# Bonsai Tree?



## erniethetortoise (Jan 25, 2018)

If I were to put a small bonsai tree in my tortoises enclosure would it be okay if he were to eat some of the leaves and is it okay to even have it in his enclosure?


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## JaVan (Jan 25, 2018)

Yes, it really depends on what the tree is, from what I know oak leafs aren't good for tortoises, just to add on if it has fruit on it, make sure your tortoise can eat fruit.


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## wellington (Jan 25, 2018)

It would have to be a tort safe tree.


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## Maro2Bear (Jan 25, 2018)

Greetings

And welcome to the Forum. A few questions.. how large of an enclosure, what kind of Tortoise (size, age) and what kind of Bonsai are we talking?

Some pictures of your current enclosure will help as well.


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## erniethetortoise (Jan 25, 2018)

First of all i have a hermann tortoise, only 4 months and the type of bonsai tree i was asking about would be the juniper bonsai tree


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## JaVan (Jan 25, 2018)

erniethetortoise said:


> First of all i have a hermann tortoise, only 4 months and the type of bonsai tree i was asking about would be the juniper bonsai tree


Yes that should be good I'm not fully sure but I think it would be fine, make sure you don't but fertilizer in there because your tort might eat it...


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## Bambam1989 (Jan 25, 2018)

JaVan said:


> Yes that should be good I'm not fully sure but I think it would be fine, make sure you don't but fertilizer in there because your tort might eat it...


I disagree. Juniper has diuretic properties, in large amounts can cause kidney damage. Also contains methanol, and dichloromethane, and all parts should be avoided.


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## JaVan (Jan 26, 2018)

Bambam1989 said:


> I disagree. Juniper has diuretic properties, in large amounts can cause kidney damage. Also contains methanol, and dichloromethane, and all parts should be avoided.


Good point!


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## Travick (Jul 25, 2018)

I bought today chinese elm bonsai to my tortoise's enclosure. Hope he likes the idea.  I'm just not sure if it can stand high humidity conditions.


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## Hugo's Home (Jul 26, 2018)

Travick said:


> I bought today chinese elm bonsai to my tortoise's enclosure. Hope he likes the idea.  I'm just not sure if it can stand high humidity conditions.


Chinese elm will survive almost anthing! No water, tons of water, cut the darn thing down to a stump and it'll still grow back!


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## Travick (Jul 26, 2018)

Hugo's Home said:


> Chinese elm will survive almost anthing! No water, tons of water, cut the darn thing down to a stump and it'll still grow back!



Thanks, I was thinking to wait few days as it includes repotting, cutting, etc but now I'm pretty confident to install tomorrow.


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## Pastel Tortie (Aug 5, 2018)

To keep the bonsai remaining a bonsai (instead of reverting to a full size tree), it should ideally stay in its own small pot, which will need to be watered individually (and possibly frequently, depending its resident environmental conditions). Also, it will need to be removed from the enclosure periodically (yearly?) for repotting and other bonsai maintenance.

Unless specifically grown as an indoor bonsai, they usually need regular sun exposure and frequent water outdoors. If it's for an inside enclosure, it might help to have another plant or two (bonsai or otherwise) so you can rotate them out (outside) to keep them in good condition.

I love the look of bonsai. They're beautiful, and I entertain the idea, off and on, of biting off such a project. I've gotten far enough to have a couple books about bonsai on my bookshelf, but no tools, specimens, or works in progress, at least so far.

I love the idea of a bonsai in my box turtle enclosure, but I'm not sure if I would actually implement it or not. (Sometimes I'm prone to over-thinking things, and it often takes a while for me to get around to actually *doing* something... like actually registering on the forum!). 

Please keep us updated. I'm interested to see how your bonsai + tortoise experiment goes. 

My only other advice right now is not to let your tortoise have full artistic license or be in charge of the bonsai tree trimming and training.


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## Travick (Aug 16, 2018)

I repotted bonsai from original plastic pot to rectangle ceramic bonsai pot, but I found out the new pot is smaller and tree did have overgrown roots anyway so I needed to trim them a lot, which was very scary. But the tree apart of yellowing and dropping few leaves daily is in life and grow new leaves too. I placed it into the outter enclosure, where I give tortoise 1-2 hours on a sunny "exploring" days to get some vit D. Tort likes the tree. Looks up and watching tree's shadows playing on his head. Sometimes nibbles some leaves and eat them. Every 2-3 days I cut small branch, tear off bottom leaves and stick into the inner enclosure, where leaves actually disappears after some time of random crawling. Actually elm leaves when "bonsaized" has compared to real tree quite thick leaves so I believe they are tasty and nutritious for tort, but not the favourite leaves.


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## Cowboy_Ken (Aug 16, 2018)

I miss Chinese elm trees. I’m up in the middle of Oregon and I never see them here like I did in so. Cal. Where I was hatched.


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