Dandelion greens, red leaf lettuce, grass, and pea shoots

[Brandon King]

Hi everyone,
A few quick questions. We'd been feeding our sulcata Morty primarily red leaf lettuce, sprinkling vitamin supplements on top every few days. After further research--and at the advice of several on this forum urging us to step away from lettuce--we moved on to other things. Now, Morty's diet consists primarily of:

• dandelion greens,
• bermuda grass from our yard,
• occasional pea shoots and red leaf lettuce.

I have the ZooMed pellets, but he won't have any of it.
Question:

• Can I use the dandelion greens as his main form of sustenance? He eats the bermuda grass, but not like he does the dandelion greens.

Thanks!
Morty

 

[JoesMum]

Your sulcata needs variety and nothing should be the main form of sustenance.

Tortoises can be extremely stubborn. Your tort will behave like a child that only wants to eat chips and chocolate - you're the parent in charge!

To introduce a new food you have to take it very slowly.

Here's a step by step guide:

1. Chop the foods your tort will eat very small and wet them

2. Chop a tiny amount of new food very small and mix it with the rest. The water will stick it together so the new stuff cannot be picked out.

3. If your tort eats everything, at the next feed increase the amount of new food very slightly and decrease the liked food by the same amount.

4. If your tort refuses to eat then leave the food in place for 24 hours and then replace with fresh in exactly the same proportions.

Very gradually, over weeks not days, your tort will start accepting the new food as normal. Take it slowly and don't try to hurry it. A hungry tort will give in and eat.

Your tort can go a long time without food, but not water. A thirty minute soak is essential on days when there is a hunger strike.

 

[JoesMum]

Here's a list of suitable greens

Look them up on The Tortoise Table Plant Database if you're not sure what they look like.
http://thetortoisetable.org.uk/

Mulberry leaves
Grape vine leaves
Hibiscus leaves
African hibiscus leaves
Blue hibiscus leaves
Rose of Sharon leaves
Rose leaves
Geraniums
Gazanias
Lavatera
Pansies
Petunias
Hostas
Honeysuckle
Cape honeysuckle
Leaves and blooms from any squash plant, like pumpkin, cucumber, summer squash, etc...
Young spineless opuntia cactus pads

Weeds:
There are soooooooo many...
Dandelion
Mallow
Filaree
Smooth Sow thistle
Prickly Sow thistle
Milk thistle
Goat head weed
Cats ear
Nettles
Trefoil
Wild onion
Wild mustard
Wild Garlic
Clovers
Broadleaf plantain
Narrow leaf plantain
Chick weed
Hawksbit
Hensbit
Hawksbeard

 

[JoesMum]

Another technique is write a list of all the greens you can buy and those that grow around you and look them up on The Tortoise Table Plant Database for suitability.

Post photos of plants in our Plant ID forum id you don’t know what they are.

 

[Tom]

Joe's Mum covered everything I would say!

The only thing I would add is that if you must use grocery store greens, favor endive and escarole, but use lots of variety.

And the ZooMed Grassland food is good stuff to add to grocery store greens, but it will take some time going through the steps that Joe's Mum pointed out to get the tortoise use to it. Start with just a little tiny bit at first. Like a tiny part of one broken pellet.