Carrots & diet

[tofuqueen]

My Russian Torotise seems to LOVE carrots! He gets all excited and comes "trotting" over if he sees I have a carrot. Many of the acceptable tortoise food lists have carrots as an "occassional" food. How often is "occassional"? Is one baby carrot every other day too much? He usually doesn't eat the entire thing. For the rest of his diet, I've been mixing organic spring mix with either collard greens or dandelion greens. I'm working on getting him some hibiscus, but it will be several months before he can eat it since I can't find anywhere that has organic plants. I also found some white clover seeds online and I plan to grow some of those for him as well. Thoughts on the carrots?

 

[pwincess shelly]

gosh!!! that is so interesting

 

[Isa]

My Hermann loves carrot too, but I only give him a little piece of carrot every month or every other month. I would say that baby carrot every other day would be too much.
Have you tried giving him Chicory, escarole, watercress, radichio or turnip greens? Hermy loves them.
Here is an amazing list
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-5823.html

 

[Crazy1]

tofuqueen, I too would not give him a piece of carrot but one or twice a month.

 

[tortoisenerd]

I agree with Robyn and Isa--infrequent enough so that they are not any statistical portion of the diet. If we have shredded carrot in my house every few months I give Trevor one sliver. He loves it. There are so many foods that can be fed frequently that most torts love just as much though. Great link Isa!

 

[dmmj]

My russians love carrots but they only get it once a month. I don't lnow why they go crazy over them, but they do.

 

[stells]

Carrots are a root vegetable so are high in Oxalic acid which is why they shouldn't be fed regularly... occassionally is fine as they are a good source of fibre and vit A...

 

[tofuqueen]

Okay, so I will cut back on the carrots! Thanks! Isa.. I just got Pablo two weeks ago today, so I do plan on changing up the greens each week. I bought dandelions the first week and collard greens this week... but thanks for those suggestions. I'm sure I can find them near me for future feedings!

 

[Maggie Cummings]

Feeding him dark leafy greens would be better for him. You might walk around and collect some weeds, dandelions are very good for him. Feed the leafs and the flowers also. My Russian Fat Nat was not a very good eater until she discovered dandelion flowers and her eating has very much improved...

 

[bettinge]

I have read elsewhere that torts do not encounter root vegies in the wild (makes sense) and that they are not good to fed. I stay away from all roots!

 

[Madkins007]

A couple quick notes...

The oxalic acid levels of carrots sort of depends on who measures it. While the USDA says 0.50mg/100grams of food, other studies find 00.1 or 0mg/100grams of food (http://growingtaste.com/oxalicacid.shtml). Even at 0.50mg, it really is not a lot higher than a lot of 'green leaf' lettuces (0.33mg/100gr).

On the other hand, clover is considered 'very high' in oxalic acid (I cannot seem to find any numbers for this), and is considered poisonous to cattle and horses because of high levels of nitrates (http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/plants/php/plants.php?action=indiv&byname=common&keynum=88)

However... clover is on almost all 'good food lists', and carrots are usually considered not so great.

Part of the reason for this of course is that clover is naturally eaten by tortoises, while they would have a hard time getting carrots or other roots.

I agree that carrots are an occasional treat for grassland species- monthly or so sounds good. For forest species, however, they mimic some aspects of local fruits and can be (but do not have to be) included more often.