Canadian natural food?

[TragicQuietus]

Hello, I just adopted a hatching who is doing very well. Mobile, eyes bright and nose clean, actively looking for food (and sleeping most of the day) A little bit of damage to her plastron from a likely case of shell rot, she was given vet treatment for two and a half weeks. Other then the slight deformity she looks good. Just wondering in the short Northern Alberta, Canada summer, what wild plants would be ok to give her. She is smaller then a golf ball right now, in a 36X18X18 inch habitat. Indoors. She is being given Zoo Med diet as a supplement to organic greens (local, no pesticides) but a good heads up on what limited greens I can get in the winter would be very appreciated. Right now she gets dandelion(out of season already), kale, and carrot tops, but that's only because that's the only food I've been told I can give her. There is very little resources on a more natural care for hermanns here.

Edit: Also because of the likely mild shell rot I was told to keep her on repti-carpet with plenty of moss and hiding places such as logs and stones until she is a little bigger. Is that a good idea or should I switch her? Or is there a good place I can order wild weeds and greens for her to grown in her habitat?

 

[Tortoise]

Hi
There are lots of wild weeds to choose from
Plantain, clover, dandelion, portulaca, sow thistle,
I know a guy that can sell a dried herb mix too especially for tortoises-good for Winter in Canada sprinkled on other foods for extra nutrients.
Also cacti pads are great and again the same guy sells these in Summer and I purchased a plantable one from him and it has only taken a few weeks to sprout multiple pads.

Check out these sites for plants etc including house plants that we can grow through Winter.
Hibiscus is great.
http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/site/plants_19.asp
http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/site/files/Edible Plant Collection_First Edition_18 Jan 11.pdf (booklet to print)
http://www.empireoftheturtle.com/Plants/edible_plants.htm
http://www.turtlestuff.com/foodplantlists.html
http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/plantfoods.html
http://www.tortoise.org/general/tttplant.html
http://www.thetortoisehouse.com/Edible04.htm
http://www.tortsmad.com/diet.htm

Make sure you pick where they have not been sprayed at all.
Pm me if you want details of the powders etc for tortoises.

---

Are you out of dandelions already?
Wow we have lots for a month or two yet. You can try potting up the odd dandelion if you can find some or plantain, sow thistle etc as being a tiny hatchling it wouldn't take much to grow enough for him this next Winter.
In the UK the British Chelonia Group sells red clover seeds for planting for tortoises. can you find a few red clover flowers to keep the seeds from?

You will find Hibiscus plants in all the garden places and one large plant would last a while-take cuttings or buy hibiscuc seeds too-I got some red hibiscus from Lindenburgs seeds(brandon, Manitoba) and they germinated well for me.

The cacti is great and lasts weeks in the fridge wrapped in newspaper.
I can get dried red clover too from the same guy.
Hopefully a combination of all these things will see us through our 7 mth Winter until Spring again.

Louise

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi TragicQuietus:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

May we know your name?

 

[TragicQuietus]

Inner City Edmonton, Dandelions stood no chance. I like the idea of growing my own, and the habitat is big enough I could grow some different inside of it. Make things a little more natural Gamera. Thank you I'll check the links out!
And sorry, My name is Tamara. I was in a bit of a rush. Very glad to be apart of the forum!

 

[jackrat]

I use the tortoisetable site.It's pretty informative.