Harvesting California Buckwheat for my Desert tortoises.

[innocent]

I feel silly for not really looking into this till now but I have wild California Buckwheat that grows all over my property as well as Sage and brittlebush. I thought it was useless for my torts although great for my bees, I have tried to feed the brittlebush flowers to my Desert Tortoises but they turned their noses up to it so I never even put in the effort to see if it was healthy for them. It would be great to be able to use plants growing on my property for food.
I just began last year establishing California Native plants as a free and healthy food source that should yield enough food next year to get off of most grocery store food. I was looking into native seed mixes and noticed California Buckwheat is in some and also a approved food on many online lists of Desert Tortoise safe and healthy food.
I have a literal unlimited supply of native Buckwheat (and brittlebush, California Sage) on my property from young to old and even flowering at different times(flowering is a months long process). It would be a game changer for me to introduce this as at least part of their diet.
Does anyone know what part a California DT should eat? What is the highest percentage to feed them safely? Should it be only new growth? Can they eat leaves and flowers? Seeds? It seems they can eat young plants if it's in seed mixes safely but can I feed harvested parts off established bushes?

Thanks for any personal experiences with this topic. I looked quickly on the internet and they don't get this specific with answers about harvesting this species of plant for the CDT.
How about the brittlebush? Any experience with these plants? Flowers or leaves? I have a ton of them.

Eriogonum fasciculatum - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Encelia californica - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Tom]

Both of these are new to me. I'm learning from you now. Your goal of getting off of grocery store foods and on to native plants is fantastic!

Another beekeeper with tortoises? Wow. Small world. Do you allow visitors? I'm just south of you in SCV. I'd love to see these plants in person. We could talk tortoises and bees for hours! I have several types of opuntia if you want some.

 

[innocent]

Both of these are new to me. I'm learning from you now. Your goal of getting off of grocery store foods and on to native plants is fantastic!

Another beekeeper with tortoises? Wow. Small world. Do you allow visitors? I'm just south of you in SCV. I'd love to see these plants in person. We could talk tortoises and bees for hours! I have several types of opuntia if you want some.

What a great message to see. My door is always open for someone to talk bees and torts haha. I also could use a couple more Opunta plants also.

The Buckweet is all over Santa Clarita. It just went to rust color (seed) over the last couple weeks. The redish plants in this pic are the Buckweat. The green are just Oaks. The Buckweat is all over Santa Clarita.

This is one up close still turning red. This one was cut down for fire clearing in May and grew this much since then. They don't look very tasty is the main problem but can be introduced slowly if they are good for Desert Torts.