Aloe vera

[Laurie]

I bought some aloe to plant in everyone's indoor enclosures. Day one, Brains has mowed down half his plant . Tank ate a few nibbles and tootsie roll hasn't eaten any.

Is it ok for Brains to have this much? I thought he would just take a nibble here and there. The tortoise table says it feed in moderation, should I take it out?

 

[wellington]

I don't know what the elders LOL will say, but when I have a plant that has that kind of rating, I don't put it in with him to help himself. My Leo loves Xmas cactus, but has the same rating, so I have to keep it out and feed it to him. That's just what I do anyway.

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Will be interesting to see who admits to being the elders LOL

 

[Alan RF]

Madkins advised me not to give it to Alan but someone else said it was ok ....best to avoid?

 

[kanalomele]

My Russians love it, I have all kinds of it around, of several different varieties. Some is in the ground but most in pots. Every now and then a pot will get knocked over and they will plow through it. I never worry about it.
You will notice that I am avoiding completely the "elders" comment...

 

[Laurie]

My Russians love it, I have all kinds of it around, of several different varieties. Some is in the ground but most in pots. Every now and then a pot will get knocked over and they will plow through it. I never worry about it.
You will notice that I am avoiding completely the "elders" comment...

This makes me feel better, especially after he ate so much of it. I really didn't think he would pig out on it and I have seen it in others enclosures. I probably won't be replacing it though...lol

 

[Madkins007]

Madkins advised me not to give it to Alan but someone else said it was ok ....best to avoid?

To clarify- I said *I* do not use it, and that is only because I cannot find nutritional data on the leaves. It may be perfectly OK, but it IS a member of the generally suspect lily family (which is not automatically a bad thing, but flowering lilies are a risk to most reptiles).

It would not surprise me that many people use it and are happy with it, but I would prefer knowing the calcium/phosphorous ratios, oxalates, etc. before I offered it to my torts.

However, I am not sure if I would uproot it if I found it in my habitat. In fact, I almost certainly wouldn't- after all, I had lilies in there before I knew they were a risk and my torts ignored them nicely.

 

[kanalomele]

Happy to offer some comfort! I offer individual leaves occasionally to my hatchlings/yearlings as well. Some like it others don't. It is a good source of moisture for them in my experience, and has never offered any problems. Aloe has long been a human nutritional supplement, with the vit/min information provided. It is generally offered at health food stores for anyone interested in reading the labels.

 

[Madkins007]

If you can point me to a reliable link of nutritional values of the plant itself, I would really appreciate it. I can find some for the juice (mostly as a commercial preparation, which mean added ingredients), and some for the freeze-dried plant, which would be more concentrated than the live plant.

I can find a lot of health claims, but very little clinical research behind several of them, and it does bother me that it is often listed as a laxative, which would tend to negate or minimize most of the other nutritional values.

Reading the labels at the store means I am not looking at the nutritional value of the raw plant- I am looking at something packaged and processed. I can find nutritional values for a lot of really odd things on-line, but so far- not raw aloe vera plants.