What native Florida plants can Russian Tortoises eat?
- Thread starter Deontae
- Start date
saleena.lewis
Active Member
I'm not from florida so i don't really know any native plants there but if you go to the hardware shop you could buy hibiscus plants and spider plants the torts seem to love those. Some ferns work well too. If you download the app The Tortoise Table, there are a lot of plants on there that you can see if they are safe or not.
Alright thanks I’ll check it out
All kinds of stuff grows natural there in Florida. Grass, dandelion, hibiscus, grape leaves. Pretty much a never ending supply of good weeds.
Thanks for the help
Welcome! For native plants start here: https://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/wildlife/gopher-tortoise/help/plant-guide/ and pick your area of Florida from the map on the bottom of the page. A list of foods native to your area for (native) gopher tortoises will come up.
Your Russian won’t eat grass but check out the leaves, vines, and weeds sections. Most of the stuff there is okay, but you should come back and do a search for it here to double check (just search for the plant name). Don’t feed dock or ragweed. Florida Pulsey is also on that list. It seems to be very common but we’ve never determined (that I know of) if it’s safe or not for Russians so I’d skip it.
Your Russian won’t eat grass but check out the leaves, vines, and weeds sections. Most of the stuff there is okay, but you should come back and do a search for it here to double check (just search for the plant name). Don’t feed dock or ragweed. Florida Pulsey is also on that list. It seems to be very common but we’ve never determined (that I know of) if it’s safe or not for Russians so I’d skip it.
Longer than one day.
Every tortoise is different but when you’ve moved a tiny animal that spends all of its life hiding from predators, you shouldn’t expect to see them eat for at least a few days. Could be longer. Try not to worry about it too much; they don’t need food the way mammals do. Make sure he’s got the right setup in terms of light and temperature, be sure he’s hydrated, then set out some food and leave him alone. No one wants to eat when they are being watched!
Truly, the most important thing to focus on right now is the setup. If that’s not right in the long term, nothing else matters.
