Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My russian tortoise will only eat zukini. I don't know what else to try. we tried leafy foods and peas broccolli and carrots and corn. Her old owners used to feed her spinach and peas, carrots, and corn.What should I do?

First, I must say that peas, brocolli, corn, and spinach are NOT the best food for any tort. Heres what my torts eat:

Dandelion greens, endive, escarole, turnup greens, sometimes romaine, timothy hay, some fruit for my redfoots (canteloupe, strawberries, tomato, ect), and of course Ive never seen any tort that wouldnt eat moistened MAZURI tortoise chow.

There are two schools of thought to change a torts diet...

1. Slowly ween it off the "bad" stuff, mixing in the "good" stuff, at first just a little and slowly add more until eventually you have eliminated all the "bad" stuff...

2. The tough love approach. A tort that is really hungry will eat almost anything. Just make it go cold turkey, no more "bad" stuff and just feed what it should be eating.

I really think both approaches would work. Check out www.tortoisetrust.org or www.russiantortoise.org, both have articles on what and what not to feed tortoises. I would bet that most on this board would agree that spinach, corn, bricolli and peas are not the best food for your tort. However, it is good that you care enough to get the scoop on what to feed, many owners would simply give up and feed the tort what it seems to "like". Anyone have anything else to add???
Hope this helps...
-Ian

Thank you. I was feeding her peas and carrots only because she wouldn't eat anything and thats what she was on before.

what's her age? is she in or outdoor and how often do you feed her?

She is in an indoor enclosure with 1/3 growing grass and the rest is 1/2 and 1/2 dirt mixed together. The enclosure is 3'x 4'. I feed her every day. She gets planty of exercise. She lets us know when she wants to be let out and she roams our house. We are not sure of her age but she is just over 7 inches.

**** 1/2 sand and 1/2 dirt

...not many 7plus inches russians out there unless you measure her from head to tail.
...feeding her everyday is not a good idea.
...what's the temperature zones you have in her enclosure, if too hot, they'll estivate...too cold they'll hibernate.

it's now winter which they should be cooled off, unless she's still active and you are try to over winter her indoor, at least try to cut/break down the feeding schedule to everyother day or every 2-3 days and gradually phase out the baddies as you go, temperature for appertite is around 85F with a slight misting for an added side kick...

hmmm...btw, how do you grow grass indoor?

Thanks for the help. It is actually quite easy to grow grass indoors but you have to keep the tort away from it at first because they love the fresh grass. I just us a large uv light, you know the kind for fish and other critters, and raise it so its light covers the whole cage, Also beneficial for the tort. Plant my seed but make sure their is a wall between the tort and the grass. In about 5 days it'll be growing. By the way how old would you say my tort is depending on her size. She lived in a 20g aquarium for 2 years so you should account for the extra growth.

Meditteranean Females usually reach their maturity in 5 to 7 years in their natural habitat, fir RT, if you measured her correctly (SCL), at 7" she's almost full grown, but given the conditions that you mentioned, my guess is as good as anyone...to make thing worst if you don't have her records from the previous owner(s); THOSE WC WERE IMPORTED FROM THE 80'S ARE MUCH LARGER IN SIZE (7 TO 8 plus inches) compare to those that got here in the late 90's which usually only around 4 to 5 inches, a different locale might be...but the bottom line is: does size and age matter much to you?