Greek diet help

Joined
Apr 28, 2017
Messages
97
Location (City and/or State)
Northern California
I have read a lot of different sources to try and figure out what to feed my Greek for sure (I've had him for a year now and have been trying to give him a variety). I realize that sounds like a question I should not be asking after a year and a ton of research, but I just want to make sure I'm doing what is best for him. Garden weeds and such is not an option. I am almost finished with an outdoor enclosure and I provided a strawberry plant, red leafed lettuce, and yellow squash (his vet instructed me to give him yellow vegetables for vitamin B, and I heard they like to eat the flowers and leaves). The care sheet on the forums said dried herbs but when I looked online it was all for tea.

Any help is much appreciated, and I'm really stressed that I'm not feeding my little tort what's best for him.

Thank you.
 

Pearly

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5 Year Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2015
Messages
5,287
Location (City and/or State)
Central Texas, Austin area
I have been stuck feeding my two store bought stuff too the first 2 yrs while my own tortoise garden has been growing. There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with feeding store bought stuff, just try to stick with organic and wash everything before feeding. Look for ethnic stores where they sell produce, they often sell great greens that your regular supermarkets never get. I buy my opuntia cactus pads, dandelion greens, and red veined dandelions, collards, mustard, turnip greens, raddicchio, radish and carrot tops, beet tops, swiss chard, purslane (yes they sell it as edible green!), edible salad blooms, squash/pumpkin blooms, mine also like little parsley chopped and mixed into their salad, or cilantro... hibiscus and rose leaves/flowers, mulberry and grape leaves (only from chemical free sources) and the list goes on... To that I'd get couple of different brands of tortoise chow, I.E. Mazuri, Grassland Tortoise pellets, and whatever else you can get where you live and add some of those soaked mashed pellets mixed in with the fresh food, rotating the brands to get the broadest spectrum of coverage possible for your tort's nutrition. Same with fresh food. I never feed just one thing. It's always several mixed together. I know with herbivorous tort you are more limited that us- the RF keepers, but still- there are lots of possibilities, just think "out of the box"
 

JoesMum

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10 Year Member!
Joined
Oct 26, 2011
Messages
21,610
Location (City and/or State)
Kent, South East England
I have been stuck feeding my two store bought stuff too the first 2 yrs while my own tortoise garden has been growing. There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with feeding store bought stuff, just try to stick with organic and wash everything before feeding. Look for ethnic stores where they sell produce, they often sell great greens that your regular supermarkets never get. I buy my opuntia cactus pads, dandelion greens, and red veined dandelions, collards, mustard, turnip greens, raddicchio, radish and carrot tops, beet tops, swiss chard, purslane (yes they sell it as edible green!), edible salad blooms, squash/pumpkin blooms, mine also like little parsley chopped and mixed into their salad, or cilantro... hibiscus and rose leaves/flowers, mulberry and grape leaves (only from chemical free sources) and the list goes on... To that I'd get couple of different brands of tortoise chow, I.E. Mazuri, Grassland Tortoise pellets, and whatever else you can get where you live and add some of those soaked mashed pellets mixed in with the fresh food, rotating the brands to get the broadest spectrum of coverage possible for your tort's nutrition. Same with fresh food. I never feed just one thing. It's always several mixed together. I know with herbivorous tort you are more limited that us- the RF keepers, but still- there are lots of possibilities, just think "out of the box"
And if you are out, never pass up the opportunity to come home with a pocketful of particularly tasty looking dandelions. (Even if you do forget to come home with the loaf of bread you went out for :rolleyes: ) :D
 
Joined
Apr 28, 2017
Messages
97
Location (City and/or State)
Northern California
Thank you both so much! I've been so stressed recently as so many websites and books treat store bought greens like they are evil, then give a tiny, vague list of obscure things they can eat. Tortoise Forums truly is the best website I have ever encountered with great people to match!
 

Nanchantress

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5 Year Member
Joined
Apr 20, 2015
Messages
90
Location (City and/or State)
Albuquerque, New Mexico
In my greek tortoise's garden I planted clover, dandelions, sedum, petunias, pansies, mustard greens, several types of lettuce, and a bunch of mystery stuff in a tortoise seed mix that I lost the label to. :)

I sometimes treat him with baked (and cooled) butternut squash, bell peppers, baked sweet potatoes, and grape leaves.
 

JoesMum

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10 Year Member!
Joined
Oct 26, 2011
Messages
21,610
Location (City and/or State)
Kent, South East England
Thank you both so much! I've been so stressed recently as so many websites and books treat store bought greens like they are evil, then give a tiny, vague list of obscure things they can eat. Tortoise Forums truly is the best website I have ever encountered with great people to match!
And a bit more advice...

Write a list of the greens you can get in the grocery store and any you can get that grow around you... and any house plants you might fancy growing on the windowsill of your home then look them up on The Tortoise Table Plant Database for suitability to feed.
http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/

Make life easy for yourself... what you can get easily won't be the same as what anyone else can get... but TTT's plant database will tell you if it's food :)
 
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