limestone in soil?

[Ajay]

Yup. All true. Plus, foals drink milk, a supplement on top of this would probably push them over their RDA or something. Also, it's not "pure" or "clean" calcium if its limestone rock, it's likely that one of the random possible extras is harmful too.

Also, a thought, surely if it's spread all over the soil and the torts wish to eat it for extra calcium they're likely to take in soil with it? (isn't this why we feed on slate?) I thought this was the reason people were discussing ice cube trays etc in another thread...? Correct me if I'm wrong

[Pussygalore]

Ajay do you mean harmfull to horses a or do you mean torts as well which is what I was wondering just the young ones

[Ajay]

Plus, foals drink milk, a supplement on top of this would probably push them over their RDA or something. Also, it's not "pure" or "clean" calcium if its limestone rock, it's likely that one of the random possible extras is harmful too.

Also, a thought, surely if it's spread all over the soil and the torts wish to eat it for extra calcium they're likely to take in soil with it? (isn't this why we feed on slate?) I thought this was the reason people were discussing ice cube trays etc in another thread...? Correct me if I'm wrong

[Pussygalore]

sorry but youv,e totally lost me now

[piglet]

Why and where are you lost Ann

D

[nina]

I don't think there's anything wrong with ingesting some soil with their food - surely this must happen in the wild. It's only if they eat copius amounts and get impacted that there is a problem. I find that even small stones go through the system and come out the other end (although obviously I try and minimise this as much as possible).

[Ajay]

Sorry, try again..

I meant, a suggested theory for foals not eating limestone would be that they get a lot of calcium from their early milk diet. Also that some of the trace elements in limestone could be harmful to them as they're young and probably easily affected by them.

Also that spreading the limestone on the soil would encourage ingestion of soil and I thought it was recommended we avoided that. However, Nina says this isn't likely to cause a problem. I just thought it was suggested we avoided it..

Make more sense?

[nina]

Originally Posted by Ajay

Sorry, try again..

I meant, a suggested theory for foals not eating limestone would be that they get a lot of calcium from their early milk diet. Also that some of the trace elements in limestone could be harmful to them as they're young and probably easily affected by them.

Also that spreading the limestone on the soil would encourage ingestion of soil and I thought it was recommended we avoided that. However, Nina says this isn't likely to cause a problem. I just thought it was suggested we avoided it..

Make more sense?

Yes, it does make more sense. I don't think anyone would encourage the ingestion of soil (I was just saying that if a bit is ingested it does no harm). Maybe Peter should come back and tell us how he leaves the heaps of limestone flour around his enclosure (maybe it's not all on the soil - e.g. maybe some of the heaps are in little dishes).

[Pussygalore]

thanks for clarifying but to be really annoying don,t you think that theres a possibility of giving to much in young growing torts if bone growths or deformitys can occur in other animals i know they don,t drink milk or do they not have a limit as to how much calcium they can take on board safely maybe any excess passes out the normal way? we as humans have an RDA so couldn,t the same thing apply to torts.

[piglet]

Firstly nearly all tortoises evolved and still live in calcium rich areas, namely limestone rich ground.
Yes limestone does contain other trace elements as well as huge amounts of fossilised calcium, which is as you all know a mineral , plants draw minerals up through there roots and lay the minerals into there leaves hence calcium rich food
Many tortoises are browsers nibbling plants as they go, often plants that are at low levels so by grazing low lying plants they ingest certain amounts of substrate which is again rich in calcium (limestone ) ,
Wild tortoises growing juveniles and gravid females will also search out even greater amounts of calcium to form growing bone and form developing eggs, these tortoises will often eat small stones and gravel(mainly particles of limestone )there powerful digestion will grind down these particles and the digestive tract will extract the calcium and pass out there waste material.
Evolution is a strange thing as is nature unfortunately no one is out there to wash all there dietary needs so ingestion of indigestible materials is unavoidable but they have been around millions of years so they can't be wrong

Ann by leaving calcium avaliable then they can choose when to ingest it rather than add to the diet

D