I thought this would be an interesting question. Do you find that with more knowledge of healthy greens versus 'empty' greens that it's changed what you select to eat?
Obviously our nutritional requirements are different from tortoises, but do you find that instead of making a salad with iceberg or Romaine that you choose different greens?
If I was a tortoise, I think I'd be a pretty sickly character since the only veggies we used to eat were iceberg lettuce and tomato and the occasional green beans from a can. Since researching before buying our tortoise though, we find that we make different choices when we pick out salad greens for ourselves too. Instead of iceberg and romaine, it's a lot more likely to be a salad base of spring mix, or kale, or turnip greens.
We've also found that just having a tortoise has increased how often we buy greens and fruit. Since he can't eat what comes in a bag before it goes bad, we eat greens a lot more frequently than we would have previously. Same thing with strawberries and mangos and so on. (It's a redfoot tortoise, so we feed fruit about every 3 or 4 days) And, let's face it, if your buying a mango to give him a small piece of one, then your going to buy another couple for yourself..
He does eat a lot of stuff we grow in the yard too, but we still find ourselves at the produce department on a lot more regular basis.
If we pick up the hingeback tortoise on our local craigslist, then we'll definitely be eating more mushrooms and sweet potatoes too.. lol
So, yes, the question again was (since I rattled on so long) has keeping tortoises influenced your food choices?
Obviously our nutritional requirements are different from tortoises, but do you find that instead of making a salad with iceberg or Romaine that you choose different greens?
If I was a tortoise, I think I'd be a pretty sickly character since the only veggies we used to eat were iceberg lettuce and tomato and the occasional green beans from a can. Since researching before buying our tortoise though, we find that we make different choices when we pick out salad greens for ourselves too. Instead of iceberg and romaine, it's a lot more likely to be a salad base of spring mix, or kale, or turnip greens.
We've also found that just having a tortoise has increased how often we buy greens and fruit. Since he can't eat what comes in a bag before it goes bad, we eat greens a lot more frequently than we would have previously. Same thing with strawberries and mangos and so on. (It's a redfoot tortoise, so we feed fruit about every 3 or 4 days) And, let's face it, if your buying a mango to give him a small piece of one, then your going to buy another couple for yourself..
He does eat a lot of stuff we grow in the yard too, but we still find ourselves at the produce department on a lot more regular basis.
If we pick up the hingeback tortoise on our local craigslist, then we'll definitely be eating more mushrooms and sweet potatoes too.. lol
So, yes, the question again was (since I rattled on so long) has keeping tortoises influenced your food choices?
