How to Get Started Foraging for Weeds and Grass in Phoenix?

TortalAnarchy

New Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2020
Messages
3
Location (City and/or State)
Arizona
Hey! I'm a new tort caretaker. I took on a friend's yearling sulcata tort recently and I've been using these forums a lot for research every day. Thanks a lot to all the contributors and admins for maintaining all this knowledge.

My yearling tort has been eating timothy hay, romaine lettuce, and eco earth box turtle pellets, at the previous owner and a local reptile store worker's recommendation, but after checking this against what's recommended on the forums I decided I'm not very happy with this and I want to reduce or cut the romaine, swap the box turtle pellets for Mazuri pellets, and add a variety of fresh grasses and greens.

I want to gather some fresh grasses and greens locally. I have the fantastic lists of plants that a sulcata can eat in the stickied posts and the tortoisetable.org.uk database and I'm excited to walk around my neighborhood and gather food for the tort, but I've never identified plants before and I'm not sure where to start with identifying the plants in my neighborhood. Grass is easy enough, but what are some common kinds of weeds, trees, and flowers I should learn to recognize first?

My other big concern: there are a lot of lawns and a park nearby, but I'm really worried about gathering grass, weeds, and flowers when there could be pesticides and herbicides on them that could hurt the tort. If I cut some grass from a local yard, would rinsing it with water in the sink be enough to make it safe for the tort to eat? If not, what are some areas where I could be positive that the plants haven't been sprayed with toxic substances?
 

KarenSoCal

Well-Known Member
Tortoise Club
5 Year Member
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jul 8, 2017
Messages
5,750
Location (City and/or State)
Low desert 50 mi SE of Palm Springs CA
Hi, and welcome to TFO!

You are headed in the right direction with lowering the romaine. Adding Mazuri is also good. Try to find the original formula Mazuri. The new one is called Mazuri LS and many torts won't eat it. You want plain Mazuri.

ID'ing plants and weeds is sometimes a challenge, but you have help. There are 2 apps members use: Plant Snap and Picture This. Try them and see what works best for you. Here in CA we have a web site put out by the state of plants and weeds that are native to here. Possibly AZ has one too.

If all that fails to ID your weed, there is a thread here for Plant Identification. Post a picture of your plant and we have people who are very good at ID.

Parks and other maintained places almost always use weed killers and bug killers. Not good places to look. Empty lots, in woods, or just out in the desert is where to go. And check out friends' and neighbors' houses. Ask if they use any chemicals or sprays. Plain fertilizer is ok, as long as it didn't contain anything else.

Rinsing does not help...the chemical goes up from the root into the leaves. You can get seeds for a lot of tort safe plants, or take a cutting from an established plant. Let it grow for a year before feeding to be sure all the chemical is gone, if the mother plant had chemicals used on it.

You can also order seeds from online suppliers. I recommend Tortoise Supply. The owner is a member here. www.tortoisesupply.com
Another is Will of @Kapidolo Farms . He has all sorts of dried foods, flowers, a bunch of stuff. Will is also a member here.
www.kapidolofarms.com
 

TortalAnarchy

New Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2020
Messages
3
Location (City and/or State)
Arizona
Thanks so much Karen, this is a huge help!

I went around my neighborhood today and gathered some plants and tried using both of those apps. Unfortunately neither of them worked so well and both had really limited features unless I signed up or paid for the service or something, but I managed to ID a few plants and I got to know the area a little better. I covered a lot of ground and I realized it's going to be really difficult to find a suitable area to gather some food just wandering around. I think I'll try using google maps to scout out the nearest deserted area I can find, then travel there. Once I do that, I'll start taking pictures and get some help from the plant ID thread.

I saw some beautiful, overgrown yards with grass pushing through fences that's over 2 feet long. That looks extremely promising, like they haven't sprayed in years (or ever), but I'm not willing to take even the smallest chance. I'd go and knock on doors if there wasn't a pandemic going on. It's a real shame because there were a lot of prickly pears in people's yards and I would've loved to harvest a few pads for the tort.
 

TortalAnarchy

New Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2020
Messages
3
Location (City and/or State)
Arizona
Hopefully you can find someone with spineless opuntia. Saves a lot of ouches and scraping.
I saw a video where someone used a potato peeler to root out the spines. It looked really easy but I'm sure I'd find a way to injure myself ?
 
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