Western Hognose, 1.0 Crested Gecko, 0.1 Mali Uromastyx

Go with Brad's #1 and #2 and use Radicchio to break the addiction. Since tortoises are wired to eat red, Radicchio is an excellent food to use to break an addiction.

It's what I use on our Russian's to get their appetite going after they come out of hibernation. Never fails.

Once you get him on other foods make sure opuntia cactus pads is one of the foods he gets every week. Just chop up a pad in the mix you feed him. Joe has them available at russiantortoise.org.

Good luck

If it were any other kind of tortoise, I would probably give you a more elaborate answer, but since it is a Russian, things should be very easy to rectify. Simply don't feed him any romaine for a day or two (or three) and he should be more than eager to eat whatever vegies or weeds you put in with him. Hunger is a great motivator, and it is not at all dangerous for a tortoise to go days or even weeks without eating, not matter what you've heard. I have NEVER seen a Russian tortoises refuse food if it hadn't eaten in a few days, no matter what the food was (within it's dietary range, of course) and no matter how much it was supposedly addicted to lettuce. They will eat just about anything if hungry. Piece of cake. No, I don't mean to FEED him a piece of cake...well, you know what I meant...

You think tortoises are stubborn, you should try to get a parrot to eat healthier foods after years of being a seed junky. Darn near impossible. The problem

I really do need to start proof reading. Disregard the last two words of that last post. I was starting to ramble too much but stopped myself and forgot to delete it.

It only eating romaine is very bad since it doesn't contain a lot of nutrients. A way to stop this is to every week give it a little bit less till it isn't eating any then don't offer it any for a couple months, but then you can offer a small amount as a treat.