can a horsefield tortoise eat rose petals

[oldsam]

Hi all, I buy my wife roses there different colour and when our horsefield tortoise sees them in a vase placed on the front room floor he makes a bee line for them, my wife says to give him some but I’m not sure, what do you think? Thanks Sam

 

[kathyth]

I feed them to my tortoises and they are fine


EXCEPT

Any flower or plant that has pesticide on them is a huge NO.
These look like they came from a good florist. I'm sure they were sprayed while growing. You need to expect hat pesticides were used unless you know differently.

You can grow your own and feed them to him.

 

[Tom]

Rose petals are fine. Rose petals from a florist might kill your tortoise.

Best if you grow your own.

 

[BeeBee*BeeLeaves]

I triple emphasize that. Just say NO to super perfect flowers from the florist. For sure, they have been treated with hormones and pesticides and Fungicides and fertilizers to look that way for retail sale. Workers in other countries (Chile, Ecuador, for instance) are getting very sick from the chemicals they work with in this industry.

Here's an interesting read: http://www1.american.edu/ted/rose1.htm

Homegrown roses without systematic fertilizers and pesticides are yay-okay and loved by most all tortoises. : )

 

[oldsam]

Hi people thanks for your advice and replies, the roses came from Morrison’s so will have been sprayed with something, soon I will start to grow some roses myself. Thanks Sam

 

[Cowboy_Ken]

Oldsam, my thoughts are that your wife has a very considerate husband to buy her roses regularly. I did this every other week as well, then realized she lives them in her garden. I started buying her the plants, and now, when the roses stop looking so good to us, our tortoises love them and are safe.