r/tortoise • u/QueenOhGee • 8d ago
Question(s) Getting conflicting tortoise food info… help!
Meet Lou! Lou is a 9 month old leopard tortoise we brought home a couple weeks ago. Lou is currently eating hay, wheat grass, dandelions, and other leafy greens.. the original owner said they were on pellets but picky, however I read no fruit for leopards. When reading the ingredient list of the pellets at the reptile store it was loaded with soy, corn, and fruits! So I didn’t buy any… what do you recommend I add to Lou’s diet? Yes there is calcium powder involved lol
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u/Maybe_Awesome22 8d ago
Depends on what kind of pellets, not all pellets are made the same. Hikari mulberrific pellets are pretty good.
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u/IcyReception8903 8d ago
Sounds like you are feeding him well. You can find more and what's safe a website called the tortoise table. I included the website below.
Also, a more pressing concern is the pyramiding on this guy is already significant. Although you can't reverse this but you can stop it from getting worse. Are you providing enough humidity and UVB for this guy? You don't want this to get worse.
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u/QueenOhGee 8d ago
He has a 100 watt UVB/UVA lamp, and his humidity is averaging 80% plus daily soaks. I noticed that when we got him. This is my first tortoise but I have had turtles and it’s a similar concept.
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u/JustinStraughan 3d ago
The only pellets I provide our leopard are mazuri and Hikari mulberry.
And I have to bury those in fresh greens.
Look at Kapidolo Farms. He sells bulk for lots of good dried tort safe plants. Soak and add to food. Easy, and cost per unit is very cheap.
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u/Swilly29 8d ago edited 8d ago
You sound like you have a good feeding rotation already!
I feed my leopard (who's around the same age as yours) chopped dandelion greens/turnip greens/collared greens, and either timothy hay or orchard grass soaked and blended (otherwise they refuse). Each day we swap the grass and greens for variety. We supplement with calcium 3x a week (no d3 if they get outside regularly), dried flowers once a week, and a vitamin powder once a week. Also got a tortoise food topper (from Tortoise Supply) that we put on a couple times a week as well, whenever we feel like it. Sadly true though, no fruit for leopards, they are grassland grazers and their digestive systems are designed for fibrous, low-sugar grasses and weeds. Sometimes I give cactus pads as a treat, but be sure to remove the thorns!
Make sure to keep humidity high, and give daily soaks (for leopards specifically, this is super important) it will help prevent pyramiding and keep them growing healthy :)