Best Russian Tortoise Foods

Tortoise MasterMan

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I am trying to liven up my Russian's diet, and am wondering what some of your favorite russian foods are. Personally, I think kale is a good one, as well as dandelion leafs and flowers. Also, I have heard melons are god for tortoises because they are both a fruit and a vegetable, and provide extra hydration. Is this true?

Thanks!
 

LaLaP

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Hi! Currently I feed a lot of plantain weed (not the bannana like fruit, this is just a leafy weed) and cat's ear and chick weed. These are all weeds that grow in my yard, even through the winter. Melon isn't a good food for Russians because of the high sugar content. Russians can't digest sugars so fruit isn't good for them. Both my Russians love, love, love radicchio and Belgian endive. I buy those as occasional treats and they lose their little minds!
 

jsheffield

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When he can't graze outside (or I can't cut weeds and flowers for him)... hibiscus leaves and flowers, an exotic salad mix, occasionally some pumpkin or butternut squash.

Jamie
 

RosemaryDW

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I live in a great climate with access to all kinds of ethnic grocers and food stalls, where they sell things Americans often think of as weeds; basically my tortoise gets everything under the sun. Her favorite thing might be winter melon vines but when she’s really hungry, anything goes. :)

I don’t think there is a best food or even a short list of “bests” to feed; it’s best to feed as much variety as you can. Variety is going to depend on what is available where you live. I imagine there aren’t many weeds growing in Utah right now but if there are, or if you have access to a yard, take a look around. If nothing is growing right now, you may be limited to grocery store foods just now: the chicories mentioned above (radicchio and endive); turnip tops if you can get them; radish tops; kale, bok choy and other foods in the brassica family. Fiber content isn’t the best if you’re feeding grocery store foods so you might consider a supplement like Mazuri in the winter. If you have a Mexican food store near you, they will sell cactus (nopales) which is a great source of fiber and calcium. If you’ve got any ethnic grocery stores near you, let us know what they are and we can share some ideas.

You might have heard of cucumber as a good food for hydration. It’s actually a fruit in the melon family; we think of it as a vegetable because it isn’t as sweet as they are. We do recommend cucumber for dehydrated and constipated tortoises but as it’s a fruit, it’s still higher in sugar than vegetables and should only be fed in moderation. Cucumber stems and leaves, however, are great food, as are the stems and leaves of other melons and squash.
 

Triplejester

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My Russian tortoise just started eating and he doesn't want anything but romain lettuce. I put calcium powder on each day. He has spit out kale, spinach, mustard greens, collard greens, etc.. Any suggestions to what else to try. I live in the South so I do not have many choices.
 

RosemaryDW

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My Russian tortoise just started eating and he doesn't want anything but romain lettuce. I put calcium powder on each day. He has spit out kale, spinach, mustard greens, collard greens, etc.. Any suggestions to what else to try. I live in the South so I do not have many choices.

It’s going to take him a long time to stop wanting romaine, if that’s all he’s ever had. Chop up a tiny bit of one of those foods and mix it into some of the romaine when it is still damp. Your tortoise won’t have any choice but to eat some; over time he’ll get used to the taste of the new food and you can cut back on the romaine. This could take weeks or months but I promise you he won’t let himself starve.

Tortoises don’t need calcium powder every day and it’s actually not good for them. It can definitely throw them off food. For an adult male, a tiny sprinkle once a week should do it, like fairy dust.
 

Triplejester

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There is nothing wrong with romaine right? I know I will need to incorporate more into his diet but for now Romaine by itself is good? I have been having him two weeks and he just started eating Saturday.
 

Blackdog1714

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Romaine had almost no nutritional value and you should remove from his diet as quickly as possible by mixing in other foods 50/50, then 25/75, then 0 romaine. Torts hate change so you are in for a battle! Good LucK
 

Triplejester

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Other foods as in? I have the vegetable dry powder mix. I have the pellets. Is there a particular mix that is preferred to be sprinkled on the romain whatbis available?
 

Kapidolo Farms

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My wife helped and the web page has real functionality to it. I'll continue to offer specials of the month here on TFO, they will be 'programed' into the webpage so no emailing required. I also made several Variety Pre-packs so you can get a selection of things based on one or another attribute. You can still get any combination you want - that will require an email.

www.kapidolofarms.com

Weeds, hibiscus, bermuda grass, zinnias @Kapidolo Farms has a whole big selection on all kinds dried flowers and weeds that you could slowly mix in
 

Triplejester

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Well I came home and he ate a whole pile of mixed romain, mustard greens and turnip greens. These have to good core t?
 

RosemaryDW

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There is nothing wrong with romaine right? I know I will need to incorporate more into his diet but for now Romaine by itself is good? I have been having him two weeks and he just started eating Saturday.

Romaine is okay to some extent but it’s low in fiber and higher in sugar than many wild plants, which is not what we want for our tortoises.

It’s common for them to take a while to eat when they are in a new place so don’t worry about that. It may be that he just needs a few more days to be interested in the foods that are less like candy. Kapidolo Farms has some amazing mix ins but I’d hold off a few days before buying anything. Try slipping in a little of the other foods, one at a time, and see how it goes. It often just requires being patient; it took my tortoise five months to move from what I suspect was a romaine diet to all weeds and other healthy foods.

