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Today is the start of day 3 that I've had my RES "George" on the Tough Love diet. I've had him for just over 2 weeks and have been feeding him pellets. I think he's about 3 years old (no idea really) and has most likely only been fed pellets while owned by PetSmart. He has what I believe to be slight pyramiding and I really want to get him on a proper diet of 75/25 greens/protein respectively to prevent any further damage. I currently have 3 leaves of 3 different types of lettuce in a home-made vegeclip, and I shredded some of the lettuce and am letting it float. I also have some diced zucchini floating to try and get him to at least try vegetables. I think he ate one piece of the zucchini yesterday but nothing else in the last 2 days. He's still super active but hasn't eaten :/.

Are there any other ways to entice him to eat the lettuce? Should I remove him from his tank and leave him in a smaller area with the lettuce until he eats it? I feel bad that he's not eaten but I know it's for his own good. How long is too long to let him not eat? At what point do I call it quits and give him pellets? Thanks for any help you can provide.

So, no nibbles on the lettuce? Have you tried carrots? I think the bright color helps.

He nibbled once but never actually ate any of it, just took a bite and let it go. I just read up about turtle jello shots and am thinking about trying that. He's also not touching the cuttlefish bone at all, zero interest.

Tiny, the 25yo res I've recently rescued, didn't want anything to eat for nearly 5 days. No matter what. He only nibbled on half of a pellet and that was it. Zero interest in food.
And then on day 5 he started eating everything, especially red leaf lettuce. Now he's eating normally (and pooping too!). So maybe George just isn't hungry enough yet?

I've considered that, yea. I was just curious as to how long is too long as I don't want to place too much stress on him or make him hate me or something. I guess I'll wait another day or two and if he still hasn't eaten anything I'll make him up a jello shot. Since the mixture has pellets and such in it, I can't imagine he won't go for it. Thanks for the info.

steve wrote:So, no nibbles on the lettuce? Have you tried carrots? I think the bright color helps.

I did try carrots, yes. He showed no interest. I also tried tomatoes, same result.

You can always try soaking the vegetables and some water from a tuna can.

Jeremiah wrote:You can always try soaking the vegetables and some water from a tuna can.

I thought about that but figured the tuna water would just wash off as soon as I put the veges in the tank. I'll try it before making the jello shots in a day or two though. Thanks.

Try red bell pepper.

Jello shots is a good idea. Aquatic plants and veggie clips are worth a try too.

HE ATE HIS LETTUCE!!!!!! It actually happened last night during his evening feeding and I forgot to post it on here.

I ended up making some of the jellos (and failed miserably, as they didn't set at all and just stayed a "liquidey" puree even after sitting in the fridge overnight) and just setting some of the puree on top of the lettuce leaves that I let float. He swam around and eventually showed interest in the leaves. To get to the puree, he ate his way through the lettuce from below. After finishing off the puree he munched down about 1 large leafs worth of lettuce in total. Made me really happy and I'm sure he feels better too. He ended up eating some more lettuce today as well. I think he's broken of his protein/pellet diet. Time will tell!

Thank you, to the forums and to the original poster of the jello shots for the idea.

Awesome, good job!