Weeds only diet & perlite

[mstodd]

Hi everyone,

I recently acquired a russian tortoise and I have a few questions about his diet. Right now, he is being a fed a mixture of grocery greens- kale, romaine lettuce, collard greens, turnips greens, and one more than I forget the name of. I create a different salad mixture every morning for him, topped with a little calcium powder.

On Saturday, my order of Russian tortoise seed mix arrived. I planted it in organic soil containing perlite (outside of George's enclosure). Never having grown anything before, I didn't know what the perlite was until after planting the weeds and thinking the white balls looked funny.

Question 1: Is it safe to feed George these weeds, having grown them in perlite?

Question 2: Do you think once I have enough weeds growing (in or out of perlite) I should feed him just weeds, or continue to give a mix of grocery greens with the weeds too?

Thank you in advance for your help!

~Mindy

 

[GBtortoises]

Perlite is a type of porous rock and is used in agriculture for air and water retention in the soil. It is an inert mineral so does not contribute any chemicals to the soil. It's perfectly safe to grow tortoise foods in soil containing perlite. But the perlite should not be consumed by tortoises because it is essentially and abrasive material that is not digestable. As long as plant crowns and roots that may be fed to your tortoises are rinsed of any soil there should be no concern with the tortoises ingesting any.

Unless you have many, many dozen weeds growning at different stages it's doubtful that you're going to be able to keep up with your tortoise's consumption rate of them! There's nothing wrong with feeding grocery store greens as either a partial or complete diet. Whether it's weeds, market greens or a combination the key is to feed quality and variety.

 

[Tom]

You heard it from the best. Nothing to add.

 

[mstodd]

Perlite is a type of porous rock and is used in agriculture for air and water retention in the soil. It is an inert mineral so does not contribute any chemicals to the soil. It's perfectly safe to grow tortoise foods in soil containing perlite. But the perlite should not be consumed by tortoises because it is essentially and abrasive material that is not digestable. As long as plant crowns and roots that may be fed to your tortoises are rinsed of any soil there should be no concern with the tortoises ingesting any.

Unless you have many, many dozen weeds growning at different stages it's doubtful that you're going to be able to keep up with your tortoise's consumption rate of them! There's nothing wrong with feeding grocery store greens as either a partial or complete diet. Whether it's weeds, market greens or a combination the key is to feed quality and variety.

Thank you so much. Very thorough and helpful