Hi,

My horsfield is approx 3 years old, he loves to eat dandelions and if he has a choice thats what he'll go for (he's not keen on lettuce etc) he loves his weeds which is great.

However at the moment he can eat up to two quite large dandelions per day and I am worried that I could be over feeding him, is this possible or will he just eat when he is hungry and not because it is there?

I am not giving more than two for now in case its too much. He didn't eat very much over winter and was not in hibernation as i'd only just got him.

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Pooky xxx

1 Horsfield - Sherbert
1 Dog - Misty
1 Cat - Felix
Tropical Aqaurium

In the wild horsfields are only awake for 3-4 months of the year.
So they are programmed to eat eat eat, because in the wild there is hardly any food and they arnt awake for long.

So you really need to watch what they eat, only feeding dandelions can cause alot of problems, he needs a wide variety of weeds that have different nutritional values. Its like us just eating a carrot a day

What i do it keep an eye on weight, 2-4g a month is great weight gain for babys.

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From a common sense standpoint it wouldn't seem reasonable to think that you could overfeed although if you restrict feeding you definately can underfeed.

There is nothing to restrict feeding of tortoises in the wild except for temperature. If you have good temperatures you really shouldn't restrict feeding.

The only diet you can really overfeed is with the formulated diets and even then the only 'abnormal' condition you can run into is accelerated growth.

Some believe that this can harm the tortoise in the long run but there is no way to prove this.

What is easy to prove is stunted growth due to restricting the tortoises diet. A tortoise will eat as long as it is hungry and that hunger is governed by temperature.

To answer your question... you cannot overfeed using a weed based diet. If that was the case then you'd have all these fat little tortoises running around the yard for those who keep their tortoises outdoors.

We have obese humans, dogs, cats, cows but can we have obese weed fed tortoises?

Where are the excess calories going to come from?

Just my opinion here...

I do think you can overfeed young torts, even with a weed diet. It is easy to create the fat pet syndrome, by offering a constant supply of top quality weeds, day after day after day. This could be one of the many factors that encourage accelerated growth/pyramiding.

This is one of the reasons that I frequently give my young torts a "cloudy day"...which means no food for that day, and only uvb, if they are inside. If they are outside, then of course they will be able to bask under the sun, but I have no problems in restricting their food intake...T.T.

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Weeds...There free ya know!!!

Based on my experience I can't see how you can overfeed a weed/grass based diet. Why is it that you don't see 'overfed' tortoises in the wild.

As mentioned time and again... what is accelerated growth. The growth rate is mostly temperature dependent. The rate is definately going to be different for species as they get further or closer to the equator.

Again... how does a tortoise get fat on a grass/weed based diet?

I dont have all the answers ed...There are many factors to the possible causes of accelerated growth/pyramiding occuring in torts in captivity, as opposed to their wild cousins.

I think it is easy to overfeed a young tort in captivity, we pick the very best, succulant weeds for them...What type of dried up wild food would they come across daily in the wild, some days they might get lucky? some days they could go without? somedays they may well be "dug in" protecting themselves from higher temps.? or worse still predetors?

I do not think that a young wild tort would have daily access to abundant top quality food?...T.T.

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Weeds...There free ya know!!!

When you state a specific rate of growth... it sounds like you have the answers.

You might want to be a little more specific as to where those numbers come from and how they were derived.

You are right that they don't have the same conditions in captivity as they do in the wild. This is exactly why a keeper cannot expect a constant growth rate.

This mantra of 'slow and steady' actually does not make sense in captivity.

Needless to say... maybe you can find some photos of tortoises that have been grown 'too quickly' and support that with some evidence of physical damage.

I noticed my tortoises grow in spurts rather than regularly. Sometimes they'll 'hold steady' a particular weight for say 3 weeks and then they'll gain weight rapidly over a short period. My guess is that this is hormonal but I really have no explanation. I never feed them different amounts of food and very rarely do they leave any behind.