Store bought greens/food

kmloughran

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Well, just looking for more things to vary Mo's diet with. His main food has been Dandelion, Endive, romaine, and Mazuri. He gets some Kale, spring mix, and collared greens from time to time. I was wondering what else I could buy from the grocery store to feed him? Carrot greens? Raddish tops? Broccoli leaves? Arugula? We're always looking for new things to vary his diet, but it being winter, it's all store bought stuff for a while (especially until we get our new house and can set up his garden and greenhouse). Any more suggestions would be great! Thank you very much.

Kevin
 
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I'ᐯE ᗷEEᑎ ᖴEEᗪIᑎG ᗰIᑎE KᗩᒪE ᗩᑎᗪ ᑕOᒪᒪᗩᖇᗪ GᖇEEᑎᔕ EᐯEᖇY ᗪᗩY, Iᔕ TᕼᗩT ᗷᗩᗪ
 

cmacusa3

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I'ᐯE ᗷEEᑎ ᖴEEᗪIᑎG ᗰIᑎE KᗩᒪE ᗩᑎᗪ ᑕOᒪᒪᗩᖇᗪ GᖇEEᑎᔕ EᐯEᖇY ᗪᗩY, Iᔕ TᕼᗩT ᗷᗩᗪ
In your other thread you said you were only feeding lettuce. Either way you need more variety like was mentioned above by the original poster
 
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In your other thread you said you were only feeding lettuce. Either way you need more variety like was mentioned above by the original poster
i just recently started feeding these things do to the feed back from that post
 

Tom

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Well, just looking for more things to vary Mo's diet with. His main food has been Dandelion, Endive, romaine, and Mazuri. He gets some Kale, spring mix, and collared greens from time to time. I was wondering what else I could buy from the grocery store to feed him? Carrot greens? Raddish tops? Broccoli leaves? Arugula? We're always looking for new things to vary his diet, but it being winter, it's all store bought stuff for a while (especially until we get our new house and can set up his garden and greenhouse). Any more suggestions would be great! Thank you very much.

Kevin

Everything you mentioned there is good. In addition to the two that Lisa mentioned, also try celery tops, cilantro, turnip and mustard greens, and look for "nopales". These are spineless opuntia cactus pads. They are sold in Mexican grocery stores around here but some "ethnic" grocery stores will carry them too. Asian stores often sell squash leaves or sunflower leaves and other novel greens too.

One of the main problems with grocery store foods is that they lack fiber. You can amend this problem in one or more ways:
-Buy the little grass plots sold at grocery stores and pet stores. Cut some of the top and let it fall on pre-wetted greens and then mix it all up. If you keep the plots watered and in a window sill, you should get 8 or 9 cuttings from each plot. Have several plots and your tortoise will always have some grass in the diet for fiber.
-Soaked ZooMed Grassland tortoise chow. Start with just a little and mix it all up with the day's greens.
-Blended and re-hydrated grass hay mixed in with the day's greens.
-Herbal hay. http://www.tortoisesupply.com/HerbalHay
 

kmloughran

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Everything you mentioned there is good. In addition to the two that Lisa mentioned, also try celery tops, cilantro, turnip and mustard greens, and look for "nopales". These are spineless opuntia cactus pads. They are sold in Mexican grocery stores around here but some "ethnic" grocery stores will carry them too. Asian stores often sell squash leaves or sunflower leaves and other novel greens too.

One of the main problems with grocery store foods is that they lack fiber. You can amend this problem in one or more ways:
-Buy the little grass plots sold at grocery stores and pet stores. Cut some of the top and let it fall on pre-wetted greens and then mix it all up. If you keep the plots watered and in a window sill, you should get 8 or 9 cuttings from each plot. Have several plots and your tortoise will always have some grass in the diet for fiber.
-Soaked ZooMed Grassland tortoise chow. Start with just a little and mix it all up with the day's greens.
-Blended and re-hydrated grass hay mixed in with the day's greens.
-Herbal hay. http://www.tortoisesupply.com/HerbalHay
Thanks for all the additional tips! I've tried grass, but not with the delivery method you suggested, will give it a shot. He likes the cactus, but he's so little and the mexican market only sells it in 4 packs, so it seems wasteful, will come back to it when he's bigger.

Thanks again to all for the suggestions.
 

SarahChelonoidis

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I'd recommend planting your excess cactus pads - they're very easy to get to root and then you'll always have fresh on hand. I manage to keep them alive indoors even.
 

Tom

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Thanks for all the additional tips! I've tried grass, but not with the delivery method you suggested, will give it a shot. He likes the cactus, but he's so little and the mexican market only sells it in 4 packs, so it seems wasteful, will come back to it when he's bigger.

Thanks again to all for the suggestions.

In addition to what Sarah said, if you lay the pads out flat somewhere with good ventilation they will last for many months. I've left pads sitting in the shade outside for 9-10 months and then either fed them out, or planted them. The pads do not last in a fridge with high humidity and no ventilation and they don't last when they are flat up against each other in a box like files in a filing cabinet.
 

KevinGG

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Will sells the dried cactus pads as well. The tortoises seem to like them.
 

Yvonne G

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In addition to what Sarah said, if you lay the pads out flat somewhere with good ventilation they will last for many months. I've left pads sitting in the shade outside for 9-10 months and then either fed them out, or planted them. The pads do not last in a fridge with high humidity and no ventilation and they don't last when they are flat up against each other in a box like files in a filing cabinet.

The Walmart in my neighborhood sells "Nopalitas". It's opuntia cut up into tiny squares. I'm curious if any of that would grow. I'll try it next time I buy it.
 

TerrapinStation

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For grass, we just planted some all natural grass seed from the hardware store in our leos home and when it grows he eats the heck out of it. When it is gone we just plant more!

A 2 lb bag was only a few dollars and lasts a long time.
 

Tom

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For grass, we just planted some all natural grass seed from the hardware store in our leos home and when it grows he eats the heck out of it. When it is gone we just plant more!

A 2 lb bag was only a few dollars and lasts a long time.

Most hardware store grass seed has all sorts of weird additives in it. I would not use that. If yours does not, that is great, but most of it does.

Instead, I recommend this stuff:
https://www.groworganic.com/premium-horse-pasture-mix-irrigation.html
It is intended to be eaten by animals, and I've been using it for years. I've done side-by-side growth comparisons several times over several years, and this grass seed outperforms everything else by a factor of two or three times. I can't explain why. Maybe it just likes my soil or water better than other seeds...
 

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