Food for Red Foots

[fwideman]

Hi,

I recently got a cherry headed red foot (Tabby) and a normal red foot (Teagan); I joined the forum as I don't know a ton about tortoises. I've read a great deal of tortoise care sheets and the person I bought them from gave me a list of foods they can eat.

I just have a couple of questions: how long do greens and spring mix stay fresh when kept in the refrigerator, and can spring mix be fed often? The reason I ask is I came across people on this forum saying it wasn't the best thing for torts to eat. I was told a good diet for red foots is to alternate every week between greens (kale, turnip greens, collard greens) and spring mix, throwing in fruit every other day, with meat (boiled shrimp or chicken) once a month.

My torts seem to love this diet. I've attached a picture of them.

 

[Redstrike]

Explore these websites for feeding RF tortoises:
http://www.tortoiselibrary.com/index.html
http://redfoottortoise.com/redfoot_tortoise_diet.htm
http://www.redfoots.com/redfoot.htm
http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/feeding_redfoots.html

Edible plants:
http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/site/tortoise_home_1.asp

You'll notice none of those websites have the same diet plans, select what seems to work for you and your tortoises.

I try to feed my two cherryhead hatchlings as many wild greens as possible. Fruit is once per week but usually once every two weeks - protein is 1/month. Winter is fast approaching, so grocery greens are likely going to become more abundant soon in their diets. I've planted seed trays with some of the edible plants listed on the website I provided you, this way they'll get some wild greens still in the winter.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[fwideman]

Explore these websites for feeding RF tortoises:
http://www.tortoiselibrary.com/index.html
http://redfoottortoise.com/redfoot_tortoise_diet.htm
http://www.redfoots.com/redfoot.htm
http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/feeding_redfoots.html

Edible plants:
http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/site/tortoise_home_1.asp

You'll notice none of those websites have the same diet plans, select what seems to work for you and your tortoises.

I try to feed my two cherryhead hatchlings as many wild greens as possible. Fruit is once per week but usually once every two weeks - protein is 1/month. Winter is fast approaching, so grocery greens are likely going to become more abundant soon in their diets. I've planted seed trays with some of the edible plants listed on the website I provided you, this way they'll get some wild greens still in the winter.

Good luck and have fun!

Awesome; thank you!

 

[fwideman]

The forum isn't showing any of the posts I make.

 

[Jacqui]

The forum isn't showing any of the posts I make.

We have a fairly new policy to help filter out spam. The first five posts from a new member must be approved by a Moderator. We try to get to the posts as quickly as possible, but there is not somebody moderating at all times. We ask everybody to be patient with us. This is why your posts have not appear immediately after you send them.

Jacqui

 

[Madkins007]

Hi,

I recently got a cherry headed red foot (Tabby) and a normal red foot (Teagan); I joined the forum as I don't know a ton about tortoises. I've read a great deal of tortoise care sheets and the person I bought them from gave me a list of foods they can eat.

I just have a couple of questions: how long do greens and spring mix stay fresh when kept in the refrigerator, and can spring mix be fed often? The reason I ask is I came across people on this forum saying it wasn't the best thing for torts to eat. I was told a good diet for red foots is to alternate every week between greens (kale, turnip greens, collard greens) and spring mix, throwing in fruit every other day, with meat (boiled shrimp or chicken) once a month.

My torts seem to love this diet. I've attached a picture of them.

There is nothing very wrong with the recommendation you got, other than fruit every other day is a bit much if you use sweet, wet fruits. When we say Red-foots and other forest tortoises eat fruit, we mean the term in its technical sense- veggies with seeds. Things like squash, pumpkin, cucumber, bell peppers, zucchini, etc. are all fruits.

Too much sweet, wet fruit causes loose bowels and carry too many sugars. Toss some sort of fruit in every few days or a couple times a week, but make most of the fruit the things like mentioned above.

Also, when meat day rolls around, some other options would include: worms, bugs, larvae, baby mice or rats, oily fish (mackerel, salmon, catfish), etc.

Spring mix is perfectly OK but not wonderful- a bit shy on calcium and useful micronutrients- but not every meal has to be perfect.