Romaine hearts and tomato butts

Kipley

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I'm in Seattle, WA (USA) with a short growing season. About half of the year I have to purchase greens at the store to feed my rescued group of 5 Redfoots and 1 lone Sulcata. The Sulcata is about 3-4 years old and under 10 lbs. I rescued him two years ago at 85 grams, very little growth that first year or so, but this last year he has found his health and is growing fast.
During the summer I have plenty of seasonal weeds and grow my own tortoise greens.

My question: A neighbor owns a sandwhich shop and has offered me daily scraps if I want them - it would be Romaine hearts and the end slices of tomatoes (butts). Nothing that would work as diet staples, but the romaine hearts would give all of them some hydrating variety to their meals. Will pulpless end slices of tomatoes be too acidic for the Sulcata if they are tossed into their salads?
Thanks.
 

Maro2Bear

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I would skip & pick out the tomato slices for your Sully. Lots of sugar in them as well, not good for Sullys.

and….The Tort Table says this
  • Common Name: Tomato
  • Latin Name: Solanum lycopersicon; syn. Lycopersicon esculentum
  • Family Name: Solanaceae
There is some disagreement over the toxic principle in tomatoes: some say it is the alkaloid tomatine, while others disagree and say it is the glycoalkaloid solamine. Despite this disagreement the tomato does come from the same family as potatoes and deadly nightshade, and the leaves and unripe fruit are TOXIC and should never be fed. The ripe fruit has a high sugar content, low level of calcium and high phosphorus content with almost no fibre, so it is not nourishing and we do not recommend feeding it.

Tortoises do find tomatoes tasty though, and the one situation in which it might be acceptable to feed is when it is used to administer medication.
 
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wellington

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Romaine yes, tomato no.
I have on occasion fed a cherry tomato as a treat. Its maybe 2 or 3 a year.
Also if you ask the grocery storea in your area if you can have their left over greens they throw away, many will do that. All winter long I get a huge box of greens from my local store. They are just as fresh looking as any I would by. I have no idea why they throw them out. It's never anything in bags, it's the leaf's they peel off the green.
 

Tom

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I agree with the previous posters. I would add that you can use the romaine as a delivery vehicle for all sorts of other good tortoise foods. I buy a variety of dried leaf options from @Kapidolo Farms and rotate through them. You can also soak some horse hay pellets and mix that in. ZooMed grassland is also good stuff.
 

Kipley

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I agree with the previous posters. I would add that you can use the romaine as a delivery vehicle for all sorts of other good tortoise foods. I buy a variety of dried leaf options from @Kapidolo Farms and rotate through them. You can also soak some horse hay pellets and mix that in. ZooMed grassland is also good stuff.
Thanks Tom, I do all of the above. Need to place another order with Kapildolo Farms this coming week in fact. The Sulcata gets soaked hay cubes daily, ignore them most days..
 

Tom

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Thanks Tom, I do all of the above. Need to place another order with Kapildolo Farms this coming week in fact. The Sulcata gets soaked hay cubes daily, ignore them most days..
Try soaking just a small amount, and then throughly mix it in with the chopped wetted romaine.
 

Tom

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So no tomato skin for the Sulcata.

What about the Redfoots?
Some tomato some of the time is fine for any tortoise. Lots of tomato frequently would not be good for any tortoise. RFs and other forest tortoises can have more of it more frequently.

Me personally, I'd love to eat a good marinara or meat sauce every day. :)
 

COmtnLady

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My Redfoot likes tomatoes about as much as bananas, so I tend to use a couple cocktail-size ones as "treats" once in a while. She likes the yellow ones best, they're less acidic than the red ones. Using them for medicine doses is an interesting idea.

I'd be a little concerned about the possibility of pesticides or sprays on the lettuce, but 'free' is a definite motivator, so be sure to wash them really well. Such a deal!
 

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