I adopted a 7 year old russian tortoise from my work a few weeks ago. Someone surrendered him because they didn't want to take care of him anymore. He wasn't eating so I brought him to the vet and he had parasites. He stayed at the vet for 3 days, and I brought him back last week for his last round of dewormer. He still isn't eating like a russian should. I have been giving him dark greens like the vet told me to, but he isn't eating those. I ran out of greens so I gave him lettuce... I know its not good for them, but it was the only thing I had at the time. He gobbled that up, but he won't eat the good stuff. Does anyone have any advise? I have a bearded dragon and a leopard gecko, so I know about reptiles, but I'm new to tortoises. I soak him daily for about 20 mins and his house is around 90 degrees on the basking side. I figured the higher temp would stimulate his appetite, but so far it hasn't. Any help is much appreciated!!
If he'll eat the lettuce, then mix in a little bit of darker greens with the lettuce and use only the darkest green parts of the lettuce (the lighter colored areas havemore water in them) and keep mixing them together at each feeding, but add more greens each time. That should help get him used to it.
Have you tried danelion and romanie? Mine loves prickly pear pad too i you can get hold of them. Have you got a good UVB? Reptiboost or TNT (non sure what probiotics you can get over there) may be a good idea too. I've founds these guys have good care sheets http://www.russiantortoise.org/care_sheet.htm
I had the same problem with mine when I first got her. I got here to eat by mixing the lettuce with other greens, like biochic said, but it took about three weeks. I feed mine a mix of endives, mustard greens, and a third ingredient that I vary.
