# does romaine lettuce have any nutritional value for tortoises?



## iridedumped

does romaine lettuce have any nutritional value for tortoises?

what type of lettuce has the best nutritional value fortorts?

thanks


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## Jentortmom

Imo I wouldn't feed Romaine everyday as the main staple in the diet. It can be fed when mixed with other lettaces and such to give a variety. I use romaine, but I also use others as well. I usually buy spring mix, then add dandelion and another lettace chop it up small and mix with any other veggies I give. Spring mix, endive, escrole, collard greens, mustard greens, green leaf, red leaf are better choices, but variety is the key.


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## Crazy1

Here is a place you can get the nurtional value of quite a few foods. http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/
I used 100 gms of each: Alfalfa sprouts I put in to show the reverse cal. to phos. ratio and higher protien level. These are just a sample you really need to go to the site and compare all the nurtional values for yourself.
First number is water * then protien * then fiber *then calcium *last phosphorus, 
romain lettuce: 
94.61/g * 1.23/g * 2.1/g * 33/mg * 30/mg
Mustard Greens: 
90.80/g * 2.70/g * 3.3/g *103/mg * 43/mg
redleaf lettuce: 
95.64/g * 1.33/g * 0.9/g * 33/mg * 28/mg
collard Greens : 
90.55/g * 2.45/g * 3.6/g *145/mg * 10/mg 
Alfalfa sprouts: 
92.82/g * 3.99/g * 1.9/g * 32/mg * 70/mg


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## iridedumped

thats exactly what i needed. thanks crazy1.


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## richyrich777

To my knowledge romaine (or was it iceberg??) is not good for any pets such as reptiles, tortoises etc. Maybe I was just misinformed.


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## tortoisenerd

Iceberg is not good. Romaine is ok, but there are better options out there.


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## Millerlite

its all about variety


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## Madkins007

I like the site www.elook.org for nutrition values- it lists the vitamins, etc. in a consistent manner so you can easily compare them.

Based on the data, Romaine has almost nothing in it to make it better than Iceberg- both have low Ca ratios, are low in vitamins, etc. 

The thing is- there is nothing really wrong with Iceberg! (SHIELDS UP!) LET ME EXPLAIN!

While it is low in calcium, as a small part of a balanced diet, Iceberg offers bulk and nitrogen, a lot of water and not much fiber. I would use it as a LITTLE FILLER for grassland species, and a little more for forest species that can handle the water/low fiber. I would also make sure to offer good calcium whenever I offered ANY low-calcium greens.


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## Yvonne G

Madkins007 said:


> The thing is- there is nothing really wrong with Iceberg! (SHIELDS UP!) LET ME EXPLAIN!
> While it is low in calcium, as a small part of a balanced diet, Iceberg offers bulk and nitrogen, a lot of water and not much fiber. I would use it as a LITTLE FILLER for grassland species, and a little more for forest species that can handle the water/low fiber. I would also make sure to offer good calcium whenever I offered ANY low-calcium greens.



I think we all just got into the habit of stressing NOT to use iceburg lettuce because new tortoise keepers seem to zone in when you say "lettuce" and they think that its ok then to feed lettuce...and because its easy, they sometimes feed lettuce exclusively. I have to admit that I DO buy great big bags of iceburg lettuce with shredded carrots and cabbage and feed it to all my animals once a week. Have always done so and don't see any ill effects. However, I don't feed it exclusively. They get a wide variety of things to eat.

Yvonne


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## Crazy1

And as Yvonne and Madkins have stressed variety is the key. At least with with Desert type torts.  However I am always careful with hatchlings as you want to make sure they are recieving the very best nutrion that you can provide. So I stay away from Iceburg, kale, cabbage etc. I like to feed the hatchlings on things I grow for them like grape leaves, mulberry leaves, geramium, rose leaf and flowers, hibiscus, dandelions, wandering jew, winter time I do use organic spring mix without spinach and I have just got some new seeds in the mail to even increase the variety of their diet and mine.


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