Any Tortoise owners in Sweden?

Albie

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5 Year Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2018
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23
Location (City and/or State)
Sweden
Hi! I'm new here, and don't see any posts about tortoise owners in Sweden, so curious if there are any on here. I'm actually from the US, but live in Sweden with my Swedish husband, children, and 55-year old tortoise (well, he's originally from Eastern Europe it seems, or at least his ancestors were...).

I'm mostly curious what folks here feed their tortoises in the winter? I've read all the threads about care of Hermanns, and Tortoise Food, etc., but have never seen things like collard greens, mustard greens, etc. in grocery stores here. We feed Anton dandelions from our garden spring to late fall, but he's now been awake since January this year and as we're learning more about the right care, I'd like to adjust his diet (has mostly been various different store-bought lettuce + occasional fruit), and he likes crackers (Marie kex).

Love to hear from others in Sweden (or similar climates and areas that don't have a Whole Foods around the corner...)
 

JoesMum

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Oct 26, 2011
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Hi I am in the UK

As you probably know by now, your tort's diet should be weedy and leafy greens. He can't digest sugars properly - they cause digestive and kidney problems - so sweet foods like fruit, bell pepper, carrot and tomato should only be fed very sparingly and very occasionally if at all. Banana is far too sugary and must not be fed.

Crackers are not appropriate food at all and should not be fed... those Marie Kex ones are salty and could do considerable harm. They never get offered again.

So what do we do in winter? We cope with a mixture of store bought greens and a good quality pelleted food designed for tortoises (softened with water not fruit juice) Mazuri (standard not LS) version is widely acclaimed, ut has been hard to buy here in the UK. I use Komodo.

Go to The Tortoise Table's online plant database and look up the plants you can buy and those that you could grow indoors or that are growing around you. It will tell you whether or not a plant may be fed, what part of the plant can be fed and explain why
http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/

@Maria Ohlson is in Sweden. She created this thread that you might find helpful
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/hello-from-sweden.147111/
 

Maria Ohlson

Member
Joined
Jul 9, 2016
Messages
51
Location (City and/or State)
Sweden
I live in Sweden and I hold a Group of testudo hermanni. I also breed these.
Wintertime Before or after hibernation I give soaked Agrobs a lot. You can also mix the soaked Agrobs with green sallad of type romansallad, nouvelle, machetesallad, lollo rosso etc. In the ICA store I usually buy Provensalsk mix of sallad in a bag. It contains a good variety of sallads.
Opuntia caktus. I also grow food for my tortoise like hibiscus, coleus ( palettblad ) cikoria, plantago. Wheetgrass is easy to grow and give as food or to plant in their Indoor enclosure.
I also give them dried weeds that I pic and dry during spring and summer like dried dandelion, plantago, flowers, clover.
If you can understand Swedish there is a forum on Facebook specielly for "food for tortoise" / "kost för landsköldpaddor". Its me and Another girl who is admin there and you are welcome to join if you want.
I dont Think you should give crackers like mariekex because their intestines cant process the sugar or flour.
 

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Maria Ohlson

Member
Joined
Jul 9, 2016
Messages
51
Location (City and/or State)
Sweden
Hi I am in the UK

As you probably know by now, your tort's diet should be weedy and leafy greens. He can't digest sugars properly - they cause digestive and kidney problems - so sweet foods like fruit, bell pepper, carrot and tomato should only be fed very sparingly and very occasionally if at all. Banana is far too sugary and must not be fed.

Crackers are not appropriate food at all and should not be fed... those Marie Kex ones are salty and could do considerable harm. They never get offered again.

So what do we do in winter? We cope with a mixture of store bought greens and a good quality pelleted food designed for tortoises (softened with water not fruit juice) Mazuri (standard not LS) version is widely acclaimed, ut has been hard to buy here in the UK. I use Komodo.

Go to The Tortoise Table's online plant database and look up the plants you can buy and those that you could grow indoors or that are growing around you. It will tell you whether or not a plant may be fed, what part of the plant can be fed and explain why
http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/

@Maria Ohlson is in Sweden. She created this thread that you might find helpful
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/hello-from-sweden.147111/

Mazuri is called Nutrazu in Sweden and can be bought at www.skoldpaddsgrejer.se
In Sweden Agrobs testudo is very popular as pellets food. It does not contain any unnecessary Ingredients, only dried weeds and grass. It also has a very low % of protein wich is very good. Its also cheap to buy. ( you can order it from the same place as Nutrazu ) I only give Nutrazu for my egglaying females sometimes because it contains a higher % protein.
 

Albie

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5 Year Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2018
Messages
23
Location (City and/or State)
Sweden
@Maria Ohlson - thanks for all this great information and links! We've already been out starting to look for some of the supplies, and discussing what changes we can make both indoors and outdoors - and have already started buying some different things to feed him. Love your website - so much inspiration from your photos!!
 
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