Need help, new owner with russian tortoise

irohthetortoise said:

Thanks for the list! Do you go out and collect these yourself or do you have a supplier or grow them yourself?

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RosemaryDW said:

@irohthetortoise, you are in Cleveland, what kind of location are you in specifically? A house, city apartment, giant ranch on the outskirts of the city? What kind of grocery stores are near you?

I see some hispanic population in the city; any hispanic market will sell cactus, marked as “nopales.” It’s an excellent food.

I see different information on Asian populations; if there are any Asian markets near you that would increase your choices.

Whole Foods or a natural food store might have a few different options as well.

For now you may have to rely on some of the more common grocery store foods:

You may need to rely on grocery store foods for now. Good foods for tortoises are "chicories," types of lettuce that are likely to be on the far side of the more common floppy green heads of lettuce most people buy. Anything labeled as simply "chicory" is good, as are radicchio, frisee, escarole, and endive; you might even find something labeled as dandelions. You may find a bag of "Spring" or "Spicy" mix that is good, just check the label to be sure it has some of the chicories I just mentioned.

The leaves (just the leaves) of turnips and radishes are also good, as are carrot tops. Collards, mustard greens, bok choy, and other dark, leafy greens are okay as well.

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RosemaryDW said:

Hmm, if you are so lucky as to have a market that is specifically Korean, that will have the most choices but you’ll find some things at a generic market, too. A Persian market would be nice as well.

It’s a bit of a long read but if you go through the sticky pinned to the top of this thread titled “the Tortoise Chef,” you’ll find posts of foods people are actively feeding to their tortoises (as compared to the “is this safe” posts we also see in this section.” Many of them include grocery store foods supplemented in different ways, all posted by owners far more experienced than I.

I’ve got posts in there of visits to different kinds of markets, generic “Asian;” Korean; Persian, plus plenty of posts of less common foods in general, as I live in an area where I have wonderful access to foods. One item you might find that is not listed in my earliests posts is “methi” or fenugreek. It’s common in quite a few cultures.

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shellandpenny said:

I LOVE this housing idea! Great for some outside exposure. Do you have a thread going over how you built this and such?

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irohthetortoise said:

I’m actually Iranian myself so I’m quite familiar with fenugreek haha

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shellandpenny said:

Our store bought greens are very nutrient dense (cause we eat them!) which could be a lot for a tortoise. Because of this, I only feed my russians every other day or so.

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ethan508 said:

Is this logic sound? I'm not sure I believe the premise that store bought greens are so nutrient dense that tortoises should regularly skip a day of eating. In the wild a tortoise could graze on food whenever they wanted. Outside of a higher fiber content, are broad leaf weeds much different than grocery store lettuces nutritionally? Do you have a study, testing, or significant practical experience (i.e. caring for dozens of tortoises for dozens of years) that backs your line of thinking?

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shellandpenny said:

This has been learned from Kenan harkin and his work with the turtle alliance and such. You can access his information online. But every owner has their preference

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daniellenc said:

No offense but that man is not the turtle God he claims to be and often offers dangerous information to new owners. Do some of your own research and compare plantain, dandelion, clover, mulberry leaves, grape leaves, and other safe weeds to grocery store greens. I promise you leaf lettuces are not nearly as nutrient dense as weeds and lack CALCIUM. By feeding these store greens solely and skipping feeding you're slowly starving your tortoise as well as encouraging MBD.

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