Not eating

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Bogwoodbruce

Peacock Bass
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Feb 2, 2007
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As some of you may know i've got a 3-4yr old Female Hermans tprtiose. It has recent;y been moved into a new cage and for the last 3 weeks it has been off it's food. It has had a few of it's pellets and the only other thing that it is eating is Pea's and strawberry. What can i do to get it back onto a more staple diet. Consisting of mainly pellets. It is still very acticve walking and climbing over everything. Has anybody ever had a similar problem? Thanks!
 
Hi boggy. As you'll know I have a 7 year old. The most likely problem is not enough heat, or too much, so check those things first before anything else! Tortoises can sometimes go off food, but as soon I increased heat, he wolfed down anything it could find. Let me know. :)
 
Yes I agree with Jessica, temperature is probably the reason. Warm your girl up some more to speed up her metabolism.

Do you feed mainly pellets to your Hermans? I never had a tortoise before but I would think a varied diet of grasses, vegetables and some fruit along with pellets would be best for it.
 
Jessica Dring;985118; said:
Hi boggy. As you'll know I have a 7 year old. The most likely problem is not enough heat, or too much, so check those things first before anything else! Tortoises can sometimes go off food, but as soon I increased heat, he wolfed down anything it could find. Let me know. :)
Ok i think he's warm enough, he doesn't stay under the spot bulb much.
 
yeah that was the next thing I was going to touch on vicious_fish. I keep my tortoise mainly outside, in a run, except for at night, and when its too cold or heavily raining. She eats loads of grass, danelion leaves (which are the best for them) and I will give her the odd dusted locust or cricket from my hand, I feed her a tiny bit of cooked chicken when we have one (which is not often), cucumber, cabbage, tomato (a favourite) and that kind of thing. Too much fruit will cause pyraminds on her shell, so boggy is doing the right thing by feeding pellets mainly, as a staple diet is otherwise, hard to make. Are you soaking the pellets? If not, try that, it may get her to munch them. Try dandelion leaves, they are the best things for tortoises going. Pea's are ok too, but I know if I was a tortoise, I would be bored with a diet of pellets, so once you have her eating them again, try and vary it a little, it won't hurt!
 
Bogwoodbruce;985180; said:
Ok i think he's warm enough, he doesn't stay under the spot bulb much.


You need to check specific temperatures really, do you have a UVB bulb that is in close range? Also, try raising the heat a little anyway (aslong as not to high), you may think cos shes active shes warm enough, but she may not be. Also a little jump start heat should get her going. Try giving her a warm bath and shower too, works for me.
 
Jessica Dring;985188; said:
yeah that was the next thing I was going to touch on vicious_fish. I keep my tortoise mainly outside, in a run, except for at night, and when its too cold or heavily raining. She eats loads of grass, danelion leaves (which are the best for them) and I will give her the odd dusted locust or cricket from my hand, I feed her a tiny bit of cooked chicken when we have one (which is not often), cucumber, cabbage, tomato (a favourite) and that kind of thing. Too much fruit will cause pyraminds on her shell, so boggy is doing the right thing by feeding pellets mainly, as a staple diet is otherwise, hard to make. Are you soaking the pellets? If not, try that, it may get her to munch them. Try dandelion leaves, they are the best things for tortoises going. Pea's are ok too, but I know if I was a tortoise, I would be bored with a diet of pellets, so once you have her eating them again, try and vary it a little, it won't hurt!
Yep i wet them, she also gets, dandilion heads, Lettue, Tomatoe, loads. The pellets are just her staple. She does spend a lot of time outside. But due to the recent flooding and bad weather she has been inside.
 
Jessica Dring;985195; said:
You need to check specific temperatures really, do you have a UVB bulb that is in close range? Also, try raising the heat a little anyway (aslong as not to high), you may think cos shes active shes warm enough, but she may not be. Also a little jump start heat should get her going. Try giving her a warm bath and shower too, works for me.
I've a spot bulb and a UV light, we are thinking about getting a ceramic lamp and thermostat. I'll give her a bath today thanks!
 
Heres a few pictures of her!
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Edgarandtropicals025.jpg

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Edgarandtropicals027.jpg

Edgarandtropicals031.jpg
 
Jessica Dring;985188; said:
yeah that was the next thing I was going to touch on vicious_fish. I keep my tortoise mainly outside, in a run, except for at night, and when its too cold or heavily raining. She eats loads of grass, danelion leaves (which are the best for them) and I will give her the odd dusted locust or cricket from my hand, I feed her a tiny bit of cooked chicken when we have one (which is not often), cucumber, cabbage, tomato (a favourite) and that kind of thing. Too much fruit will cause pyraminds on her shell, so boggy is doing the right thing by feeding pellets mainly, as a staple diet is otherwise, hard to make. Are you soaking the pellets? If not, try that, it may get her to munch them. Try dandelion leaves, they are the best things for tortoises going. Pea's are ok too, but I know if I was a tortoise, I would be bored with a diet of pellets, so once you have her eating them again, try and vary it a little, it won't hurt!

fruit wont cause shell pyramiding. depending on the species it can however cause other problems, in the african spur thigh, fruit can alter the pH of the gut and kill off microbes needed for digesting food, and cause illness or death.

but since we are talking hermans tortoise, the ocassional fruit wont hurt.

now.

the part bold is wasnt a very smart thing to do even if its not very often. protein will accelerate the growth rate of the tortoise and from reading about the rest of the diet it appears the diet doesnt have as much calcium as it should. therefore your tortoise has a greater chance of developing a pyramiding shell. dont ever feed anything with a high level of protein be it animal or plant, and get a calcium and vitamin suppliment going as well. oh and ditch the cabbage, you dont need it.
 
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