Food and supplement questions

[fgately]

I have three Russians living in my back yard. Very cool to see them acclimating and acting like they would in the wild. I do have two questions about their food and supplemets.

1. They have access to many different types of vegetation growing in my yard. Do I really need to give them vitamin supplements? I am pretty confident that they are getting a far better diet than they would be getting in their native habitat, so why the need for the extra supplements?

2. They sometimes nibble on other plants, but mainly eat gazania and zucchini flowers. Is this sufficient as a food staple? They eat lots of pollen while chowing down on these flowers. Pollen is supposed to be one of Mother Nature's wonder foods.

Thanks Tort Peeps!

Frank

 

[GBtortoises]

My Russians are kept outdoors 365 days a year. I wholeheartedly agree with you that they get a far better diet, in terms of nutrition & vitamins, than they do in the wild. Which is why I have never given my Russians (or other tortoises) supplemental vitamins. I provide them with a diet that consists of an 80-85% variety of good quality greens and the rest being various, quality vegetables. The only other thing I provide (other than water) is a good source of calcium carbonate-powdered form for hatchlings and young tortoises, cuttlebone for medium size to adults. I do not "force feed" them calcium by coating their food but offer seperately on the side and allow the tortoises to consume it as frequently and in the amount that they need.
I'm not familiar with gazania but mine are fed zucchini flowers (and the whole plants), along with pumpkin vines and leaves from our garden. I wouldn't consider it a staple food, but then I wouldn't consider any foods a staple, I believe in feeding a much variety as possible.

 

[fgately]

Hi GB,

I like your post and your profile.

Gazanias are VERY common out here in SoCal. They grow everywhere, are nice looking, and don't need very much water once established. The torts love to hide under them during the heat of the day as well. Here is a link to a picture of them.

http://www.free-images.org.uk/flowers/12-ganzanias-flower.htm

I also leave out cuttlebone, as I believe they will instinctively know when and if they need more calcium, particlularly the females. I haven't raised any hatchlings yet, but when that does happen I can see it is probably a good idea to supplement them just to get them off to a good start. Once they are off to a good start, I will leave the feeding up to them. In my yard (they are free roaming) I have a large lawn of fescue grass, gazanias, nasturtiums, geraniums, ornamental strawberry, aloe, optunia, hibiscus, zucchini, and a few various weeds growing here and there. I also give them steamed broccoili or red leafed lettuce whenever we eat it as a family. They also have access to the occasional peach that falls out of our tree once in awhile. This seems like a pretty good diet for them. They seems to sometimes eat lots of one thing (Zucchini and Gazania flowers, and they also like Aloe), and then the next day kind of nibble on many things. This is how I imagine them to eat in the wild.

Thoughts out there?

 

[kimber_lee_314]

Mine are outside too and graze on grasses. Even though I leave out a cuttlebone, I sprinkle a little calcium or TNT on their food once a week - just to be sure.

 

[Stephanie Logan]

Here's one good thread on recommended diet for Russians: http://tortoiseforum.org/thread-5823.html .

You could also do a search with "supplements" as the key word to pull up some of the many threads debating use of calcium on your torties' food.

Where are the photos of this Russian trio in their comfy backyard enclosure?

 

[pugsandkids]

Great thread, thank you for pointing it out.

 

[fgately]

Thanks for the thread! Great take on edibles for torts.

I see my three nibble on an occasional weed here and there, but will then go and munch down three or four gazania or zucchini flowers. They are not sweet, are low in protein, and must be loaded with nutrition. They always have yellow pollen on their beaks after eating. Very cute. Pollen is like nature's vitamin pill.

---

Here is an exerpt from an article on bee pollen. This sounds like very good stuff for the torties! Is this too much of a good thing?

NUTRITIONAL VALUE OF BEE POLLEN

Bee Pollen is a whole food supplement that contains at least 130 substances of nutritional significance.

Bee Pollen is composed of about 50% carbohydrates, rich in fatty acids, almost all known minerals, amino acids, enzymes, trace elements, vitamins like B complex, A,C,D,E, beta carotene.

Bee Pollen Contains vitamins including Vitamin A, B1 Thiamin, B2 Riboflavin, B3 Niacin, B6 Group, Vitamin B complex, Pantothenic Acid, Biotin, B12, Folic Acid, Choline, Inositol, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, and Rutin, as well as Minerals especially Calcium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Sulphur, Sodium, Chlorine, Iron, Manganese, Copper, Iodine, Zinc, Silicon, Molybdenum, Boron, Titanium, Magnesium.

Bee Pollen also contains various Enzymes named as Amylase, Diastase, Saccarase, Pectase, Phosphatase, Catalase, Disphorase, Cozymase, Cytochrome, Lactic, Dehydrogenase, Succiniohydrogenase, 24 Oxido-Reductases, 21 Transferases, 33 Hydrolases, 11 Lyases, 5 Isomerases, Pepsin and Trypsin.

The Amino Acids present in Bee Pollen are Isoleucine, Leucine, Lysine, Methionine, Thereonine, Alanine, Valine, Histidine, Arginine, Cystine, Aspartic Acid, Phenylalanine, Proline, Glutamic Acid, Glycine, Serine, Tryptophan, Tyrosine. Beside of all these minerals, vitamins & enzymes Bee Pollen also founds to be rich in Nucleic Acids, Flavinoids, Phenolic Acids, Tarpenes, Nucleosides, Fructose, Fructose, Gibberellins, Resins, Lecityin, Xanthophyllis, Guanine, and Xanthine. The main components of Bee Pollen by percentage may be given as Protein 21.2 %; Carbohydrates 48.5%; Fatty Acids 9.9%; Ash 2.7%; Fiber 3.5 %; Water 14.2%.