Tetra tortoise food has been specifically tailored to the nutritional needs of tortoises. It contains all of the required elements, particularly calcium and phosphorus levels that ensure optimal health in these reptiles.
Russian tortoises are herbivores in their wild environment; therefore, their captive diet should consist mainly of vegetables. Supplement this diet with commercial turtle pellets and live foods to provide sufficient variety.
Contents
High-fibre content
Testudo tortoises in the wild rely on seasonal availability for freshness and quality in their diet, consuming various forms of dry vegetation that varies seasonally in freshness and quality, including species that can be difficult to cultivate in captivity. Large, coarse particles offer more surface area for digestion by microbes; thus releasing energy more gradually over time (author’s observations). Therefore, pelleted diets that consist of long fibres as well as coarse particles could provide similar nutritional characteristics of wild Testudo graeca graeca tortoises.
However, many captive herbivorous tortoises rely heavily on diets of supermarket greens which contain very little crude fiber content and an insufficient calcium-phosphorus ratio, leading them to develop metabolic bone disease which often results in death. Furthermore, undigested fibers placed upon their kidneys puts excessive strain on producing blood urea levels for them and their kidneys must work overtime producing blood urea levels to be sufficient.
High inclusion of plant proteins
Tortoises living in the wild tend to graze on various plants that provide them with essential minerals and nutrients; unfortunately, commercial turtle food fails to do this effectively.
Exo Terra’s Tetra Tortoise food features high-grade vegetable ingredients packed with calcium, vitamins and amino acids for optimal pet tortoise nutrition. Plus it includes Gammarus to make digestion easy – meeting all requirements set forth for pet tortoises!
Tetra tortoises benefit greatly from a diet with lower protein levels; excessive proteins can stimulate rapid growth that could result in shell and bone deformities and an excessively high-protein content can contribute to an accumulation of uric acid that leads to kidney failure in tortoises.
Your pet should also receive occasional live feed to provide essential nutrients that may be missing from its dry diet. Be wary when purchasing live feeders from pet stores or online, especially ones likely to contain bacteria, pesticides or parasites such as earthworms, crickets or grasshoppers that could contain bacteria, parasites or harmful organisms such as earthworms, crickets or grasshoppers that might contain bacteria, pesticides or parasites that could affect them directly.
Correct levels of calcium and phosphorus
Quality food for tetra tortoises should include both calcium and phosphorus in equal measures. Tetra tortoises are generally opportunistic feeders and will accept various foods like earthworms, slugs, garden snails or invertebrates that provide calcium from their shells as food sources.
Tetras should not be fed these items regularly as an unsuitable diet can affect them for years. Furthermore, many of these foods contain oxalic acid which inhibits calcium absorption.
An effective approach is to offer extra calcium via cuttlebone or plaster blocks as well as boiled and crushed eggshells, and also supplement their diet with an appropriate reptile vitamin D3 supplement (e.g. Rep-Cal).
Multivitamin-complex
Protecting a tortoise’s health requires providing them with an appropriate environment. In nature, tortoises feed off of various leaves and vegetation for minerals essential for their wellbeing and health – something which cannot be replicated at home; however, quality complete tortoise food may help.
This nutrition offers optimal protein-to-fibre ratio for healthy growth, optimal calcium and phosphorus levels to facilitate natural shell formation, multivitamin complex support and high mineral content for nutritional support.
Vitamins present in this formula help ensure a healthy immune system for your tortoise while the multiminerals provide all of their necessary minerals to promote overall good health. Vitamin C and B6 support normal functioning of nervous systems while copper, iodine, zinc, iron and selenium support proper bone development as well as maintaining normal skin and hair conditions as well as shielding cells from oxidative stress.
