Food stuff....

[armandoarturo]

Hi again everyone
Im sorry for being so annoying and making couple of posts per week...
Its just that I think no one understands me better than this fourm's members hahaha
MY friends know nothing about tortoises, (and also dont really care)
so I skip the topic ..

I just wanted to know what do you guys feed your tortoises with?
(I feed mine with opuntia pads, opuntia and cactus fruit, grasses, dandelions... and this native plants that grow up around the area:
quelites and verdolagas
wich I think that would be (lambsquarters / "Chenopodium" and purslane / "Portulaca oleracea")... correct me If im wrong with terms please.

I dont really know If they are good sources of vitamins, but since they grow up around the wild, I provide them to my tortoises, and they do love them! Anyone that knows about nutrition facts ?

what do you feed your tortoise with?

---

oh!.. I forgot... I also give them dichondra sometimes, the yougest ones love it

 

[LunaNegra]

Hi again everyone
Im sorry for being so annoying and making couple of posts per week...
Its just that I think no one understands me better than this fourm's members hahaha
MY friends know nothing about tortoises, (and also dont really care)
so I skip the topic ..

I just wanted to know what do you guys feed your tortoises with?
(I feed mine with opuntia pads, opuntia and cactus fruit, grasses, dandelions... and this native plants that grow up around the area:
quelites and verdolagas
wich I think that would be (lambsquarters / "Chenopodium" and purslane / "Portulaca oleracea")... correct me If im wrong with terms please.

I dont really know If they are good sources of vitamins, but since they grow up around the wild, I provide them to my tortoises, and they do love them! Anyone that knows about nutrition facts ?

what do you feed your tortoise with?

---

oh!.. I forgot... I also give them dichondra sometimes, the yougest ones love it

---

I would be careful about the lambsquarters. I just looking up foods and greens that are high in (or convert to) oxalic acid, which can be very harmful to tortoises. It can lead to metabolic disease, soft shell and other severe issues.

Anyways, lambsquarters was one of the highest. So, on that particular one, I would be careful. I am trying to discern about carrots. I have read everything from "NO carrots, to some carrots (10/15% of diet), to carrots are fine."

 

[PeanutbuttER]

I like to give mine a carrot to nibble on every once in a blue moon. I think it's good for their beaks to have to exercise and work to get a bite.

 

[Missy]

I give my torts dry hay first thing in the morning when they are hungry so they will eat it. Then I put them outside to graze on grass and weeds. I give them other things like cactus,grape vine,rose of sharon,summer squash,carrot,pumpkin and whatever else I can find to give them a wide varity.

 

[LunaNegra]

What I have gleaned after much research, is that apparently, it's actually the GREENS/TOPS of carrots that are high in oxalate acid (like other greens such as spinach). The carrot itself, not so much. I finally found 2-3 sites which classified the green tops of carrots separately from the carrot itself. So, I can see why there is confusion out there.

He loves carrots so much. I let him eat hay, clover, etc but won't touch romaine lettuce, mustard greens, collard greens, kale, nopales (catcus pad), or hibiscus leaves, all the things he "should" love! He's a Texas tortoise. I became worried, so I mix up the greens, etc into his carrots, so he gets some of those extra nutrients.

He's a short term rescue that's going back out soon.

 

[PeanutbuttER]

I didn't know that about the carrot tops. Perhaps that's why none of my torts will actually eat them...they just eat the carrot.