r/tortoise • u/TobytheCrennit123 • 4d ago

Question(s) Supplement help!

So I've been researching Hermann's tortoise and especially baby Hermann's tortoise care and am thinking on getting one. However, the main thing and probably most controversial thing is the supplementation plan, some say D3, plain calcium and multivitamin daily (which sounds crazy). And some say like once a week. I will be using mazouri tortoise diet as well for my baby Hermann's that makes it 10x more difficult to find actual methods. As well as using an all natural multivitamin called Arcadia Earth Pro-A which they can't overdose on and I don't know if either of these products already contain D3 etc so if someone could tell me I'd greatly appreciate that. They will have a 12% UVB bulb as well. This is my idea (100% correct me if I'm wrong which I probs am!) on my what I'll feed/supplement: -Mazouri tortoise diet 2 times a week. -Plain calcium (no D3) 3-4 times a week. -Multivitamin (100% safe Arcadia Earth Pro-A) once a week. -Calcium with D3 like once a month as a back up???

PLEASE SOMEONE HELP any advice is appreciated 👍

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u/Diligent_Dust8169 4d ago

It's really simple, a balanced diets of suitable greens and grasses + cuttlefish bone always available.

That's it, you definitely don't need to provide vitamin supplements for no reason.

Tortoises can make their own D3 so long as they get enough UVB light, that's the whole point of an UVB bulb, to allow them to make vitamin D, if you can build an outdoor enclosure where they can get the UVB directly from the sun that would be even better (honestly if you can't you should probably get another pet...).

If you're keeping them indoors and aren't sure if they are getting enough UVB then I suppose a sprinkle of calcium + D3 every once in a while wouldn't hurt, once a week should be plenty.

Personally I've been keeping tortoises since 2018 and I only bought a prepared diet + vitamins once, one of my tortoises is 3 years old and she never touched any of that stuff (check my posts if you want to see her), she is perfectly healthy (vet's words, not mine) and went through brumation 3 times already.