# Spring Mix?



## Tiny Tim and Voldetort (Jul 21, 2017)

I am planning to get spring mix for my leopard tortoise hatchlings. 

I was wondering if they could eat everything in the mix

i googled what was in spring mix:

*What’s inside:*Baby Green Romaine Lettuce, Baby Red Romaine Lettuce, Tango Lettuce, Baby Green Oak Lettuce, Baby Red Oak Lettuce, Lolla Rosa, Baby Green Leaf Lettuce, Baby Red Leaf Lettuce, Baby Green Butter Lettuce, Baby Red Butter Lettuce, Red Swiss Chard, Mizuna, Tatsoi, Baby Spinach, Arugula, Frisee, Raddichio, Ingredients May Vary.

I only checked one of them which was arugula and it said to not feed to much or it might cause goiters or something....

So can I feed spring mix everyday to my tortoises or do i have to take out something everytime?


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## Tom (Jul 21, 2017)

Spring mix is okay once in a while, but not every day. Grocery store foods have four main issues:
1. They lack calcium.
2. They have a poor calcium to phosphorous ratio.
3. They lack fiber. This is especially true of the baby lettuces that make up spring mix.
4. Many are from the brassica family and contain high levels of goitrogins.

You need to learn to ID your local weeds and find safe, chemical free sources for them. In addition, there are several succulents that are good for leopard tortoises. If you must use grocery store foods, favor endive and escarole heavily, but use lots of variety.

Here is a thread I made for sulcatas. It also applies to leopards, but with less emphasis on grass. There is also a list of good foods.
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/for-those-who-have-a-young-sulcata.76744/


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## Tiny Tim and Voldetort (Jul 21, 2017)

Tom said:


> Spring mix is okay once in a while, but not every day. Grocery store foods have four main issues:
> 1. They lack calcium.
> 2. They have a poor calcium to phosphorous ratio.
> 3. They lack fiber. This is especially true of the baby lettuces that make up spring mix.
> ...


For calcium I have cuttlebones and stuff for them.. what else could I feed my backyard only has a few things growing cause we dont care for it


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## Tiny Tim and Voldetort (Jul 21, 2017)

Tom said:


> Spring mix is okay once in a while, but not every day. Grocery store foods have four main issues:
> 1. They lack calcium.
> 2. They have a poor calcium to phosphorous ratio.
> 3. They lack fiber. This is especially true of the baby lettuces that make up spring mix.
> ...


i mix hay into the veggies for fiber too... what veggies could i feed that aren't high in goitrogins?

Could I feed this big leaf plant? i dont know how to describe it but it look likes this


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## Tiny Tim and Voldetort (Jul 21, 2017)

I also dont have any of the weeds that you listed in your thread


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## Tiny Tim and Voldetort (Jul 21, 2017)

How much spring mix can I feed in a week?


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## RosemaryDW (Jul 21, 2017)

Hi Tim and welcome!

You can feed spring mix, as part of a varied diet. The emphasis is on *varied." *I don't think you need to worry about pulling anything out of it, so long as you are including othe foods that are high in calcium and fiber, as Tom mentioned.

Here is a looong list of information on foods, most of it put together by very experienced members of this forum. It's a ton of reading, for now you will probably want to focus on the section about grocery store foods that is under the first two links; I *bolded* the part that mentions *spring mix*, and the greens that go into it. Don't worry about learning all of this right now, just understand there are many options available to you. They will become easier to identify the longer you own your tortoise. You might think about adding Mazuri right now, it's a commercial food that can be mixed into other foods to ensure your tortoise is getting what it needs. You can do a search for Mazuri in this forum and find tons of posts.

For help id'ing the plants in your yard or elsewhere, please post your pictures and questions in the plant identification forum: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/forums/plant-identification.54/ That will give you the fastest response on safe plants.
___________________________

If you haven't already read it, check the Russian care sheet, it has a section on food near the bottom. There are also references to calcium and mineral supplements if that is something you need to include: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/russian-tortoise-care-sheet.80698/.

Tom already linked to this but there is another great list for foods that was written for another type of tortoise but if you skip the first bit about grass, all the foods below it are great for your Russian: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/for-those-who-have-a-young-sulcata.76744/.

You may need to rely on grocery store foods for now. Good foods for tortoises are "*chicories,*" types of lettuce that are likely to be on the far side of the more common floppy green heads of lettuce most people buy.* Anything labeled as simply "chicory" is good*, as are *radiccio, frisee, escarole, and endive; you might even find something labeled as dandelions.* *You may find a bag of "Spring" or "Spicy" mix that is good, just check the label to be sure it has some of the chicories I just mentioned. *The leaves (just the leaves) of turnips and radishes are also good, as are carrot tops. Collards, mustard greens, bok choy, and other dark, leafy greens are okay as well. If you have any kind of Mexican/hispanic market near you, they will sell cactus, labeled "nopales." Cactus is a great food to rotate in the diet, as it is high in calcium.

You don't need to feed all of these at one time, just make sure your tortoise is getting access to different types of food. As you get more experienced, you can find the better types of food listed on the care sheets.

