Food questions for hermann tortoise

[Kisobel]

Hi people,

I know there is a guide to stick by but this is more personally related questions.

I have 2 questions to ask,

Can my Hermann tortoise eat fruit at all?
Like apples and bananas and such.
I’m having this debate with my father whom hasn’t looked after a tortoise but believes Google has all the answers so I came to my trusty place.

If they can, could you tell me the list of fruits they can and cannot eat.

Next question is, I live in England so anybody who has like Asda, Tesco, Morrisons etc may be able to answer this.

What type of foods can I buy that keeps it a “balanced” diet at a grocery store?

I currently buy rocket and a pack of salad that has 3 other things, i was using an external food source but recently been unreliable. I don’t really live in a place to pick wild weeds so I’m trying see what I can buy at Asda.

Any information of grocery store produce I could buy will be appreciated! Thank you

 

[wellington]

No fruit.
If you can buy dried tortoise flower and weed additives to top your grocery greens and add some mazuri tortoise food then you would have a much more balanced diet.
Google search or check Amazon for cactus powder, tortoise food, dried tortoise food etc.
Most any of the pellets are good to add, except the ones meant for Redfoot tortoises, they have fruit in them.

 

[Kisobel]

No fruit.
If you can buy dried tortoise flower and weed additives to top your grocery greens and add some mazuri tortoise food then you would have a much more balanced diet.
Google search or check Amazon for cactus powder, tortoise food, dried tortoise food etc.
Most any of the pellets are good to add, except the ones meant for Redfoot tortoises, they have fruit in them.

Thank you, I was pretty positive they weren’t allowed fruit.

I want to avoid dried stuff however, I like giving him fresh or freshest I can

 

[Tom]

Hi people,

I know there is a guide to stick by but this is more personally related questions.

I have 2 questions to ask,

Can my Hermann tortoise eat fruit at all?
Like apples and bananas and such.
I’m having this debate with my father whom hasn’t looked after a tortoise but believes Google has all the answers so I came to my trusty place.

If they can, could you tell me the list of fruits they can and cannot eat.

Next question is, I live in England so anybody who has like Asda, Tesco, Morrisons etc may be able to answer this.

What type of foods can I buy that keeps it a “balanced” diet at a grocery store?

I currently buy rocket and a pack of salad that has 3 other things, i was using an external food source but recently been unreliable. I don’t really live in a place to pick wild weeds so I’m trying see what I can buy at Asda.

Any information of grocery store produce I could buy will be appreciated! Thank you

1. Can they eat fruit? Yes. If you put fruit in there they can eat it. I don't recommend that because this is not a fruit eating species, and fruit can cause several digestive issues. Fruit should not be a regular part of the diet. I don't feed any fruit to my tortoises. If they eat little now and then, it is not deadly toxic. In the wild, they might occasionally happen across some fallen fruit and take a bite or two.
2. There is no "balanced" diet from farm grown lettuces and greens. You can feed those items, but you'll need to offer a variety of them and add in the right amendments to correct for the shortcomings.

From the care sheets:
10. Grocery store produce: In short, avoid grocery store produce when possible. Grocery store greens are not the best tortoise foods. They tend to lack fiber, calcium, and some of them have deleterious compounds in them. If you must use foods from the grocery store, favor endive and escarole as the main staples. Add in cilantro, arugula, collards, turnip and mustard greens, lettuces and many others for variety. You will also need to add some sort of amendment to improve the quality as tortoise food. Calcium is good to add a couple of times per week and soaked horse hay pellets are a good way to add fiber for any species. Soaked ZooMed tortoise pellets of any type are good to add, as is Purina Organic Lay Crumbles for chickens, oddly enough. When possible skip the expensive grocery store greens and use a wide variety of weeds, leaves, flowers, and succulents, that are all free.

26. If you are going to be a tortoises keeper, it is very advantageous to also learn to be a farmer. Or at least a gardener and pasture grower. And if you don't want to grow your own, then learn to be a scrounger. The best foods you can feed to your tortoise are free. You just have to spend time learning your local plants and weeds, and then spend time collecting your free tortoise food. I'd rather spend time on a nature walk collecting tortoise food than driving to the store, fighting traffic and waiting on red lights, and waiting in line to pay for expensive greens, wondering the whole time what chemicals, insecticides and other industrial farming stuff is on those items.