I’m not sure where you are in Louisiana but if you are near any open area you can probably find some weeds fairly easily and mix them in over time. Or some things growing in your yard you might not realize are tortoise foods. If there are any ethnic grocers near you, they may also have some options. What about turnip greens? Those seem Southern to me but who knows. :) At any rate, they seem to be a little more attractive than collards or mustard to some tortoises (my Russian polished off a bunch just a minute ago). You can try radish leaves as well.

If it’s warm enough where you are, you might buy a squash or melon plant, a cheap one. Tortoises can eat the entire plant—stems, leaves and flowers—and they have plenty of fiber and calcium. Plus they are cheap so if one dies, you can easily get another. You’ll have to chop it up to get started, I’m sure.

Good luck and stay strong! It’s a lot harder on us than the tortoises. :)
 

RosemaryDW

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Well I came home and he ate a whole pile of mixed romain, mustard greens and turnip greens. These have to good core t?
There, you see? He just needed some time. Now you can start thinking about foods that have a little more fiber than mustard and turnip greens—they are higher in fiber than romaine but you’ll need more eventually. Again, these things take time so don’t worry too much about getting things 100% right overnight. The right enclosure is way more important to tortoise health than diet when you are starting out.
 

Sa Ga

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I live in a great climate with access to all kinds of ethnic grocers and food stalls, where they sell things Americans often think of as weeds; basically my tortoise gets everything under the sun. Her favorite thing might be winter melon vines but when she’s really hungry, anything goes. :)

I don’t think there is a best food or even a short list of “bests” to feed; it’s best to feed as much variety as you can. Variety is going to depend on what is available where you live. I imagine there aren’t many weeds growing in Utah right now but if there are, or if you have access to a yard, take a look around. If nothing is growing right now, you may be limited to grocery store foods just now: the chicories mentioned above (radicchio and endive); turnip tops if you can get them; radish tops; kale, bok choy and other foods in the brassica family. Fiber content isn’t the best if you’re feeding grocery store foods so you might consider a supplement like Mazuri in the winter. If you have a Mexican food store near you, they will sell cactus (nopales) which is a great source of fiber and calcium. If you’ve got any ethnic grocery stores near you, let us know what they are and we can share some ideas.

You might have heard of cucumber as a good food for hydration. It’s actually a fruit in the melon family; we think of it as a vegetable because it isn’t as sweet as they are. We do recommend cucumber for dehydrated and constipated tortoises but as it’s a fruit, it’s still higher in sugar than vegetables and should only be fed in moderation. Cucumber stems and leaves, however, are great food, as are the stems and leaves of other melons and squash.
Thanks for the info! I give Morla a thin slice of cuke every few days bf she gets very constipated easily and it very much helps. Plus a thin piece of Red Delicious apple every other day (about the thickness of 2-3 quarters and the circumference of a quarter). She does very well with it.
 

RosemaryDW

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That’s great. She may need to clear out old foods for a while and it’s hydrating so keep up the cucumber until she’s her regular self.

Russians absolutely are not built to digest fruit; I know we want to give them “treats” but that’s one that can make her sick and could be throwing her digestion off right now. Just because we can’t see it in the short run doesn’t mean it’s not causing problems.

If you want to give her a ”treat” the cucumber is already a pretty good one. Cucumbers are actually fruits, not vegetables (they’re in the melon family, who knew?) and have a little sugar themselves. If you want to try something different now you could give her a small bite (maybe a half inch) of sweet potato or pumpkin; the very top—including the stem, trust me—of a zucchini; half a mushroom; one green bean. Down the road when she’s got that apple sugar out of her system you could rotate in the very top of a carrot or a strip of bell pepper, both of these vegetables are high in sugar so I wouldn’t suggest them yet. You can also move up to an inch or so of sweet potato. I give my tortoise one of these items about once a week; they’ve got different good things in them so they aren’t “just” a treat.

I’m very conservative with sugar. I already knew it was bad for her and the one time she got more carrot than usual she was very sick with diarrhea. Lesson learned!
 

Tom

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I am trying to liven up my Russian's diet, and am wondering what some of your favorite russian foods are. Personally, I think kale is a good one, as well as dandelion leafs and flowers. Also, I have heard melons are god for tortoises because they are both a fruit and a vegetable, and provide extra hydration. Is this true?

Thanks!

The BEST foods are a large variety of broadleaf weeds. Mix in some flowers, various leaves like hibiscus, grape vine leaves, and mulberry leaves, lavatera, and so many others, and you'll have a great diet and a healthy tortoise. Kale is okay once or twice a month, but not too much. Other grocery store foods are not great for a variety of reasons. All fruit should be avoided. If you must use grocery store greens, favor endive and escarole the most, and add in arugula, cilantro, collard, turnip and mustard greens, boy choy, and others for variety. Also go to Kapidolo Farms for the "mix-ins" and Tortoisesupply.com for their herbal hay. These are ways to amend the lacking grocery store greens and make them more suitable as tortoise foods. You can also soak a pellet of the ZooMed tortoise chows and mix that in with the grocery store greens to add fiber and variety. Original Mazuri makes a nice supplemental food too.
 

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