Here are a whole bunch of non-grocery store suggestions.

Mulberry leaves
Grape vine leaves
Hibiscus leaves
African hibiscus leaves
Blue hibiscus leaves
Rose of Sharon leaves
Rose leaves
Geraniums
Gazanias
Nasturtium
Lavatera
Pansies
Petunias
Hostas
Honeysuckle
Cape honeysuckle
Leaves and blooms from any squash plant, like pumpkin, cucumber, summer squash, etc...
Young spineless opuntia cactus pads

Weeds:

There are soooooooo many...
Dandelion
Mallow
Filaree
Smooth Sow thistle
Prickly Sow thistle
Milk thistle
Goat head weed
Cats ear
Nettles
Trefoil
Wild onion
Wild mustard
Wild Garlic
Clovers
Broadleaf plantain
Narrow leaf plantain
Chick weed
Hawksbit
Hensbit
Hawksbeard

Other good stuff:

"Testudo Seed Mix" from http://www.tortoisesupply.com/SeedMixes

Pasture mixes or other seeds from http://www.groworganic.com/seeds.html

Homegrown alfalfa

Mazuri Tortoise Chow

ZooMed Grassland Tortoise Food


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## Tiny Tim and Voldetort (Jul 21, 2017)

RosemaryDW said:


> Hi Tim and welcome!
> 
> You can feed spring mix, as part of a varied diet. The emphasis is on *varied." *I don't think you need to worry about pulling anything out of it, so long as you are including othe foods that are high in calcium and fiber, as Tom mentioned.
> 
> ...



the thing is.. I dont have other veggies to feed i have hay and cuttle bone for calcium and fiber though


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## RosemaryDW (Jul 21, 2017)

Okay, I see you are in Hong Kong. There should be plenty of foods available to you to buy. We feed all kinds of Asian greens around here, when we can get them. Things that people eat there, we feed tortoises here!

I'm not sure the right words to describe stores and foods where you live. Do you have a market (market stall?) where they sell any kind of greens? 

I have access to Asian markets and can buy squash and yam leaves and stems, bok choy, celtuce, daikon leaves, all kinds of things! So tell us a little bit more about the markets around you.


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## Tiny Tim and Voldetort (Jul 21, 2017)

RosemaryDW said:


> Okay, I see you are in Hong Kong. There should be plenty of foods available to you to buy. We feed all kinds of Asian greens around here, when we can get them. Things that people eat there, we feed tortoises here!
> 
> I'm not sure the right words to describe stores and foods where you live. Do you have a market (market stall?) where they sell any kind of greens?
> 
> I have access to Asian markets and can buy squash and yam leaves and stems, bok choy, celtuce, daikon leaves, all kinds of things! So tell us a little bit more about the markets around you.


Ive seen somethung called heibei kale... can i feed that to my tortoise? I have a supermarket and a market stall to buy vegetables from. I checked the rest and there was water spinach, bok choy, indian lettuce, small chinese cabbage and loads of others that i couldnt remember since they were written im chinese. The vegetable stall has most of the same things but cheaper and they have more pumpkins and stuff.


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## Tiny Tim and Voldetort (Jul 21, 2017)

Tiny Tim and Voldetort said:


> Ive seen somethung called heibei kale... can i feed that to my tortoise? I have a supermarket and a market stall to buy vegetables from. I checked the rest and there was water spinach, bok choy, indian lettuce, small chinese cabbage and loads of others that i couldnt remember since they were written im chinese. The vegetable stall has most of the same things but cheaper and they have more pumpkins and stuff.


In chinese *


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## RosemaryDW (Jul 22, 2017)

Tiny Tim and Voldetort said:


> Ive seen somethung called heibei kale... can i feed that to my tortoise? I have a supermarket and a market stall to buy vegetables from. I checked the rest and there was water spinach, bok choy, indian lettuce, small chinese cabbage and loads of others that i couldnt remember since they were written im chinese. The vegetable stall has most of the same things but cheaper and they have more pumpkins and stuff.



Yes, you can feed water spinach, all the choys (there are so many!), Indian lettuce, and small Chinese cabbage. Heibei kale is not at all familiar to me! I'm going to post food pictures from my market in another post.


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## Tom (Jul 22, 2017)

Tiny Tim and Voldetort said:


> the thing is.. I dont have other veggies to feed i have hay and cuttle bone for calcium and fiber though



Nobody just has these things laying around. You have to go out into the world and find them from safe sources, or you have to grow them.

Grocery store foods by themselves are not very good at meeting your tortoises nutritional needs for the long term. Weeds grow everywhere in the world. Even in Hong Kong.

Use the variety of grocery store foods, grass hay and cuttle bone for now, but be looking for better stuff as you go along.


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## RosemaryDW (Jul 22, 2017)

Tom said:


> Grocery store foods by themselves are not very good at meeting your tortoises nutritional needs for the long term. Weeds grow everywhere in the world. Even in Hong Kong.



I think he's going to do quite well at local market stalls Tom. They are nothing like our grocery stores.

