Base food

[Alfre B]

I have my first leopard tortoise and i want to know which is the best plant to use as a base food... I was thinking about dandelions and clovers. Thanks

 

[wellington]

Lots of stuff. A varied diet is best. Cactus, Mazuri, mulberry, hibiscus, clover, dandelion, spring mix, dark leafy greens, roses, etc. you can check out the tortoisetable.org for all kinds of edible stuff

 

[Alfre B]

What kind of cactus? :|

 

[wellington]

What kind of cactus? :|

Optunia . The spineless ones are the best, well for us that is. If you do get them with the spines, remove them or you can also burn them off.

 

[Alfre B]

Optunia . The spineless ones are the best, well for us that is. If you do get them with the spines, remove them or you can also burn them off.
[/quote]

Thanks i will look for that cactus and try to vary "manchitas" diet

 

[Levi the Leopard]

A simple start can be to feed "spring mix" as a base while you learn more about edible pants/greens for your guy. You will be surprised how quickly you will learn about all the different options.

I felt overwhelmed with food options at first. I bought spring mix and within a month had so much more knowledge that my diet was very varied.

Like Wellington said variety is best! But the spring mix can help get you through the start of your tortoise adventure while you learn.

 

[Tom]

Learn all your local weeds. Those are the best thing for them. Take samples to a local nursery for a positive ID, or post pics of them here. Then try to find out which ones are edible for them.

If you must your grocery store foods, favor endive and escarole most heavily, but DO use a wide variety.

 

[LeopardTortLover]

A tip for removing spines from Opuntia is by getting a regular kitchen scouring pad and scrubbing them off. I do this and just thought i'd share it

 

[Greg T]

Aside from grazing in the yard when possible, I use spring mix and red or green leaf lettuce as the base food and then mix other treats in, like mazuri, cactus, sometimes a few strawberries or melons.

 

[jtrux]

My two leopards LOVE cactus, i've fed them spiny kinds but only very young new growth that has very small or no spines at all, they love the new growth the best, just give em the whole pad and they will devour it.