- Joined
- Nov 7, 2012
- Messages
- 5,173
- Location (City and/or State)
- South of Southern California, but not Mexico
A daily 'small tortoises' prep of salad includes enough to fill a 2 foot by 3 foot cement mixing tray. Another salad is made for outdoor Manouria, and a third for 'medium' sized tortoises (large redfoots, teen Manouria, and Forsten's).
This (the picture) is for the 'small' tortoises, under four pounds. This particular day included 15 heads or green leaf lettuce (top 3/4 of each leaf), 2.5 pound of spring mix, 2 cups of chopped grape leaves, 2 cups of chopped fresh hibiscus flowers, 2 cups of moistened ZooMed Forest tortoise food, two cups of dried loose leaf moringa, 2 cups of grated green summer squash, and about one cup of grated sweet potato.
The outdoor Manouria got six heads of green leaf, 8 green summer squash - ripple cut, a whole sweet - potato ripple cut, two frozen bananas - ripple cut and then thawed, two cups of whole green beans, two large opuntia pads - ripple cut, two cups of layer crumbles. The banana and opuntia make the layer crumbles stick to everything else.
The medium size tortoises get the bottom 1/4 of each head of green leaf lettuce. Half a sweet potato - fries cut, four green summer squash - fries cut, a single banana - fries cut, and a smaller whole opuntia - fries cut, 1/2 cup green beans, half cup of okra, 1/2 cup of layer crumbles, 1 cup of moringa, and any small tortoise diet that is not already fed out.
Total prep time about a hour, feed out time about an hour. When you do something frequently you can get pretty quick. Some days the time is more limited. Frozen - thawed gel diet can be a great time saver if made ahead.
This (the picture) is for the 'small' tortoises, under four pounds. This particular day included 15 heads or green leaf lettuce (top 3/4 of each leaf), 2.5 pound of spring mix, 2 cups of chopped grape leaves, 2 cups of chopped fresh hibiscus flowers, 2 cups of moistened ZooMed Forest tortoise food, two cups of dried loose leaf moringa, 2 cups of grated green summer squash, and about one cup of grated sweet potato.
The outdoor Manouria got six heads of green leaf, 8 green summer squash - ripple cut, a whole sweet - potato ripple cut, two frozen bananas - ripple cut and then thawed, two cups of whole green beans, two large opuntia pads - ripple cut, two cups of layer crumbles. The banana and opuntia make the layer crumbles stick to everything else.
The medium size tortoises get the bottom 1/4 of each head of green leaf lettuce. Half a sweet potato - fries cut, four green summer squash - fries cut, a single banana - fries cut, and a smaller whole opuntia - fries cut, 1/2 cup green beans, half cup of okra, 1/2 cup of layer crumbles, 1 cup of moringa, and any small tortoise diet that is not already fed out.
Total prep time about a hour, feed out time about an hour. When you do something frequently you can get pretty quick. Some days the time is more limited. Frozen - thawed gel diet can be a great time saver if made ahead.