Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have started to feed my 1 year old Redfoot every other day
starting this week.

He has always been very friendly and never attempted to bite.
The funniest thing happened last night. I checked on him
after work to mist and things and he charged my hand with his
head in his shell hissing. He looked like a spider the way
he was moving. I laughed out loud at the thought of him
attacking me. I believe he was pissed off because as soon
as I put a little banana in there (I had to give in) he went
back to his usual self.

Anyone else had this happen?

Couldn't you just feed him a little less each day instead of
having him go 48 hours or more without food if you feel you
must cut him down while he's young and growing and obviously
hungry and probably bored and angry now?

you upset a simple animals routine and faltered his trust
in you to take care of his few basic desires like getting
fed on a schedule he was used to since he's known you.
Animals are basically concerned with themselves and their
survival, and stressing them about food when they are confined
and unable to look for any themselves is cruel in my opinion
even if you think it's tough love or something. These aren't
super smart beasts that are dependent on us you know.

I don't mean it to be so negative, just wondering if there
was a way to go from 7 days of feeding a week, maybe to
6 and gradually either cut down or spread his "amount" of
food out over more days. I know you're trying to keep him
from pyramiding, but if you're feeding the right stuff it
just isn't going to be a contributing factor. Look at it
from the torts very limited point of view - you're his source
of food. I don't think they're smart enough to appreciate
you're trying to look out for their health (which is just
a speculative experiment) and are more impacted by stress
(which has been suggested as a contributing factor
to pyramiding) and anxiety.

He has edible plants in his enclosure. I am trying to prevent
rapid growth and thus health problems in the future. I
believe that most people only feed them every other day. I
have aquatic turtles also and at 1 year of age I cut back
to every other day and even though they pretend to be
starving all the time, I know better. They are very healthy
and they are growing at a steady rate.

I love my turtle very much and only want what is best for
him. But, I must admit that I have started giving him a
little fruit on the days that he would not normally eat.
This keeps our routine the same and he seems fine now.

Oh yeah, he also gets to go outside and get lots of goodies.

Thanks

Linda