Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've just received a male 3 Toed BT that has been a resident of a high school since 1980. He was bought from a pet store then and I suspect was an adult and was wild caught. He is in "good" shape overall: active, eyes clear and generally normal shell. His diet has been a bit of a concern to me. For the last two years he has been fed almost exclusively cantaloupe, meal worms and an occasional slug. Prior to this his care varied significantly over the decades. Since he has come into my care I've presented quite a diversity of temperate climate fruits and vegetables to him with no success. That is until today when I tried canned cat food, (chicken). I started his meal today with an untainted meal worm (which he ate normally), followed by one that I'd wiped in the cat food (this gave him pause), the next one was pressed into about 1/2 teaspoon of the catfood...he ignored the wriggling meal worm and inhaled the cat food, then spent the next 45 minutes searching for missed crumbs.

Questions: I'm going to keep him on his standard meal worms (5 worms every 2 days) and cantaloupe (1-2 oz each day) diet and slowly get him eating the canned cat food. I'm assuming that he will need time for his digestive system to start producing the appropriate digestive enzymes for the chicken plus whatever filler is in w/it. Question 1) Is there anything that I should watch out for as his diet changes??? Question 2) I'd really like to get him on vitamins at least for a short period to make up for what must be a deficiency....suggestions? Calcium powder? How much? Other vitamins? His scutes have slight gaps between them (0.25- 0.5 mm) which I do not recall having noticed in wild BTs. I suspect that this may be a calcium or vitamin issue.

Any advice regarding specific vitamins to put him on? Thanks in advance for advice and wisdom rendered.

Cat food really isn't all that great for them. The last thing his organs need is a big increase in dietary fat. I'd stick with invertebrates for the meat part of his diet, and for supplements use reptile or bird vitmains.
I'm assuming you've tried greens with no luck. How about papaya? Probably the best fruit you can give them. Strawberry and zuchini are good too and will generally be accepted even by those that aren't crazy about vegetables. Banana is also a big hit, so much so that you might be able to mash shredded greens in with it and get him to take them that way.
You can gutload mealworms and superworms by feeding them turtle food, with sweet potato for moisture, and you'll probably also have no trouble getting him to eat silkworms or hornworms. Or.. really any other feeder bug. Getting them to eat meat is the easy part, it's vegetables that they sometimes give you trouble on.
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0.1 Coastal Carpet Python (Boots)
0.1 Western Hognose Snake (Bebe)
0.1 Cane Toad (Hengo)
0.1 White-Banded Sheen Skink (Minerva)
1.0 Northern Diamondback Terrapin (Queequeg)