For tortoises kept indoors, supplement their diet three times a week with calcium carbonate (1 percent of diet by weight) and lightly every one to two weeks with a powdered reptile multivitamin and mineral supplement containing vitamin D3, such as Reptivite or Vionate. Liberally coating diets with high-content D3 supplements can be harmful to tortoises, and I do not recommend it. However, low-concentration supplements, such as Vionate, can be used more generously.

To provide your tortoise with more trace elements than found in the reptile vitamins on the market, you can use crushed, high-quality human vitamin/mineral supple-ments, such as Centrum. Feed two crushed tablets per 150 pounds of tortoise each week.

Warning
Do not feed an excessive amount of legumes, such as peas or lima beans, to your tortoise.

Commercial Diets
Some manufacturers now produce commercial pelleted diets that are useful for raising baby tortoises. Manufacturers claim that these products provide the nutrients needed for healthy growth, including vitamins and minerals. However, the long-term effect of these diets have not yet been tested, and some caution is warranted until this has been accomplished. Some of these new commercial diets are formulated for raising tortoises at all stages of life. Initially, you may have to soak the pellets or mix them with greens and vegetables to get the tortoises started on the diet. In addition to a commercial diet, at least 50 percent of your tortoise’s diet should contain mixed greens and vegetables. Make water available to your tortoise at all times when feeding it a commercial diet.

Feeding baby tortoises soaked monkey biscuits, such as the ZuPreem low-fat, high-fiber primate diet, will result in good growth for the first year with no pyramiding of the carapace (abnormal shell growth characterized by the raised centers of individual scutes). However, the monkey chow should make up no more than 10 percent of the diet after one year and only 5 percent after two years. Until research leads to commercial diet formulations that can assure longevity and long-term health, it is best to offer a varied diet to adults. Commercial diets are merely one component of a healthy nutritional plan. Why experiment with your animals?

Specific Diets

Feeding Large Tortoises
Large tortoises, such as African spurred, leopard, or Galapagos tortoises, can be expensive to feed. As an alternative, offer them fresh clover hay, timothy hay, or freshly soaked alfalfa hay for as much as 75 percent of their diet. If you live in an area where spineless prickly pear can be grown, use it as a cheap supplemental food source for large species. Feed large tortoises a variety of vegetables and fruits. Offer carrots and cantaloupe, which are good sources of vitamin A, on a regular basis.

Feeding Baby Tortoises
Chop food into small pieces that are easy for baby tortoises to eat. Commercial diets are a good way to prevent some of the problems associated with insufficient calcium and vitamin D3 during the first two years of a tortoise’s life.

Cuttle Bones
Cuttle bones, placed soft side up in a baby tortoise enclosure, are an excellent source of calcium. The tortoises will nip off pieces as they need calcium.

Related posts:

1. Common Tortoise Diseases And Disorders
2. How To Care For African Spurred Tortoise
3. Tortoise Housing Tips
4. How To Quarantine a Tortoise
5. How To House Your Tortoise in Suitable Outdoor Enclosures

Honey bees probably originated in tropical Africa and spread from South Africa to northern Europe and the Usa, and eastwards into India and China. They are now found worldwide except at the poles. A honey bee hive is an extraordinary places. Tens of thousands of bees work together for the greater good of their colony-building and maintaining the hive, finding food, fending off predators, feeding and rising the young. There is a strict caste system in force inside the hive. A queen (a fertile female) lays eggs; a few hundred drones (males) exist to mate with her; and many thousands of workers (sterile females) do the daily tasks. Tireless producers of honey and first-class pollinators of many crops, honey bees are one of the most beneficial of all insects.

Eggs by the Thousands

Shortly after metamorphosing from a pupa into a bee, the queen takes her first and only nuptial flight. She mates in mid-air with one or more drones, which then die. String their sperm inside her; she transforms into an eggs-laying machine, producing up to 2000 eggs a day during the warmer months. Each egg is stored in a honeycomb cell at the centre of the hive. If the queen releases sperm onto the eggs, it hatches into a worker. if she doesnt it develops into a drone. After a few days, a tiny worm-like larva crawls from the egg and is fed by workers. The larva grow and develops within the cell, becoming a pupa, before emerging as an adult bee. The workers choose a few larvae to become queens, feeding them on a protein-rich subtance called royal jelly, which they produce in glands in their heads. Potential queens may replace the old queen or fly away to start new colonies.

Part of bodies

• Five eyes-three small ones on top and large compound eye on each side of the head help the bee to distinguish colours
• Antennae are slender, jointed feelers on the front of the head which have tiny sense organs for smell
• Each front leg has a notched structure which it uses to clean dirt from its antennae
• Pollen is carried in areas called baskets on the workers hindlegs
• Four wings enable the bee to fly forwards, backwards, sideways or to simply hover

Statistics

• status – common
• social unit – colony
• length – 0.3-2.7 cm
• weight – 0.1-0.2 g
• breeding season – spring
• incubation period – 21-24 days
• number of eggs – up to 2,000 eggs a day
• breeding interval – continuous
• diet – nectar, honey and pollen
• lifespan – queen: 5 years; drones: 4-6 weeks; workers: 6 weeks

Myth or fact
Honey bees have developed an intriguing form of communication. When a foraging worker finds a new source of nectar and pollen, it returns to the hive and dances in front of other workers. The bees movements seem to tell the other bees in which direction the food is located as well as its distance from the hive. It also produces a scent which scientists believe may provide further information, including the type of flower.

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1. Ant
2. Natural history ( insects )
3. Man of War