Hi had my leopard (Squirt) for 10 days now and have been feeding him cucumber, lettuce, corgette, radish, broccoli and carrot with calcium supplement. The food and alphalpha from the shop we got him from, he wont touch, apart from sleeping under it. Is all this ok or should I stop and wait until he eats the other stuff?

as a leopard he is a grass eater. he should have 70% grass and hay and just a little weeds like dandies and clover. they dont eat veg and it can mess up there diegstive system. If he wont take grass try grating a little carrot over it and slowly decrease the amount of carrot and increase the grass. carrot, a little is ok once week or two weeks. but try to get himon grass and hay.

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my bright red hair is very SHORT........where did it go!

Tinkerbruce - I have heard that alphalpha grass is not good for Leopards - is that true. My 3 are dreadful with hay - what hay do you use for yours ??

hi if he is a young animal and cant go out daily to graze and forage for his food you will need to get him to eat some grasses with his weeds, once you get him eating weeds of course, i would start to introduce more coarse weeds like plantains i have found once they are eating a good percentage of these its a simple step to eating grass, i pick lawn grass and clover then chop it up small and put it over their weeds.also you will find that weeds dry out a lot faster than lettuce and supermarket greens so i rinse mine then shake off the excess water before feeding.good luck if you have any more questions please dont hesitate to ask.

terry

T-rex markets a great diet for tortoises. You might want to research that a little.

There's 2 posts on this list titles Manufactured diets that explains a good deal.

This will remove a great deal of work and worry from the task of providing nutrition for your tortoise.

Ed

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Ed @ not allowed to post a link
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

hi Ed im not going to question your knowledge and experience with these manufactured diets as im not a nutritionist or an educated man what i will say there is no doubt at all from peoples posts in the past that these pellets are addictive and also costly in respect of leopard tortoises as they do eat vast amounts, mine i have 14 of which 7 are adults cost me nothing to feed only a little time in the winter. i have seen these coloured pellets in the petshops and it would cost lterally hundreds of pounds over the year.also i keep miine and enjoy watching their behaviour when outside mine forage for a high percentage of their diet over the year and almost exclusively during the summer months because of this they get lots of exercise daily and walk tall all the time i really cant see the benefits of this manufactured diet apart from convenience and if thats the case then perhaps tortoises arent for you.


terry

My Leo's are fed on mainly grass, with a few weeds and hay. Because they are not all that big (biggest is 400g) I put the hay through a blender and then sprinkle it on the wet weeds and grass.

I wouldn't be feeding any fruit or veg to a Leopard, and I wouldn't feed alphalpha either.

You can use any hay really, Pets at Home sell bags of Burgess Supa Forage Excel wich is great (once it has been through the blender that is!). I also buy bales of Graze On or Just Grass as I use it for my chinchillas and guinea pigs as well.

Thanks for help and info on feeding to you all. I will stop with the veg and introduce grass and hay to him.

Because they aren't for you it does not mean they are not a viable source of nutrition.

While a plant based diet is preferable not all keepers either know or have the ability of how to provide that complete nutrition.

The benefit of this diet is providing all the known required nutritional needs without the guessing and resulting worry in. It does this by providing those nutritional needs in a balanced formula.

That's the benefit of this diet. I'm not saying not to feed weeds or that weeds are not a viable option. I'm saying that feeding weeds can be risky and difficult... especially in the first few years of the life of the tortoise.

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Ed @ not allowed to post a link
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

Just remember torts can be stubborn creatures, if he doesn't want to eat whats good for him straight away (some do some don't) just stick to it and he will eat in time