Dietary Requirements of Greeks, Russians and Hermanns?

[jweiner]

Are the dietary needs of these three types of tortoises similar? If not, what are the differences? Is one species less picky than another? Does one require more specific food types, etc? Just curious.

 

[GBtortoises]

Basically speaking, yes. Depending upon which region of Greeks you're referring to (Northern Mediterranean, Middle Eastern or North African, there are some suttle differences in food sources that they would be accustomed to in the wild and at different time of the year. But in captivity they can fed generally the same diet. Again generally speaking, Russians are accustomed to the poorest nutritional diet in the wild of the three Testudo that you mentioned. In captivity they generally prefer high fiber greens, but some will consume certain vegetables too. Hermann's will consume just about anything put in front of them! Having kept all three examples for quite some time now I can't say that any are picky eaters based on species alone. Occasionally there may be an individual that is considered picky, but even that is very rare among either Greeks, Russians or Hermann's tortoises. If one is not eating, or barely browsing, chances are there is something else wrong that is causing their lack of appetite. All three do well on a diet that is primarily quality, varied, greens. I feed mine about 80-85% greens with the rest of their diet being a good mix of quality vegetables and access to hay and calcium carbonate.