Hello!

[Ron143sonia]

Hi everyone...My name is Ron and me and my family are the proud owners of a California desert tortoise. I had an odd question and was hoping for some input. We adopted our boy (Link) 3 days ago from a rescue. Their best guess was he is approximately 40yrs old. We decided on a tortoise because my kids and I are highly allergic to anything with fur so this was what we felt was the best choice for a pet. My concern was that we were told not to feed him anything since our yard would be enough...I am still worried about enough food and want to feed him so bad but dont want him to get sick. Ive given him a few rose petals and he has eaten them fairly quickly but seems to just cruise around yard not eating much of anything else...Any input would be greatly apprectaied. I guess my question is when should I think about supplementing something other than my lawn.

 

[Yvonne G]

You can offer him grape and mulberry leaves, cactus pads, pansies and any edible plants and weeds that haven't been sprayed!

Welcome!

 

[daniellenc]

You can absolutely feed him all sorts of things in your yard as long as no pesticides have been used and it is considered a tortoise safe food. You can also collect all kinds of weeds and grasses (untreated) from wherever you stumble upon them, and even feed grocery store treats. Do a search on here for diet and feed away.

 

[Ron143sonia]

You can offer him grape and mulberry leaves, cactus pads, pansies and any edible plants and weeds that haven't been sprayed!

Welcome!

Thank you for your response...my concern was that he would starve if I didn’t feed him? I thought about giving him a weekly salad of greens/squash/carrots etc... but wasn’t sure of what was too much or too little

 

[daniellenc]

Thank you for your response...my concern was that he would starve if I didn’t feed him? I thought about giving him a weekly salad of greens/squash/carrots etc... but wasn’t sure of what was too much or too little

He should be offered weeds and grasses daily and allowed to graze in your yard. I'm not sure about your species exact dietary needs but will tag @Yvonne G and @Tom who can offer a full list.

 

[Yvonne G]

He won't starve. He should be eating the grass and weeds mostly. That should be 80-90% of his diet. If you want to offer other stuff just for YOUR satisfaction, then you can offer what was said above. Think about what the Mojave desert looks like. They have to wander far and wide to get their stomach filled, but there, in your yard, he can graze on all that lush grass to his heart's content. Just think of him as a miniature cow. Grazing the pasture is what's good and normal for him.

 

[Ron143sonia]

He won't starve. He should be eating the grass and weeds mostly. That should be 80-90% of his diet. If you want to offer other stuff just for YOUR satisfaction, then you can offer what was said above. Think about what the Mojave desert looks like. They have to wander far and wide to get their stomach filled, but there, in your yard, he can graze on all that lush grass to his heart's content. Just think of him as a miniature cow. Grazing the pasture is what's good and normal for

him.

Thank you...I apprectate your help... I will let him do his thing and maybe give him a little treat once a week... I’m glad I found this forum, thought I would be more alone and didn’t realize how many tortoise people were out there