# hens and chicks plant



## jamb365 (Jul 5, 2011)

hey there i have a ornate box turtle that ive just discoverd isnt a russian tortoise like i was told when i bought him.
anyways im trying to figure out if the plants i planted in the table i built will still work.
i have planted aloe, hens and chicks and a small thornless blackberry bush


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## River14 (Jul 5, 2011)

Ya it will all work for cover. Now you have to change its diet completely.


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## ascott (Jul 5, 2011)

Oh my, surprise huh.... well now you will gain the experience for the ornate....


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## dmmj (Jul 5, 2011)

In my experience box turtles are not big greens eaters, that of course will vary but that has been my experience, the one that your box will most likely get the most use out of is the blackberry bush, mine love blackberries especially home grown.


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## jamb365 (Jul 5, 2011)

River14 said:


> Ya it will all work for cover. Now you have to change its diet completely.





ya the guy i got him from didnt know what he was doing im pretty sure. cause he told me it was a russian then he told be the diet he was on and thats what started me thinking it wasnt a russian. after i looked at some pictures of the 2 tortoises ya it was pretty clear.

was also wondering if how much substrate should be on his table and if he should have a bigger pool he seems to like to walk around and hang out in it


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## Edna (Jul 6, 2011)

Sorry you were mis-lead, but of course you'll be just as happy with your ornate..... From the title of your thread I thought we were going to discuss Sempervivums, which I just love. I just bought a couple of a new (to me) variety and am looking forward to the day when each is a good-sized plant. I tried Hens-n-chicks in my enclosure with my original Hermanns tort and he ate little bites from the leaves, not good for such a slow-growing little plant.


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## Jacqui (Jul 6, 2011)

dmmj said:


> In my experience box turtles are not big greens eaters, that of course will vary but that has been my experience, the one that your box will most likely get the most use out of is the blackberry bush, mine love blackberries especially home grown.


 Reminded me of an experience years back I had with my Ornate group. My Ornates (there are seven out in this enclosure) never do any noticeable grazing on their plants. I mean, yeah they eat the strawberries when ripe and stuff like that, but plants are "safe" in their enclosure.

This day, I was trying to start some new plants in the Russian enclosure. This was when I first started really working to have a variety of plants in each enclosure. I planted both a huge bunch of hens and chicks and a couple of large hostas. I went inside for less then five minutes. Came out and the plants where totally eaten down to roots. I was a bit ticked, but it was okay. I had save the best hosta for the box turtle enclosure. It'll be safe in there, they eat nothing. So I planted it and left knowing it was safe. A short while later my husband and I were making rounds and I told him about how the Russians were like a swarm of locust eating everything. Then I proudly told him how I had planted my favorite hosta safely with the Ornates. Saying that, I turned to point it out to him. To my surprise, there was one of my females just chowing away on the hosta.  In the end she didn't eat much and since then I have not saw signs of the turtles eating on that hosta or any of the others planted in there.


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## Angi (Jul 6, 2011)

My boxie doesn't eat any of her plants. She just digs them up.


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## terryo (Jul 6, 2011)

In the Spring when the new shoots start coming up and the worms and bugs are scarce, my Ornate would eat the small Hosta shoots that were coming up. That is the only time I ever saw her eat plants.
I usually make a mix in the blender. This weeks mix was escarole, grape leaves, dandelion leaves, sweet potato, carrots, cantaloupe, and strawberries. I also put two eggs, shell and all in. Blend everything up. I add this mix to ground venison (if I don't have the fresh ground, I use Wellness canned Venison for dogs) Mix everything up. I feed this to my box turtles, and they love it. Once every two weeks I will feed this to my Cherry Heads.


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## mike22 (Jul 7, 2011)

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