I'm not sure he's going to find many weeds in a city as densely populated as Hong Kong. Weeds grow in New York, but finding safe ones is surely difficult! Let me offer a few more options I think he will have.


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## RosemaryDW (Jul 22, 2017)

Here are some of the foods I took pictures of at my market this morning. There are many others to choose from but these are the ones I am most familiar with.




Squash stems and leaves; lots of fiber in these! Also calcium.




Pumpkin stems and leaves, more fiber and calcium!




Bittermelon stems and leaves, fiber and I'm pretty sure calcium as well.




Moringa, a good choice




Chinese lettuce, which you might also see as water spinach. This is a good one to buy for the stem, there is a lot of fiber in it.




Hmm, I'm not sure what this one is, mustard greens or some kind of cabbage. Either way, I feed it but not too often.




Purslane




One of the many varieties of choy they sell. It's a brassica (like the mustards and cabbages), so 




The leaves of daikon (just the leaves)




Turnip tops (just the leaves); good calcium in these!




Yam (sweet potato) leaves. It's got tons of fiber.





Green and red amaranth, only feed occasionally




Mustard greens





Sour leaf, may also be labeled gongura. This is in the mallow family and is a good choice.

Here are some foods I give my * Russian* have very occasionally; I might feed her a bite of two of these every month or so.




Winter squash, any kind




Okra




Bell pepper; I only offer this a couple of times a year




Long beans, perhaps half of one bean

This is what she'll get from the market this week: squash leaves, moringa, daikon leaves, mustard greens, and Chinese lettuce/water spinach. She'll get some weeds as well. 




Here are things she gets on occasion: long beans (or green beans); okra; cucumber; summer squas;, snap pea; carrot top; squash flowers.


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## RosemaryDW (Jul 22, 2017)

Oops, forgot one! Pennywort. 




You can feed methi (fenugreek) as well, but it's not growing in California right now.


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## RosemaryDW (Jul 22, 2017)

@Yvonne G, do we have any active members in China or Hong Kong who might have advice?


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## Tiny Tim and Voldetort (Jul 22, 2017)

Thanks! I will try to look out for those... theres a vegetable with thsse yellow flowers in it.. its pretty common could i feed those to them?


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## RosemaryDW (Jul 23, 2017)

Tiny Tim and Voldetort said:


> Thanks! I will try to look out for those... theres a vegetable with thsse yellow flowers in it.. its pretty common could i feed those to them?



It's probably some kind of broccoli. It's okay on occasion.

The thing with broccoli and several of the other plants I mentioned above is that they are in the "brassica" plant family. Like Tom mentioned above, brassicas are not something you want to be primary in a leopard's diet.

There were several brassicas in the list I gave you: the mustard, the choy, the radish leaves, the turnip tops, and the cabbag-y looking plant. It's not that they are "bad" foods, but they shouldn't be the majority of the diet. The water spinach and Indian lettuce you mentioned would be better suited to a leopard. I would feed those, keep looking for the other foods, and rotate one of the brassicas in and out. And of course, hay.


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## Tiny Tim and Voldetort (Jul 23, 2017)

RosemaryDW said:


> It's probably some kind of broccoli. It's okay on occasion.
> 
> The thing with broccoli and several of the other plants I mentioned above is that they are in the "brassica" plant family. Like Tom mentioned above, brassicas are not something you want to be primary in a leopard's diet.
> 
> There were several brassicas in the list I gave you: the mustard, the choy, the radish leaves, the turnip tops, and the cabbag-y looking plant. It's not that they are "bad" foods, but they shouldn't be the majority of the diet. The water spinach and Indian lettuce you mentioned would be better suited to a leopard. I would feed those, keep looking for the other foods, and rotate one of the brassicas in and out. And of course, hay.


okay! They come in really big bags and i dont wanna feed spinach to my tort all the time...could i mix it in some spring mix (no spinach) and feed it as a varied diet?


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## RosemaryDW (Jul 24, 2017)

They do come in big bags; you're right.

As the owner of a small tortoise, you have to make a decision. Are *you* going to start eating more lettuce or are you going to throw some away? Your tortoise can't eat all of it before it goes bad. 

You can use some spring but the diet needs to be more varied than that; it doesn't have enough calcium or fiber.

You've got some good options available to you at the market, you'll probably have to accept that some food will go to waste to feed your tortoise a more balanced diet.


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## Tiny Tim and Voldetort (Jul 25, 2017)

okay thanks!


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## Ruby bigley (Oct 10, 2022)

Tiny Tim and Voldetort said:


> I am planning to get spring mix for my leopard tortoise hatchlings.
> 
> I was wondering if they could eat everything in the mix
> 
> ...


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## Ruby bigley (Oct 10, 2022)

Tiny Tim and Voldetort said:


> I am planning to get spring mix for my leopard tortoise hatchlings.
> 
> I was wondering if they could eat everything in the mix
> 
> ...


I saw that photo what I uploaded before and most of them are in it but to be certain I would look through it also off the top of my head a good handful of them are fine


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