Georgiamai
New Member
Okay thank you so much! I have a grape vine and never knew they could have the leaves, unfortunately we tried rocket but he wasn't having any of it but I'm more than happy to grow some plants now that I know what to look out for! And as you said I'll have to introduce slowly as he can be picky!Best to grow your own from seed, or from cuttings of long established plants.
Look for weeds growing nearby, and use a local nursery for ID help. Also look for mulberry trees and grapevine leaves.
You can use grocery store greens if you must, but favor curly endive, escarole, arugula (aka: rocket in the UK), and a wide variety of others. The grocery store foods must be amended to add fiber and variety. ZooMed makes a "flower topper" product that you can sprinkle on and mix in, and they also make a Grassland and forest tortoise pellet that you can soak and mix in. All are good and available in the UK. You also have Komodo pellets over there. From What I've read, those are another way to improve the quality of grocery store greens.
All fo these new things will be met with some resistance by your tortoise at first. Start any new food with tiny amounts mixed in with old favorites. The introduction process of new foods can take weeks or months in some cases. Be persistent. It is worth the effort.
As for substrates I have read your information page and wanted to get some bark chips to retain more moisture in the enclosure, I'm guessing as you mentioned to avoid any such as Repti Bark and ProRep?