Can anyone tell me what these are and if they are safe to feed to a Herman's plz
- Thread starter debz
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So many different plants going on in there. Let's see if @Iochroma has any ideas for you.
Creeping buttercup.
The Tortoise Table and most people will tell you not to feed them.
Joe loved eating them if he got chance. I never picked them for him.
The Tortoise Table and most people will tell you not to feed them.
Joe loved eating them if he got chance. I never picked them for him.
My question: when it says that the plants are TOXIC, does this mean toxic for tortoises or humans/mammals? Are humans used as a guide as to what not to feed to tortoises?
Hardly anything is known about toxins in reptiles, mainly in mammals (mice, humans,...).
The tortoise table linked an article according to which a tortoise died after being fed large amounts of ranunculus sp.
That might or might not be the case (who knows what other poisonous things were fed?), but the article doesn't even say what species of ranunculus and almost anything can be toxic when consumed in large amounts. The dose makes the poison.
According to both my books about tortoise food, ranunculus repens is a good food plant and I will not stop feeding it. But of course just in appropriate qantities in a mix, like any other food plant.
The tortoise table linked an article according to which a tortoise died after being fed large amounts of ranunculus sp.
That might or might not be the case (who knows what other poisonous things were fed?), but the article doesn't even say what species of ranunculus and almost anything can be toxic when consumed in large amounts. The dose makes the poison.
According to both my books about tortoise food, ranunculus repens is a good food plant and I will not stop feeding it. But of course just in appropriate qantities in a mix, like any other food plant.
Put it this way Joe ate them all his very long life. Like Lisa this wasn't in huge quantities. Usually he would just eat the flowers; you could watch him moving from yellow flower to yellow flower on the lawn - probably eating half a dozen or less which is nothing for a 7lb tort.
I am not going to recommend people go out and pick them, just in case. However, they're near impossible to eradicate from the garden so if a tort eats them then I wouldn't panic.
I am not going to recommend people go out and pick them, just in case. However, they're near impossible to eradicate from the garden so if a tort eats them then I wouldn't panic.
Yes, as others have said, Ranunculus seem to be eaten by mediterranean tortoises with no ill effects. I do not let mine eat it though.
