# Quick question on edible flowers for sulcata



## KimandKarasi (May 19, 2012)

It says they can eat petunias, pansies, snapdragons and so forth, but u wasn't sure if that was just the flower or if they could eat leaves too like with hibiscus and roses?


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## yazzy1012 (May 19, 2012)

I know that my large male sulcata has a hard time eating the roses and hibiscus flowers because it's hard for him to pick the leaves up sometimes. He does enjoy them when he gets them though. I've never fed any other flowers, but those two.


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## rltwaddle (May 19, 2012)

Marigolds, my Russian loves them and the leaves


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## KimandKarasi (May 19, 2012)

yazzy1012 said:


> I know that my large male sulcata has a hard time eating the roses and hibiscus flowers because it's hard for him to pick the leaves up sometimes. He does enjoy them when he gets them though. I've never fed any other flowers, but those two.



I give hibiscus the most, but roses I haven't done much of because there are so many different types of roses ( knockout rosea, moss roses, regular roses, etc....). And thank you rltwaddle for the marigold suggestion! The only reason I'm asking about this is because I was going to plant them directly in her enclosure, and I didn't know if the levee were good for her (I know she'll chomp on whatever is in there  lol.)


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## Missy (May 19, 2012)

Mine love rose sharon blooms and leaves, clover blooms, violets, hosta blooms just to name a few.


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## yazzy1012 (May 19, 2012)

Kind of off subject as far as flowers, but my sulcata loves frozen chunks of pumpkin as a snack occasionally.


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## lynnedit (May 19, 2012)

And they can eat the leaves of all of the flowers mentioned. Sometimes leaving the flower with the leaves makes it easier for them to grasp. 
They love grape leaves (as in the vine)!


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## KimandKarasi (May 19, 2012)

In her enclosure I've planted a few petunias, a little hibiscus bush of her own, some sedum (i wasnt sure which sedum was okay, so I chose the hens and chicks or whatever its called like someone told me to.), and clover in a few spots (clover is her favorite so if this goes well i'll be doing more of those where I can.) along with bermuda grass seeds i planted all over, which wont be showing up until later.  I also have wheatgrass and little bluestern germinating as we speak for future planting  does this sound/ look good? 














also, if anyone can help on this subject, I bought a 4 pack of optuntia cacti, but it only gives me the name of one (Beavertail) and the others are unknown. I wasnt sure if she could have all of these just because they're optuntias? heres a few pics
[IMGhttp://i867.photobucket.com/albums/ab234/Amethyst1117/037-1.jpg[/IMG]





sorry, one pic messed up


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## lynnedit (May 20, 2012)

They can eat Optuntia cacti in general. Several tort sites sell 'spineless', which makes it easier for the owner! (One of the 4 looks like it has less spines).
Be sure to glove up when you handle them, and you can use something like a potato peeler to shave off the majority of the spines, although torts to seem to be able to handle them to some extent.


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## Tom (May 20, 2012)

When we talk about feeding them opuntia, we are usually talking about one of the spineless varieties. The one you have in the middle there, with just a few large spines, is a Chilean species. I pull those big spines off and feed them that one from time to time. I wouldn't even try to remove all those little spines from the other ones.


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## Laura (May 20, 2012)

even the spineless have some spines tho.. so use gloves! I would bother with the rest.. 
if you take that one pad.. cut it in half, let the ends dry out and then plant it.. you will have two plants
from one pad!


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## redbeef (May 21, 2012)

yeah, I'd agree w/tom & laura: don't bother w/the 'fluffy' spined ones, the little tiny thorns on those are irritating to the skin and I'd imagine they would do the same or worse to a tortoise's mouth and inside  you'd probably have to deskin the entire pad and rinse it off, which is a lot of work when there are better varieties to be had...

as an aside, if you get the little bristles in your skin from handling them, I've heard rubber cement applied to the skin is the best way to remove them: they're too tiny for most tweezers/eyes to remove.


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## KimandKarasi (May 21, 2012)

Someone said you could burn off the small spines, so I did, but my tortoise wouldn't eat it. Since this is a first time trying cactus I'm not sure if she just didn't like it or if she could smell the burnt spots and was turned off by that...


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