The Tortoise Table

Hi there! I have a Horsfield Tortoise (Leaf Erikson) and the vet said I should be feeding him greens, Timothy Hay and pellets. Leaf doesn't like eating hay or pellets, so I've been feeding him a rotation of greens that I get at the supermarket. That can range from escarole, brocolini, arugala, chard, romaine and kale. I also give him a snack of Tortoise Flower Food Topper that I found at the pet store. He does love it! We're at the end of the winter so, once the soil is warm enough, I'll be growing a garden full of good weeds and flowers for Leaf. Anyway, is it a bad thing that he won't eat hay and pellets? I use hay in his bedding area (he likes to stick his head under it), but he doesn't eat it. Any advice would be great! Thank you! - Leslie

Hi Leslie - great to hear from you. How are you getting on with the substrate, and is it finally beginning to thaw in New York?

The diet you're giving Leaf Erikson isn't too bad, but obviously you don't want to feed supermarket food for a long period of time. You could think of growing your own in pots on the windowsill to supplement the supermarket stuff. Carolina Pet Supply sells seeds especially for tortoises, and on p.2 of their list there is a mix for Russian tortoises (Horsfields). https://www.carolinapetsupply.com/catal ... 20a&page=2
I'd get the smallest quantity to start with and see how it goes. You could plant seeds in small trays or pots in succession, every couple of weeks so that when one pot is ready to feed another is starting to grow, and when it gets warm enough you could plant them in your weed patch in your yard. That is great that you'll be growing food for him! People spend all their lives getting rid of weeds in their gardens and then they get a tortoise and take great delight at seeing weeds pop up!

I'm not surprised he won't eat the hay, as the grazing species like Sulcata and Leopards eat a lot of hay, but Horsfields and other Mediterranean species generally don't like it. Most tortoises like the pellets, but we don't recommend most brands (which ones are you using?), because they are too high in protein (tortoises need a high fibre/low protein diet), and contain things that tortoises normally wouldn't eat (soy, corn, molasses). So I wouldn't encourage him to eat either hay or pellets (but if your pellets are one of the few good brands, I can give you tips on how to trick him into eating them).

Do you know if your vet has 'exotics' qualifications? Not sure what they call it in the USA, but here you can take extra courses in vet school to qualify you to treat what they call 'exotics' -- reptiles, birds, fish, etc., as ordinary vet school doesn't have much training in these areas and many vets are misinformed about tortoises.

What he should be having is a really good calcium + VitaminD3 supplement sprinkled on his food every other day, plus ordinary calcium on days when he isn't having the supplement. Cuttlefish bone left in his table is a good idea, or you can scrape some of it onto his food with your fingernail (and always wet the food so that the powder sticks to it).

Do you have a good UVB lamp? The UVB reacts with cells on the skin to produce Vitamin D3, and that enables the tortoise to absorb and utilize the calcium in his diet -- and they need lots of calcium to support all that growing bone and shell. The sun is the best source of UVB, but when they have to be indoors they need it coming from a UVB bulb or tube. These need to be change every year or two, depending on how much they are used (I can explain why if your are interested, but this is getting long!).

One other thing re variety in diet -- you can use the filter tool on our website to produce lists of plants that are good to feed Leaf Erikson. Just go to this page and scroll down to the section called 'How to Use the Traffic Light Filter' and go from there (let me know if you have any problems). https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/pla ... -database/

Speaking of problems -- we've been having problems with the Forum and the website (but mainly the Forum) lately, and we are the process of fixing it, but it could take 3 - 4 weeks. So if you are trying to post something and get an error message, or get an error message when you try to log in, just try again and often that works (but sometimes it doesn't and you have to wait a bit) -- it's really frustrating!

Nina

Hi Nina! I hope all is well in the UK these days! I bet it's warming up there. Things are getting on nicely in NY! At least all of the snow is gone and we've had some really warm days (almost up to 80!), but it goes down into the 20s still so no growing yet. Pretty soon it'll be summer weather though. We tend to have really short Spring weather here, which will be good for Leaf in regard to growing some nice food for him! Speaking of weeds, I have a nice enclosed garden in front of the house that gets nearly 100% sun all day and grows mostly weeds, so I think I'll have plenty of food for him pronto! I'll get some seed packets from that link you gave me and start them inside until the cold weather subsides.

His substrate is going well! I used a mix of Reptisoil and play sand and it's been working out nicely, though Leaf doesn't really dig in it like he did the wood chips. I even try showing him and also piling it up in part of his enclosure. Next time I clean out his enclosure, I'll be using topsoil (and play sand) which is so much cheaper. I've had to wait for it to thaw at the garden centers in order to get some! I'm not sure how to get him digging though. One thing he does do is that if I let him walk about the house he always finds a baseboard and tries digging through that. He's always digging when it won't "work".

My vet does have an exotics qualification and took courses on reptiles when she was at school. She does have good resources and is able to do tests and things. It was hard finding a vet in the area that takes reptiles though. I was suprised when she said he needs to eat hay, pellets and greens. All the resources say not to so I'm leaning towards not giving him those things. Besides, it's a pain preparing it when he won't eat it anyway. As far as pellets go, I've tried Fluker's Tortoise Diet and ZooMed Grassland Tortoise pellets. He doesn't like either one. I've tried mixing it with his greens. He just eats around it.

I have a heat lamp bulb and a UVB bulb which Leaf spends lots of time under, especially right after he eats.

Also, I do have Calcium Carbonate that I put on his food every day so he gets the calcium he needs. He finally eats it, but it took a while for him to warm up to it.

Overall, I'm loving my little Leaf Erickson! He's has such a great personality and I love taking care of him! He's my little studio mate (I'm an artist and he lives in my studio!).