Id please

Pawciorc

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Any idea what is that and wheather edible?

1432928972726.jpg
 
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Maggie Cummings

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This won't be a popular answer, but my tortoise eats what he wants and the poison plants put off an odor or taste. There's plants he won't eat. I let him eat what he wants, but he is only 17 and 120 pounds, so I really don't know a lot about them:)
 

Pawciorc

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:)
it doesnt grow in their enclosure so I am wondering if its ok to pick it and feed. In Malta its awfully dry and majority of wild plants simply dried out. Some new, probably deeper rooted and heat resistant started to show up and I am looking for food amongst them.
 

Jodie

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It looks like prickly lettuce to me, but I am bad at this game. Does it have a row of spines on underside of the leaves? If yes, I am right, and it's edible.
 

Tom

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This won't be a popular answer, but my tortoise eats what he wants and the poison plants put off an odor or taste. There's plants he won't eat. I let him eat what he wants, but he is only 17 and 120 pounds, so I really don't know a lot about them:)

Maggie, this is bad advice. I did a thread a few months ago on someone who lost their Galapagos tortoise and was in the process of losing their Aldabra because they thought was you just said was accurate.

We can not rely on tortoises knowing what foreign plants to eat or not eat. Of course sometimes, in some situations, they make the right choices, but other times they don't and they die.
 

Yvonne G

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Usually anything that looks like grass is edible. But until you find the name and look it up on the poison list I wouldn't pick it to feed.
 

Jodie

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Dang it. Now that I see the picture on something other than my phone, that looks nothing like prickly lettuce.
 

Killerrookie

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Kinda reminds me of a type of plant in the corn family. I have that stuff growing all over the place in my backyard. I fed some to my little ones every once in awhile but most of the time they ignore it and eat the grass instead or weeds.
 

WithLisa

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We can not rely on tortoises knowing what foreign plants to eat or not eat..
What's your opinion about native plants? I only have plants in the enclosure that are (also) native to the Mediterranean area and my Hermanns even eat some of the supposedly toxic ones, for example Aquilegia. They are still alive and well.
Would you remove them?
 

Pawciorc

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As for prickly lettuce I am sure it is not. And not a grass. It has stem of approx 5 mm diameter and the leaves with one central stem too. The main stem is brownish in colour.
 

Tom

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What's your opinion about native plants? I only have plants in the enclosure that are (also) native to the Mediterranean area and my Hermanns even eat some of the supposedly toxic ones, for example Aquilegia. They are still alive and well.
Would you remove them?

How much arsenic could YOU eat before you die? We know its toxic, but if you just take in a little bit, it won't kill you.

You are sure that the plant in your in enclosure is native to the particular area where your particular location specific variety of tortoise came from?

In that case, if that is for sure the case, I would be less worried about it, but I still would not let my tortoise have access to a know toxic plant. Our enclosures are not the wild, and they do things in captivity they they might not do in the wild.

There is a lot we do not understand about plant toxicity in our tortoises. Its not hard to understand death though, and I've seen that more times than I care to remember.
 

Lyn W

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If you go to www.thetortoisetable.org.uk and look up plants by category they have pictures of different grasses etc so you may be able to ID it there
 

Lyn W

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It looks like it has a woody stem - or is that a trick of the light?
 

Pawciorc

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Its not wooden, just colour. In Malta plenty of sun, all weeds almost dried out and those from the pic appeared lately.
 

Lyn W

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It reminds me of maize but not 100%
 

Iochroma

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It is not any of the plants suggested above. It is not clear what it is yet without a flower. Until you are sure of the ID it is not wise to give the tortoise access to this plant.
Why don't you order some seeds of edible Mediterranean plants and sow them in your enclosure? It should not be a problem to grow quite a lot of green stuff in your climate, as long as you are willing to give it plenty of water (and fertilize to supplement the poor soil).
 
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