The smaller one is around three years old, the larger 5. These ages are not approximate, and are best guess from my vet. Low fat cat food is ok, I usually just dry Cat food and soak it in warm water. I don't feed them much of it, usually around three table spoons and that is it and I don't feed it too them every Friday. I mix it up with boiled chicken, fish, etc as well. Just remember, always a small amount to avoid pyramiding. You can also throw crickets in there, mine will chase them down. Just be sure to get them all out that they miss, cause crickets will harass them at night.
Forest Hingeback Tortoise Care
- Thread starter predfish
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Dont use any kind of cat food, even low fat one both of you! Even in small amounts it can have dire concequences for any kind of reptile, even carnivorus ones. You can raise red foods on a 100% herbivor diet without the adding of any animal food. I know many regular red and yellow foot breeders in Spain and none use any kind of animal food, just lots and lots of veggies. Thouse toises have perfect shells, I think its a very good model of husbandry to coppy. If by any reason you would want to include animal food, all it would take would be a copple of aquatic turtle pellets every 2 weeks, but really you dont need to, at least with this species.
I know that a diet intensive in Cat Food isn't good, but I have seen on many care sites including Austin Turtle page that a small amount every few weeks is fine and I know that guys like Terry Kilgore and Andy Highfield who are the foremost experts and breeders of Redfoot Tortoise in the US states that its fine to feed them as I do it and advocate doing so. In fact Kilgore's Turletary site's caresheet on RF and Highfield's comment on using it as a protein source is where I got the idea too use weight management catfood for my guys. There is also the fact that lowfat Catfood is the preeminent protein source for Redfoots mentioned by Redfoot experts at sites like Tortoiseforum.org and shelledwarriors.com/
Dude cat food is bad even for monitor lizards on small amounts. I think that really says allot about its suitability as a suplementary protein source for a animal that really doesant needs it. Also dont forget that one thing is a person that keeps tortoises outdoors year round in a place like Florida, in that kind of envioroment you have a edge to manuver diets in a way that most keepers in northen climates dont. The sun, exercise and other natural stimuli make animals metabolism into prime condition like if they lived in the wild. Wild red foods eat stuff like road kill all the time and it makes sence, they dont know when they are going to find so nutricious food again. However you wouldnt do the same to a captive one. Take for example stars toises, in the wild they feed on carcases when ever they can but if you tryed to do the same you would endup with a tortoise full of MBD, bladder and kidney stones. The risk is not worth it, just because other people do it doesant mean you should, there are plenty of much safer sources of animal protein in the case you would want to use it.
Red foots is as well a species that at least aparently can live solely on stuff like mazuri, they are as easy as pie to feed.
Red foots is as well a species that at least aparently can live solely on stuff like mazuri, they are as easy as pie to feed.
up until recently my redfoot was fed a variety of greens with mazuri once or twice a week, then one day she refused her greens, I didn't worry about it at first but after three days of her not eating her greens I tried mazuri which she ate with gusto. Now she won't take anything else so I dust it with vitimins and calcium once or twice a week. It has been several months and so far she is doing fine on a mazuri only diet, I've tried mixing things in for variety but she refuses anything else.
