Hello everyone,

I read that cuttlefish is good for tortoise's so i called along to my local pet shop and purchesed some, iv'e not seen it before, but what he sold me is like an oval shaped slice of white chalky stuff, i put it in with Mr brown, who went absoulutley mad for it, chomping away, my question is should i leave it in with him all the time or should i limit  how often i give it to him.

Thanks for all the help

Kind regards

Debi  

Hi Debi,

You were sold the right thing -- it is the bone of the cuttlefish and contains good calcium which your tortoise needs to build healthy bone and shell. And you can leave it in there all the time. You are lucky that your tortoise likes it fresh -- a lot of tortoise won't eat cuttlefish until it has been sitting out in the rain and all the elements and begins to go weathered and horrible looking!

Nina

Hi Debi, Are you giving Mr (Pampered) Brown a vitamin supplement? This could be in the form of Nutrobol or Reptavite, the dosage changes according to age. On the days that he isn't having his vits I would also sprinkle his food with Limstone flour: this is a pure calcium. Like Nina says, you are lucky that he is eating it before it goes all ekky, mine like the ekky rain washed stage.

HTH

Elaine

Hi Elaine,

i have a supplement that i got from the shop where i purchased Mr Brown, but he wont eat any of his food if i sprinkle even the smallest amount on it. So do you think he will get enough vitamins from his diet of kale,dandelions, spinach, little bit of cucumber/tomatoe now and again( also has odd bit Rumanian lettuce ) and wild flowers plus grass.

 In still don't know whether he is big enough to hibernate, we've brought up four children and it was either than looking after this little chap !!!

All advise greatfully received

Debi

Hi Debi, I think we discussed that kale and spinich were not good for his diet. Tomatoe is a fruit which is a no no, the VERY odd end of one occasionally will do no harm but don't go out of your way to feed these, cucumber is ok if the weather is hot as it is a good way of hydrating a tortoise but is of very little nutritional value to him. The vitamin supplement I think you need to get tuff and stand your ground with this little chap! Remind me of what age? Mean while I will go and do a whip round to send you to the 'Get Tortoise Tuff' school. Your 4 kids are going to remind you of this later LOL.

Have a good day,

Elaine

LOL

You are so right - bringing up children is easier than looking after tortoises.  If you are using nutrobal you could try making sure the container is airtight and store it in the fridge.  It doesn't smell quite so strong and it doesn't go off as quickly and my tortoises seem to tolerate it better when I do this.  The main supplement you need to ensure he has is vitamin D3 (in nutrobal and reptovite) which converts calcium and phosphorus into a usable form.  He could get it naturally from sunlight in the wild, but unfortunately the UVB we have from sunlight in the UK isn't strong enough so we need to supplement and use UVB lighting to aid this process.

HTH

Helen

Thanks Elaine,

I am gonna do a re read of all the stuff that has been posted to help me so far, as i have obviously got it wrong somewhere, i have a book ordered that  was suggested by some one on the site so i might be able to get my self sorted out, but i serously doubt it, who would have thought that such a tiny creature could be so complecaited.....

So my little chap is two in November, he weights 4.5oz and is 8cm in length, he seems to be waking up later and later every day at the moment, i turn his lights on at about 6.30am, and up to last week he was up and around by 7.30ish, back a sleep by 9 , till around 11.30/12.00, would then wonder around for a while, eat a little, be back a sleep by 1 until 4sih, trundle around for a bitand be tucked up in bed by 6.30 to 7, ( he lives in doors ) but spends the afternoon until early evening in the garden, the last couple of days he hasn't stirred until nearly lunch time, has eaten only a small amount and has been a asleep from mid afternnoon say 4ish, does this ok, am i worrying over nothing, we have had him since 19th July this year, so i know it's not very long to get to know his behaviour patterns, sorry to bore you all with his & our life story..... we actually do have a life away from the little fella...but it must be very shallow, as he's seems to be the centre of it at the moment !!! 

A 2 year old needs the supplements! Have another read through the care sheet, it is amazing just how much you will have learnt so far and how much more you will now be able to take onboard from the care sheets. There are a lot of tortoises now slowing down for winter. I'm sure they smell it in the air as no matter how many light I have on and the ambient temp are very good they just want to go back to bed. Keep an eye on the outdoor temps too as there has been quite a nip to the air today in Kent. As for having a life.... soooooon your 'days out' will be defined as 'Oh that's a good spot for weed picking' LOL

Elaine