30. We have a member here named Will. Will is a biologist by trade and well studied on tortoise nutrition. He started a business that is revolutionizing the way we feed our tortoises. Will doesn't pay me, and I don't get anything for this shameless plug. I'm typing this because I personally use his products daily, and it has changed how I feed my tortoises. At certain times of year, many of us have no alternative but to feed grocery store produce. By itself, this isn't a great way to feed a tortoise. Will's company, https://www.kapidolofarms.com, offers all sorts of organic dried leaves, cactus chips, cactus flour, and more that you simply sprinkle on top of the day's greens, or mix it all in with them, which is what I do. This makes it SOOOOOOO easy to improve the quality of grocery store greens and add fiber and variety to your tortoises diet. At any given time, I have at least a half dozen options. Dried mulberry leaves, moringa, echinacea, ginkgo, marsh mallow, nettle, plantain weeds, dandelion, clover, rose petals and hips, raspberry leaf, and many more. All you do is prepare your tortoise's food for the day as you usually do, and then sprinkle some of these dried items on top, or mix the dried items all in with the greens. This is a fantastic way to make your tortoise's food better every day. I've been using his products since he started selling them a few years ago, and I have nothing but good to say about all of it.

• If you are going the the grocery store to buy tortoise food, you are feeding the wrong stuff. If you have no other choice but to use grocery store food due to your climate and weather for part of the year, it will need to be amended to make it more suitable as tortoise food. More on this later.

Feeding:
So much contradictory info on this subject. Its simple. What do they eat in the wild. Grass, weeds, leaves, flowers, and succulents. Feed them a huge variety of these things, and you'll have a healthy tortoise. All of these species are very adaptable when it comes to diet and there is a very large margin of error, and many ways to do it right. What if you don't have this sort of "natural" tortoise food available for part of each year because you are in the snow? You will have no choice but to buy grocery store food. What's wrong with grocery store food? It tends to lack fiber, some items are low in calcium or have a poor calcium to phosphorous ratio, and some items have deleterious compounds in them. All of these short comings can be improved with some simple supplementation and amendments. A pinch of calcium two times per week will help fix that problem. You can also leave cuttle bone in the enclosure, so your tortoise can self-regulate its own calcium intake. What about fiber? Soaked horse hay pellets, soaked ZooMed Grassland pellets, Mazuri tortoise chow, "Salad style", "Herbal Hay" both from @TylerStewart and his lovely wife Sarah at Tortoisesupply.com, or many of the dried plants and leaves available from Will @Kapidolo Farms. If you must use grocery store foods, favor endive and escarole as your main staples. Add in arugula, cilantro, kale, collard, mustard and turnip greens, squash leaves, spring mix, romaine, green or red leaf lettuce, butter lettuce, water cress, carrot tops, celery tops, bok choy, and whatever other greens you can find. If you mix in some of the aforementioned amendments, these grocery store foods will offer plants of variety and fiber and be able to meet your tortoises nutritional needs just fine. I find it preferable to grab a few grapevine or mulberry leaves, or a handful of mallow and clover, or some broadleaf plantain leaves and some grass, but with the right additions, grocery store stuff is fine too. Grow your own stuff, or find it around you when possible. Tyler and Sarah also sell a fantastic Testudo seed mix that is great for ALL tortoise species and also super easy to grow in pots, trays, raised garden beds, or in outdoor tortoise enclosures. When that isn't possible, add a wide variety of good stuff to your grocery store greens to make them better.

Supplements:
I recommend you keep cuttle bone available all the time. Some never use it and some munch on it regularly. Some of mine will go months without touching it, and then suddenly eat the whole thing in a day or two. A great diet is paramount, but it is still a good idea to give them some extra calcium regularly. I use a tiny pinch of RepCal or ZooMed plain old calcium carbonate twice a week. Much discussion has been given to whether or not they need D3 in their calcium supplement. Personally, I don't think it matters. Every tortoise should be getting adequate UV exposure one way or another, so they should be able to make their own D3. I also like to use a mineral supplement. "MinerAll" is my current brand of choice. It seems to help those tortoises that like to swallow pebbles and rocks. It is speculated that some tortoise eat rocks or substrate due to a mineral deficiency or imbalance. Whatever the reason, "MinerAll" seems to stop it or prevent it. Finally, I like to use a reptile vitamin supplement once a week, to round out any hidden deficiencies that may be in my diet over the course of a year.

 

[Raquel1978]

I buy rocket and a bag of mixed salad with a little kale from superstore. Mine also like dandelions and dandelion leaves mine are also a fan of raddiocho.

If you look online theirs a UK tortoise food shop where you can buy safe seeds to grow in pots wiich is very easy to do and prickly pear cactus pads.

I've also started a little gardening patch of stuff that I'm growing for them.

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Thank you, I was pretty positive they weren’t allowed fruit.

