Is my tortoise lacking something?

[ElleSkywalkingintheair]

Afternoon,

Just been out in the garden with my tortoise Cedric, hes has a bath and been for a jolly scamp around the garden and drive, tormenting cats and ignoring all my carefully cultivated tortoise food (weeds ?) in favour of trying to eat the concrete path, bricks, stones and dog poo ? Obviously I stopped him eating the poo and small stones but let him sharpen his beak on the stones and path.

Am just wondering if his fondness for stones etc mean he is lacking something in his diet? He is only fed fresh food, this time of year mainly garden weeds and roses, in the winter salad. He gets supplementary calcium and has a cuttlefish for munching. He has some edible bedding too which he quite likes which is grass and wildflowers. He is a horsfield tortise and 5 years old

 

[Rumtytum]

No advice sorry, just wanted to ask if we could have a photo of Cedric?

 

[ElleSkywalkingintheair]

Here he is picture taken in May as can see him better in it than the ones from today which are mainly his bum vanishing into the undergrowth

 

[Rumtytum]

Thank you! Cedric is a very handsome chap, I love his shell colour and pattern(and the very determined look on his face ?).

 

[ElleSkywalkingintheair]

He is both of those things, he refuses to believe tortoises dont climb and enjoys terrorising the cats and dogs ? His shell is not ideal as he has some slight pyraminding from when he was a baby before I got him but the later bits are much smoother

 

[Karran]

I'm not sure but mine is a 10 year old spur thigh- Geronimo the Destroyer and he has always eaten small pebbles and is kept in same way as yours.
I *think* that its just a digestion aid to help grind up food. Like birds eating grit and plant eating dinosaurs have been found with pebbles in their gizzard fossils.
As long as they're not massive, i've not been too worried as they seem to all come out the other end!

 

[Errin Paddywack]

Tortoises do climb, mine did, great escapologists. Yours is gorgeous.

 

[scats]

Here he is picture taken in May as can see him better in it than the ones from today which are mainly his bum vanishing into the undergrowth

View attachment 53356

Oh he’s gorgeous! I’d love a tortoise!

 

[Rumtytum]

The woman who works in the DIY shop on the Greek island where we have a house has tortoises nesting in her garden every year. The crows eat the babies, so she collects them and keeps them safe until they are big enough to fend for themselves, then she sets them free. They are SO cute ???

 

[ElleSkywalkingintheair]

OMG that baby tort is adorable! Cedric was palm sized when I got him but that little guy is weeny ?