TortalAnarchy
New Member
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?
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?