I want to avoid dried stuff however, I like giving him fresh or freshest I can

Someone shared this "tortoise food delivery service": https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/145579358719

Also, don't steer away from dried foods. Agrobs and Arcadia make good amendments to turn a head of lettuce into enriching high-fiber tortoise chow

 

[wellington]

Thank you, I was pretty positive they weren’t allowed fruit.

I want to avoid dried stuff however, I like giving him fresh or freshest I can

The dried flowers and weeds that can be bought that are sold for tortoises is what can be added to the store greens and makes a more balanced diet. You don't like adding dried, but grocery greens are not a complete diet. Adding the dried foods helps to make the grocery greens better. Same with adding soaked pellets foods, it helps to round out an a otherwise poor diet.

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

@Littleredfootbigredheart @zolasmum and @MaNaAk are from the UK and can probably share what they get from the grocery store.

 

[Kisobel]

Someone shared this "tortoise food delivery service": https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/145579358719

Also, don't steer away from dried foods. Agrobs and Arcadia make good amendments to turn a head of lettuce into enriching high-fiber tortoise chow

(that was my service I sent you 🤣)

 

[Kisobel]

1. Can they eat fruit? Yes. If you put fruit in there they can eat it. I don't recommend that because this is not a fruit eating species, and fruit can cause several digestive issues. Fruit should not be a regular part of the diet. I don't feed any fruit to my tortoises. If they eat little now and then, it is not deadly toxic. In the wild, they might occasionally happen across some fallen fruit and take a bite or two.
2. There is no "balanced" diet from farm grown lettuces and greens. You can feed those items, but you'll need to offer a variety of them and add in the right amendments to correct for the shortcomings.

From the care sheets:
10. Grocery store produce: In short, avoid grocery store produce when possible. Grocery store greens are not the best tortoise foods. They tend to lack fiber, calcium, and some of them have deleterious compounds in them. If you must use foods from the grocery store, favor endive and escarole as the main staples. Add in cilantro, arugula, collards, turnip and mustard greens, lettuces and many others for variety. You will also need to add some sort of amendment to improve the quality as tortoise food. Calcium is good to add a couple of times per week and soaked horse hay pellets are a good way to add fiber for any species. Soaked ZooMed tortoise pellets of any type are good to add, as is Purina Organic Lay Crumbles for chickens, oddly enough. When possible skip the expensive grocery store greens and use a wide variety of weeds, leaves, flowers, and succulents, that are all free.

26. If you are going to be a tortoises keeper, it is very advantageous to also learn to be a farmer. Or at least a gardener and pasture grower. And if you don't want to grow your own, then learn to be a scrounger. The best foods you can feed to your tortoise are free. You just have to spend time learning your local plants and weeds, and then spend time collecting your free tortoise food. I'd rather spend time on a nature walk collecting tortoise food than driving to the store, fighting traffic and waiting on red lights, and waiting in line to pay for expensive greens, wondering the whole time what chemicals, insecticides and other industrial farming stuff is on those items.

30. We have a member here named Will. Will is a biologist by trade and well studied on tortoise nutrition. He started a business that is revolutionizing the way we feed our tortoises. Will doesn't pay me, and I don't get anything for this shameless plug. I'm typing this because I personally use his products daily, and it has changed how I feed my tortoises. At certain times of year, many of us have no alternative but to feed grocery store produce. By itself, this isn't a great way to feed a tortoise. Will's company, https://www.kapidolofarms.com, offers all sorts of organic dried leaves, cactus chips, cactus flour, and more that you simply sprinkle on top of the day's greens, or mix it all in with them, which is what I do. This makes it SOOOOOOO easy to improve the quality of grocery store greens and add fiber and variety to your tortoises diet. At any given time, I have at least a half dozen options. Dried mulberry leaves, moringa, echinacea, ginkgo, marsh mallow, nettle, plantain weeds, dandelion, clover, rose petals and hips, raspberry leaf, and many more. All you do is prepare your tortoise's food for the day as you usually do, and then sprinkle some of these dried items on top, or mix the dried items all in with the greens. This is a fantastic way to make your tortoise's food better every day. I've been using his products since he started selling them a few years ago, and I have nothing but good to say about all of it.

• If you are going the the grocery store to buy tortoise food, you are feeding the wrong stuff. If you have no other choice but to use grocery store food due to your climate and weather for part of the year, it will need to be amended to make it more suitable as tortoise food. More on this later.

