Grape Leaves in Diet

[orv]

We care for 4 California Desert Tortoises. I have recently been blessed with access to a virtually unlimited amount of organically grown grape leaves. We try to feed our tortoises a varied, healthy diet, but I'd like to know what percentage grape leaves might play in their food. I must say that they attack them voracipusly, eating them before previous favorites. Any help will be appreciated.

 

[wellington]

https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/plant-database/viewplants/?plant=138&c=4#.WxX6NEFOnv4

I dry mine for winter and feed it almost daily until they are gone.

 

[Pearly]

We care for 4 California Desert Tortoises. I have recently been blessed with access to a virtually unlimited amount of organically grown grape leaves. We try to feed our tortoises a varied, healthy diet, but I'd like to know what percentage grape leaves might play in their food. I must say that they attack them voracipusly, eating them before previous favorites. Any help will be appreciated.

Mine so far will not eat them, at all. I planted couple of grape vines couple yrs ago and they are now ig enough to harvest leaves, but my torts turn their little noses up on those. Mine are the Redfooted so their diet is very different than your torts. Still in herbivorous torts your goal is (just like with mine) a VARIED DIET, so as wide range of those good plant items as possible with big chunk of it being broad leafy weeds, opuntia pads, and things like hibiscus, dandelions, all kinds of flowers and their greens (pansies, violets, begonias, nasturtium and MANY MANY others. Grape leaves are great! Just add lots of other stuff to that. I’ve seen pretty awesome good plant diet lists here posted by Tom and Yvonne, Will is another one, there are many others, I just can’t think of people’s user IDs. One more thing, before I had the comfort level for feeding my torts that I do now, I did use commercially prepared tortoise diet available in different pet and feed stores. I’d rotate different brands and those would make 25-30% of the daily meal portions, the remaining 70-75% being fresh produce. I figured there is some science behind those commercial formulas which can’t all be wrong. While i didn’t like some ingredients, there were others that I thought would be nice for my Torts to have on board and with rotating several different brands with very long list of fresh diet items I felt pretty comfortable about covering my growing torts’ dietary needs. I’d say, if you have fresh grape leaves for limited time (or whatever is in abundance during growing season ), use that by all means, just be aggressive about covering the rest of that “diet rainbow of colors” with other things, and maybe add some pelleted food of some grocery store or farmers market stuff, and/or add little vitamin/calcium supplement if you need that little extra of reassurance. I have read some of your posts before and you sound like a very conscientious tort keeper, and know that you will do the right things for your CDT’s. If they have great appetites and are not picky, then my Friend, you’ve got it made!

 

[orv]

Well . . . while your's won't eat grape leaves, mine don't care for pelleted diets such as Mazuri. What can I say, we are all allowed our likes and dislikes. I leave cuttle bone out for them periodically, most of the time it goes un-touched. Today I found one of the youngsters chewing on the jasmine branches that flow into their territory. None of them has ever touched that before. Anyway, there's never any fresh grape left over.

 

[Tom]

Orv, Jasmine is very toxic. I know a guy who just lost a Galapagos and an Aldabran tortoise to jasmine. Gardeners planted it and the guy didn't know. His giants ate it, got sick, and eventually they both died.

Grape leaves are a great food, but no one knows the answer to your question. We are all just going to give you our unscientific opinions here based on whatever people base things on when the answer isn't known. I think a diet of 50% grape leaves would be fine. Grape leaves make up about 5-10% of the diet for some of my tortoises for about 5-6 months each year. I think they'd be fine if I did more than that, but I've not tested the theory.

 

[orv]

Orv, Jasmine is very toxic. I know a guy who just lost a Galapagos and an Aldabran tortoise to jasmine. Gardeners planted it and the guy didn't know. His giants ate it, got sick, and eventually they both died.

Grape leaves are a great food, but no one knows the answer to your question. We are all just going to give you our unscientific opinions here based on whatever people base things on when the answer isn't known. I think a diet of 50% grape leaves would be fine. Grape leaves make up about 5-10% of the diet for some of my tortoises for about 5-6 months each year. I think they'd be fine if I did more than that, but I've not tested the theory.

Thanks, Tom. I'll trim back the jasmine branches first thing in the morning. I just hope that the juvenile who ate some today will be OK. Is there anything that I should do or look for? I really don't think that she ate more than a leaf or two. As for the grapes, I'll include them a bit heavily while they're still a novelity to them, and then back off to just balancing them with other greens. As summer is upon us here, the wealth of weeds is drying up. There is still their standard grasses growing, but they'll not last forever with this heat wave we're experiencing right now. It won't be long now until they'll have all the Optima pads growing within their reach gone as well. There's still plenty of gazanias and roses for the moment. Boy howdy, these torts can eat you to the death!

 

[katieandiggy]

Should I be looking at any particular type of grape variety? I’m in the U.K.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Should I be looking at any particular type of grape variety? I’m in the U.K.

Find out what can easily be grown in your climate. Especially if your interest is in the leaves and not the grapes. Most of us here in the states have some variety of Muscadine.
A type that grows locally can be kept without any help at all from you. Just a trim every now and again.

 

[mark1]

my turtles and dogs all have access to jasmine plants (Jasminum)…….the plant the guys tortoises ate may have been some other plant referred to as jasmine …...

https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control/toxic-and-non-toxic-plants/jasmine

 

[Tom]

my turtles and dogs all have access to jasmine plants (Jasminum)…….the plant the guys tortoises ate may have been some other plant referred to as jasmine …...

https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control/toxic-and-non-toxic-plants/jasmine

Or it could be that they haven't eaten it… yet.

 

[Tom]

Should I be looking at any particular type of grape variety? I’m in the U.K.

There are over 2000 varieties of grape vines. There must be some that are good in your climate. A local garden center should have the answer for you. I grow a half dozen varieties and they like them all except the concord grape leaves. They will eat those if they are hungry and there is nothing else to eat, but they don't seem to like them much.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Orv:

Take a look at post #33 in this thread:

https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/w...-garden-published-nutrient-list.161833/page-2

 

[orv]

Hi Orv:

Take a look at post #33 in this thread:

https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/w...-garden-published-nutrient-list.161833/page-2

WOW! Thank you Yvonne for bringing my attentio back to this wonderful thread. There's far more in there than my rather feble intellect can absorb. A huge shout out to Will for his above and beyond efforts in assembling this thread. Valuable information. Thanks again.

 

[mark1]

Or it could be that they haven't eaten it… yet.

i don't doubt the dogs have never eaten it , they're more partial to stuff that moves ...... i'd have a hard time believing the r.p. manni haven't , i've yet to see something green they don't eat .......... i believe they use jasmine in making tea ?