I have been using a mixture of ingredients I put on top of their greens for some time now. I used to frequently put moistened Mazuri or Rep Cal on top as I tended to not just feed those things by themselves. It evolved into a mixture I came up with to try to be sure all the right vitamins, minerals, fiber, calcium, etc. was getting to them and they weren't able to pick the things they liked. I also cannot grow enough weeds and flowers, and grape leaves, year-round to keep up with the tortoises. So I do resort to produce. Although I most always can mix with weeds, etc, This time year, I end up with a lot of produce as the major part of the greens. Even though I go with endive, escarole, dandelion, kale, Green leaf, Romaine as the mix, I wanted to balance out the diet with the "right" stuff and get much more fiber, and ensure the right calcium / phosphorus ratios, etc, etc, etc.
I actually took a lot of this idea from a thread about 4 year ago or so by @DeanS he called Tortoise Meatballs.
So, here's what I've ended up with. This is normally served on top of their greens. Most of the year that is a mix of weeds, Grape leaves, petunia, gazania, hibiscus, coleus, and whatever else I can get growing in the yard.
Since a few have asked for what I do for this "salad dressing" I went ahead and took pictures as I made today's batch.
I start with these two 2 cup measuring cups, heaping with Mazuri. One of them has 1 cup of Rep Cal Tortoise food with the rest filled with Mazuri.
I pout this into a LARGE bowl and add 3 of these cups totally full - so about 7-8 cups of water.
I let this sit while I prepare the hay and cactus so the pellets become soft.
Next, I use a blender to chop up timothy hay or orchard grass hay. Today was Timothy Hay. I pack iti in well, and it is cut up pretty good, so that is really a lot of hay in there. 4 cups of this hay.
I now throw in 2 cups of tortoisesupply's herbal hay just to get a good mix of all types of natural forage.
Now I take about 3 oputina cactus pads. That's normally about 1 1/4 - 1 1/13 lbs of opuntia.
I grate that up in a food processor. It makes about 3-4 cups.
Now I just mix it thoroughly by hand...
That normally makes about 6 1/2 - 7 lbs. Since I use about as pound every day, it lasts me a week kept in the tortoise refrigerator in a Tupperware container.
The pellet food gives great vitamin and mineral balance - like their one-a-day vitamin! The oputia dramatically adds all the calcium they could use, and totally outweighs any phosphorus or oxalates any of the greens that day may contain. The tremendous amount of hay adds an extremely high fiber content to the mix, and gets even very young tortoises a lot of hay in their diet.
Here's a feeding a few months ago, with some topping spring mix. Spring mix would normally make me feel like I was feeding them 'junk food" quite deficient in many areas, but with the salad dressing - it is a great balance meal.
And here's a few days ago, with a mix of escarole, romaine, dandelion, and kale for the greens.
It's amazing how much food they put away! That whole pile will be totally gone by the next morning.
I actually took a lot of this idea from a thread about 4 year ago or so by @DeanS he called Tortoise Meatballs.
So, here's what I've ended up with. This is normally served on top of their greens. Most of the year that is a mix of weeds, Grape leaves, petunia, gazania, hibiscus, coleus, and whatever else I can get growing in the yard.
Since a few have asked for what I do for this "salad dressing" I went ahead and took pictures as I made today's batch.
I start with these two 2 cup measuring cups, heaping with Mazuri. One of them has 1 cup of Rep Cal Tortoise food with the rest filled with Mazuri.
I pout this into a LARGE bowl and add 3 of these cups totally full - so about 7-8 cups of water.
I let this sit while I prepare the hay and cactus so the pellets become soft.
Next, I use a blender to chop up timothy hay or orchard grass hay. Today was Timothy Hay. I pack iti in well, and it is cut up pretty good, so that is really a lot of hay in there. 4 cups of this hay.
I now throw in 2 cups of tortoisesupply's herbal hay just to get a good mix of all types of natural forage.
Now I take about 3 oputina cactus pads. That's normally about 1 1/4 - 1 1/13 lbs of opuntia.
I grate that up in a food processor. It makes about 3-4 cups.
Now I just mix it thoroughly by hand...
That normally makes about 6 1/2 - 7 lbs. Since I use about as pound every day, it lasts me a week kept in the tortoise refrigerator in a Tupperware container.
The pellet food gives great vitamin and mineral balance - like their one-a-day vitamin! The oputia dramatically adds all the calcium they could use, and totally outweighs any phosphorus or oxalates any of the greens that day may contain. The tremendous amount of hay adds an extremely high fiber content to the mix, and gets even very young tortoises a lot of hay in their diet.
Here's a feeding a few months ago, with some topping spring mix. Spring mix would normally make me feel like I was feeding them 'junk food" quite deficient in many areas, but with the salad dressing - it is a great balance meal.
And here's a few days ago, with a mix of escarole, romaine, dandelion, and kale for the greens.
It's amazing how much food they put away! That whole pile will be totally gone by the next morning.