Limestone Flour

Today I want to talk about the importance of calcium in your tortoises diet. In the countries  where these tortoises originate from calcium cabonate also known as limestone flour  is found naturally in the soil.In this country it is not so it is very important to add it to your tortoises diet every day for good shell growth and strong bones.If you have a hatchling you must sprinkle the flour on the food at every meal, this is almost more important than the actual food itself. What you do now will lay the foundation for your tortoises future.If done right  it will grow slowly and its Carapace will remain strong hard and smooth.What I suggest to all new hatchling buyers is; every year whilst your hatchling lives indoors buy a large bag of limstone flour and throw it over your garden so that by the time your tortoise goes into the garden full time there will be limestone (Calcium carbonate) naturally in the soil which will go into the plants and weeds that your tortoise will eat.You can do this even if you have an older tortoise that already lives in your garden; it will still help.All you do is buy  a bag or two  in early spring and throw it over your garden.You should also be sprinkling this over food of an older tortoise. I give loads to my girls before they lay eggs so that the egg shells are strong and it puts back all the  calcium the girls have used to lay the precious eggs. You can buy this Limestone flour from  farm shops  and places where there are horses as it is also used for them.Don't waste money on things like nutarbol it is good but the container is so small it will go in a few days and is also expensive. Large bags of limestone flour about 25kg sacks are about £15 and will last a long time.Give your local farms a ring and they will be able to point you in the right direction. You can also give cuttle fish bones to your tortoise just put the whole thing in  the pen and they bite on them  for two reasons firstly to get the calcium and secondly to condition their beaks.Please let me know if you need anymore help with this.