Prickly Pear Cactus Questions.

[-steph-]

My Egyptian Tortoise is coming soon (yippie!!!) and I have a few questions about cactus. I'm lucky enough to have some growing in my front yard and I'm excited to finally find a use for the blasted stuff. How do you prepare it? Do you just pick the spines off and give it a rinse or do you have to do something else? Also, how often do you feed this stuff to your tortoises? Is it something that can be fed daily, once or twice a week, or what?

One more question. Because my little guy is going to be so, well, little, I was wondering if it's ok to feed him just part of a pad and store the rest in the fridge or would that negatively affect it?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Tom]

I either singe the tiny spines off with an open flame or rub the spines off with heavy rubber gloves under running water. Or both. I feed it once or twice a week usually. With my sulcata hatchlings, I would just give them part of a whole pad and let them bite chunks out of it. I tried finely chopping it, but that just makes a slimy mess. The pads will last a long time, just out in the open air, so in the fridge, they should last forever. I've let pads sit for six months (procrastination) and then they grew like weeds when I put them in the ground.

 

[Terry Allan Hall]

My 4.5" E. Hermann's and 5.25" Iberian each get half of a 10" pad 2 to 3X a week...depending on the size/age of your Egyption, he/she'll likely eat, at most, half as much and maybe less.

I'd start off w/ 1" squares and see how many squares get munchified at a feeding...might be amazed at the little booger's appetite!

 

[teq1]

I have two types of cactus in our back yard. One has spines and the other instead of spines they have these little flimsy stick things. My mom says there's spines underneath the flimsy thing but I've never been poked

Either way, I remove everything off the pad with a knife. I cut off about 1/4 of an inch from the bottom, same on top, and then just put the pad down and just run the knife across the pad to cut off everything. I have 3 egyptians. For the two oldest egyptians, I give them cactus more frequently because they LOVE it. I'll either cut it into strips or into little squares. The other egyptian, a 1 month old , enjoys it also but not as much as the others. He gets fed cactus maybe 2 or 3 times a week. I usually chop it up really fine, but it does become a slimy mess. I do that or just cut a thin strip from the cactus and leave it there for the tort to munch on

 

[tortoisenerd]

I only got a cactus pad to last a few weeks in the fridge, cutting the bottom off every few days to chop and feed, and keeping it dry (changing paper towels when I'd cut some off of it) and in a plastic baggie. I will feed a tiny bit a day (like half a teaspoon for a 4 inch Russian) when I have it in the house and then not feed it for a month or whatever (I buy a small pad at a time for 50 cents or whatever). I cut the spines off and chop it and put the chunks in the lid of a baby food jar for my tort. That way the mess is contained (I do the same with canned pumpkin and butternut squash treats). Works wonders that lid does. I used to have more messy food on the tort than in his tummy! I chop stuff like that because otherwise my tort will take giant bites and scare me with the chocking hazard. Depends on the tort whether you need to chop it--same with most foods--put it in and see how they do with it.

 

[PeanutbuttER]

I've tried giving it to them whole, but later decided that I prefered to just cut it into thin strips. The strips don't become a big slimy mess like the little chunks do. Plus, it's long enough that the torts can "grab" it with their feet while they're eating and rip bite after bite off of it.

 

[sammi]

Is there a certain species that should not eat too much prickly pear cactus? Can it cause diarrhea? (Ernie is a Russian by the way)

 

[Tom]

In my experience, I haven't noticed any species any more "sensitive" than any other. I f you start with small amounts once or twice a week and get them used to it slowly, over a period of weeks, it shouldn't cause any digestive problems at all. Same as any other new food.