Ruszian Tortoise
Active Member
Hi! Found this and was wondering if all the ingredients are alright for my Russian tortoise?
Thanks so much!
Everything in this bag OK?
- Thread starter Ruszian Tortoise
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Hi! Found this and was wondering if all the ingredients are alright for my Russian tortoise?
Thanks so much!
Chubbs the tegu
Well-Known Member
Looks great as part of a varied diet of weeds and flowers
Go weed hunting outside. Plantain weed is in season now. Also look for honeysuckle, hibiscus and prickly pear cactus my Russian loves all of it
They’re all fine, plenty of calcium and decent fiber. These are all in the same plant family: brassicas. Maybe okay for 20–25% of a Russian diet, presuming the remaining 80% isn’t all romaine lettuce. 
My Russian won’t eat collards or kale but she wasn’t brought up on them. It’s fine if your tortoise doesn’t like all four things.
My Russian won’t eat collards or kale but she wasn’t brought up on them. It’s fine if your tortoise doesn’t like all four things.
Ruszian Tortoise
Active Member
So, for reference, what's for the remaining eighty percent? Weeds? Like dandelion, field madder, Creeping Jenny, clover, sowthistle (I know there's more, but those are generally the bulk of what I find growing in my yard)? Thanks so much.They’re all fine, plenty of calcium and decent fiber. These are all in the same plant family: brassicas. Maybe okay for 20–25% of a Russian diet, presuming the remaining 80% isn’t all romaine lettuce.
My Russian won’t eat collards or kale but she wasn’t brought up on them. It’s fine if your tortoise doesn’t like all four things.
The rest is as much variety as you can find. I know that’s vague but we rarely say to feed exact percentages of a single plant or a small list of others. We have a very knowledgeable owner here who feels a minimum of twelve foods in rotation is a good number; I feed more but it’s much easier to find food for a single tortoise than feed en masse.
I imagine in Texas there are plenty of hispanic grocery stores; pick up some cactus (nopales) now and again, it’s a great food and the prickles won’t hurt your Russian’s very hard jaws. Here are a couple more things you might find at a Mexican grocery store: https://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/trip-to-a-mexican-market.180123/.
Weeds aren’t always available so you may need to occasionally add grocery chicories such as endive; escarole; radicchio; and a plant advertised as dandelion that looks nothing like a “regular” dandelion.
If you’ve got a neighbor whose squash or cucumber plants are out of control the stems and flowers are good food.
The occasional green bean, a single okra, one small button mushroom, the very top of a carrot, a one-inch chunk of any hard winter squash; the top of any summer squash—the bit you cut off, including the hard stem; a small chunk of cucumber are things I toss in. Usually one per week.
If you have the energy for it we have a pretty long list of what different owners are actually feeding (it’s not a place to ask if a certain food is safe, just to look). It’s tilted to Russians but minus fruit and bugs for Redfoots you’ll find plenty of foods that are suitable for your Russians in other posts as well: https://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/the-tortoise-chef.153728/page-13.
I imagine in Texas there are plenty of hispanic grocery stores; pick up some cactus (nopales) now and again, it’s a great food and the prickles won’t hurt your Russian’s very hard jaws. Here are a couple more things you might find at a Mexican grocery store: https://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/trip-to-a-mexican-market.180123/.
Weeds aren’t always available so you may need to occasionally add grocery chicories such as endive; escarole; radicchio; and a plant advertised as dandelion that looks nothing like a “regular” dandelion.
If you’ve got a neighbor whose squash or cucumber plants are out of control the stems and flowers are good food.
The occasional green bean, a single okra, one small button mushroom, the very top of a carrot, a one-inch chunk of any hard winter squash; the top of any summer squash—the bit you cut off, including the hard stem; a small chunk of cucumber are things I toss in. Usually one per week.
If you have the energy for it we have a pretty long list of what different owners are actually feeding (it’s not a place to ask if a certain food is safe, just to look). It’s tilted to Russians but minus fruit and bugs for Redfoots you’ll find plenty of foods that are suitable for your Russians in other posts as well: https://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/the-tortoise-chef.153728/page-13.
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