Feeding:
So much contradictory info on this subject. Its simple. What do they eat in the wild. Grass, weeds, leaves, flowers, and succulents. Feed them a huge variety of these things, and you'll have a healthy tortoise. All of these species are very adaptable when it comes to diet and there is a very large margin of error, and many ways to do it right. What if you don't have this sort of "natural" tortoise food available for part of each year because you are in the snow? You will have no choice but to buy grocery store food. What's wrong with grocery store food? It tends to lack fiber, some items are low in calcium or have a poor calcium to phosphorous ratio, and some items have deleterious compounds in them. All of these short comings can be improved with some simple supplementation and amendments. A pinch of calcium two times per week will help fix that problem. You can also leave cuttle bone in the enclosure, so your tortoise can self-regulate its own calcium intake. What about fiber? Soaked horse hay pellets, soaked ZooMed Grassland pellets, Mazuri tortoise chow, "Salad style", "Herbal Hay" both from @TylerStewart and his lovely wife Sarah at Tortoisesupply.com, or many of the dried plants and leaves available from Will @Kapidolo Farms. If you must use grocery store foods, favor endive and escarole as your main staples. Add in arugula, cilantro, kale, collard, mustard and turnip greens, squash leaves, spring mix, romaine, green or red leaf lettuce, butter lettuce, water cress, carrot tops, celery tops, bok choy, and whatever other greens you can find. If you mix in some of the aforementioned amendments, these grocery store foods will offer plants of variety and fiber and be able to meet your tortoises nutritional needs just fine. I find it preferable to grab a few grapevine or mulberry leaves, or a handful of mallow and clover, or some broadleaf plantain leaves and some grass, but with the right additions, grocery store stuff is fine too. Grow your own stuff, or find it around you when possible. Tyler and Sarah also sell a fantastic Testudo seed mix that is great for ALL tortoise species and also super easy to grow in pots, trays, raised garden beds, or in outdoor tortoise enclosures. When that isn't possible, add a wide variety of good stuff to your grocery store greens to make them better.

Supplements:
I recommend you keep cuttle bone available all the time. Some never use it and some munch on it regularly. Some of mine will go months without touching it, and then suddenly eat the whole thing in a day or two. A great diet is paramount, but it is still a good idea to give them some extra calcium regularly. I use a tiny pinch of RepCal or ZooMed plain old calcium carbonate twice a week. Much discussion has been given to whether or not they need D3 in their calcium supplement. Personally, I don't think it matters. Every tortoise should be getting adequate UV exposure one way or another, so they should be able to make their own D3. I also like to use a mineral supplement. "MinerAll" is my current brand of choice. It seems to help those tortoises that like to swallow pebbles and rocks. It is speculated that some tortoise eat rocks or substrate due to a mineral deficiency or imbalance. Whatever the reason, "MinerAll" seems to stop it or prevent it. Finally, I like to use a reptile vitamin supplement once a week, to round out any hidden deficiencies that may be in my diet over the course of a year.

thank you for all of this lol I do not even know how to respond!

I shall do my research and see what I can get then get back to you thank you!!

 

[Kisobel]

I buy rocket and a bag of mixed salad with a little kale from superstore. Mine also like dandelions and dandelion leaves mine are also a fan of raddiocho.

If you look online theirs a UK tortoise food shop where you can buy safe seeds to grow in pots wiich is very easy to do and prickly pear cactus pads.

I've also started a little gardening patch of stuff that I'm growing for them.

I am going to try and grow my own stuff I think I am just overly protective if say a slug or snail went on the leaf if it would harm my tortoise. this tortoise feels like my child how protective I am of him lol

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

My dad sometimes says that I am a helicopter parent to my tortoise 😅

 

[wellington]

I am going to try and grow my own stuff I think I am just overly protective if say a slug or snail went on the leaf if it would harm my tortoise. this tortoise feels like my child how protective I am of him lol

Don't forget, in the wild, grazing on food, they will be also swallowing bugs that may be on that food.

 

[Tom]

Don't forget, in the wild, grazing on food, they will be also swallowing bugs that may be on that food.

This is true, but no one is using snail and slug poisons in the wild. I suspect that is the worry.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Hey! You’ve been given some awesome information already, definitely no fruits. I’ll drop this website below incase you’ve not checked it out before, it’s so handy! If you click in the wildflower section, there’s SO many plants that grow perfectly here, to play safe and not go foraging places with potential fertilisers and stuff, I think it’d be safest buying seeds online and growing your own in organic soil(free of fertilisers or chemicals) that tortoise doesn’t have access to, forage as they grow😊

The Tortoise Table - Home

The Tortoise Table plant database and resource site for Tortoise owners

www.thetortoisetable.org.uk

I’ve also recently ordered some of this stuff:

Arcadia Optimised52 Tortoise Food

An outstanding mixed botanical tortoise food Contains over 60 species of grasses, botanicals and weeds A range of sizes to stock up on

www.reptiles.swelluk.com

Great way to get some more variety in there, let them soak for 5 minutes in water and add on top of feeds🙂