We have all seen patmans sig and picture of a fire breathing tortoises who ate a chile. The question is are they good or bad for your tortoises. Can they really taste the heat of the capsaicin ? Do you think the juice may burn the eyes?

I dont feed my tortoises chilies but some times they are available to me threw my produce supplier . Ive been avoiding them because I was worried about the juice burning the eyes. Let me know what you guys think. And post any information or links about it here.

RFBT, just my personal opinion but I wouldn't take the chance. Chilies are a member of the nightshade family (Solanaceae). Solanaceae species are often rich in alkaloids that can range in their toxicity to humans and animals from mildly irritating to fatal in small quantities. As we know members of the nightshade family can have toxic and non toxic parts. The family Solanaceae is also informally known as the nightshade or potato family. The family includes the Datura or Jimson weed, eggplant, bell peppers, mandrake, deadly nightshade or belladonna, capsicum (paprika, chili pepper), potato, tobacco, tomato, and petunia.
these definitions came from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile_pepper

Thanks for the info. They have eatin bell peppers and egg plants for years . I wonder if thsoe should be avoided too.

So pretty much you suggest to avoid them because of the alkaloids and not really the "heat" of peppers.

This is just my personal opinion but I do try to avoid anything in the Nightshade family. I have given my torts bell peppers ( didn't even know they were in that family) but now I just use it as a rule of thumb for my torts. I know lots of people feed their torts bell peppers and tomatoes I just decided it was something mine could live without and then I wouldn't be taking any chances.

Generally, the fruits of the plants are ok to eat...its the leaves of the tomato, egg plant, etc. that are toxic. You don't want to feed tomatos to hatchlings, tho' because of the acid in them.

As for the "heat" of the pepper...birds are way more fragile than tortoises, and red hot chilli peppers are fed to parrots all the time. Its a normal part of their diet in South America, where these food items are a staple.

Yvonne

thats a good point Yvonnie , that parrots love chillis.

The question came up becasue my produce guy gives me alot of differnt things and once he had a box of hot peppers and I didnt take it becasue I thought they might be to spicey. Next time they pop up I might threw some out and see if they like them .

The amount of capsaicin in peppers is highly variable and dependent on genetics, giving almost all types of peppers varied amounts of perceived heat. The only pepper without capsaicin is the bell pepper.

This site explains some of the info I had read about pain receptors and capsaicin. So Torts may not have these pain receptors and therefore have no adverse reaction to the capsaician. I have not found any info on Torts and their reactions to capsaicin at this time.
Here is just one site I visited.
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mchili.html