BEST diet for russian tortoise..?

[AaronValverde]

so i recently bought a Russian Tortoise and he seems to be eating fine. i give him an organic spring mix with a bit of baby spinach thrown in there. i was wondering what else i could feed him? preferably weeds and natural plants.. i heard people say that those are better than grocery-store bought greens. i would like to know what weeds and natural plants to feed him and where to get them please! thanks[/font][/size]

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Aaron, and welcome to the Forum!

You should go easy with the spinach. It binds calcium to it as it goes through the digestive tract.

This is a very good site for Russian tortoise foods:

http://russiantortoise.net/russiantortoisediet.htm

 

[Tom]

Hello and welcome.

Our diet section has a great sticky on weed ID. Spend some time there. Also post pics of the weeds you have and we will try to help you ID them, or take samples to a local nursery for ID help. If you post pics, please use tinypic.com or photobucket. Upload your photo and then copy/paste the IMG code into your forum post. If you post thumbnails the we have to click in and out of, you will get a lot fewer responses.

Grape, hibiscus and mulberry leaves are all great foods too. You can also grow clover, alfalfa, and the leaves and blooms from just about any squash plant are great too. I like to round it all out with Mazuri tortoise diet and an occasional spineless opuntia cactus pad.

Finally, Tyler and Sarah over at http://www.tortoisesupply.com/SeedMixes sell a great "Testudo Seed Mix". I love the stuff. I've been using it for two years now and it grows like crazy for me. I grow it in pots, trays, raised planter boxes and on the ground. The stuff is great.

 

[lynnedit]

Welcome! Post some pics of your new friend soon.

The above site has info on diet and edible plants. The more weeds you give him, the better. Organic spring mix is a great base to use, especially in the winter. I pick out some of the spinach, but it's OK if some remnants remain.

A good site to learn about safe plants and weeds;
http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/site/tortoise_home_1.asp

A good supplement to dust on the tortoise's food (made of ground up weeds);
http://www.carolinapetsupply.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=58&products_id=261
Get the kind with probiotics.

Make sure he has a cuttlebone available. He may ignore it, but they need the option.

Welcome!

 

[AaronValverde]

Alright sounds great! thanks alot. he does have a cuttle bone but doesnt seem to take any interest in it(maybe in time?). ill be sure to post pics as soon as possible!

 

[Irish]

Dandelion and plantain (the weed) are favorites of mine. Avoid spinach.

 

[Blakem]

My Russian loves dandelion flowers, as well as hibiscus. I really try to mix up what I give my Russian. Variety and a good diet are key!

 

[AaronValverde]

Where can I get dandelion flowers and hibiscus? Because I've heard other owners say there RT loves those as well..

 

[Blakem]

You can buy dandelion seeds at carolinapetsupply....I find them in a deserted car wash area ad they grow greatly! The hibiscus can be found at lowes or Home Depot (if you're from USA)

 

[AaronValverde]

alright sounds great, thanks!

 

[Irish]

Hibiscus at Home Depot, but make sure you do not fertilize it.

 

[Tom]

Anything bought at a nursery will likely be full of sprayed on or systemic pesticides. I don't feed anything but new growth after I've had it planted for a year.

Fertilizing plants is fine. Just don't let the tortoises have direct access to the fertilizer.

 

[Tyrtle]

Ours eats Spring mix and lots of stuff from the great outdoors. If you provide your location, I'm sure lots of people have suggestions for plants that may be growing in your area already.

In addition to tropical hisbiscus, there are many more hardy hibiscus species that may be available in your area such as Rose of Sharon or hibiscus moscheutos.

Besides the Spring mix, ours also likes cactus pads which can be purchased online also at Tortoise Supply or Caroline Pet Supply.

 

[TortoiseLuv0131]

Although I know lots of people have had good experience with feeding weeds from outside, I tried it and it gave my Russian a massive internal parasite outbreak. I don't know if it was something about where I lived (Florida at the time) but I am definitely not going to try that again unless it's from a potted mix.

That being said, I don't think Spring Mix is a good diet on its own. I personally feed some ZooMed Grassland Tortoise Diet mash every day along with some Spring Mix and vitamin/mineral and calcium supplement. (I tend to over obsess about my not feeding her right, so I do the supplements about 3 times a week as a precautionary measure.) The Grassland Tortoise Diet provides some nice variety and stuff that you couldn't access in your backyard that they eat in the wild.

 

[AaronValverde]

I live in Southern Texas. Houston to be exact. Anyone have any ideas of healthy plants I can feed my RT? Ones that are growing right now?

 

[biochemnerd808]

Sounds like you already have a great list of resources for good plants to feed.

I'd like to add that I'm the crazy lady who harvests her own seeds. I figure that the varieties of dandelion, plantain, chicory, thistle, hollihock etc that I see growing around here are best suited for our climate. Plus, it's free. So if I see a plant that I know is edible for torts, but it's on land where I'm not sure if it was sprayed with something, I'll take some seeds, and throw those in the tortoise garden. I haven't had much luck growing weeds in flower pots, it seems they like harsher conditions than fertile nursery soil.

You may find that a lot of the plants on the 'edible' list are actually already growing in your garden. Daylilies, hollihock, mallow, hibiscus, echinacea, to name a few. I grow those in my flowerbeds anyway, so feeding flowers and leaves to the torts are just an added bonus. Raspberry leaves (not the fruit) are good for tortoises, also. 6 of my 8 like them.