Help please regarding possible toxic food.

[Jemzfarm]

I know young runner bean leaves can be fed in moderation but a small runner bean has somehow got into Georgies enclosure and I’ve just read about them being highly toxic and also extremely high in protein.
Can anyone help with this or had experience?
I am now panicking (as usual)

PS- Our runner beans are not grown anywhere near his enclosure so can only think with the winds we’ve had here that one has blown in or possibly a bird has picked one up and it’s been dropped through!? Either way it was a small young runner bean and I took it off him when I noticed him happily munching away on something that I hadn’t given to him or readily available to him.

Any help would be appreciated as always. Thank you

 

[Maro2Bear]

I seriously doubt the remnants if one single runner bean will do harm. Best thing is to give your tort a really long soak and get it well hydrated and feed some hydrating foods.

Your tort will be fine..just don’t feed beans as part of it’s diet.

• Common Name: Bean (Runner Bean, French Bean, Green Bean, String Bean)
• Latin Name: Phaseolus coccineus; P. vulgaris
• Family Name: Fabaceae/Leguminosae

The young leaves of the French or Runner Bean can be fed in moderation to tortoises. You should never feed the pods or beans themselves, as they are too high in protein and they also contain the toxic compound lectin phytohaemagglutinin, which is only destroyed at very high temperatures.

 

[Jemzfarm]

Thank you @Maro2Bear

I think my initial thought was panic (as usual with anything ) and came straight here

That’s exactly what I read from Tort Table a while back when we planted all our bits and bobs in the raised bed and all I remembered in the back of my mind was ‘toxic’ and thought oh sh*t and went back on the website to look. And now sat here feeling silly for panicking!

Funny you should say about having a a good soak as he’s having one now. Thank you again for replying, I do appreciate it.

 

[Maro2Bear]

Thank you @Maro2Bear

I think my initial thought was panic (as usual with anything ) and came straight here

That’s exactly what I read from Tort Table a while back when we planted all our bits and bobs in the raised bed and all I remembered in the back of my mind was ‘toxic’ and thought oh sh*t and went back on the website to look. And now sat here feeling silly for panicking!

Funny you should say about having a a good soak as he’s having one now. Thank you again for replying, I do appreciate it.

No problem. Extra hydration/soaking always helps.

 

[TammyJ]

This thing sounds very scary to me...we eat green beans and stringbeans after cooking them...does cooking remove the toxin? They are sold in the Supermarket all the time, raw and canned....what's going on?

 

[Jemzfarm]

This thing sounds very scary to me...we eat green beans and stringbeans after cooking them...does cooking remove the toxin? They are sold in the Supermarket all the time, raw and canned....what's going on?

I think the toxin for humans is, as I I have read, is yes it contains the toxic compound, high consumption of uncooked green beans can have affects which some people are more susceptible to than others. But cooked properly is absolutely fine.

If I’m honest I’ve eaten raw beans in the garden when we’ve been picking them and nothing’s happened to me. Same with my nephew who’s 6 (although now I’ll say we will cook them first)
But after knowing about then being highly toxic and too high in protein in torts I did have a quick read about it on humans. Without sounding weird it was honestly quite interesting. Have a little research. Hope this helps

 

[TammyJ]

I think the toxin for humans is, as I I have read, is yes it contains the toxic compound, high consumption of uncooked green beans can have affects which some people are more susceptible to than others. But cooked properly is absolutely fine.

If I’m honest I’ve eaten raw beans in the garden when we’ve been picking them and nothing’s happened to me. Same with my nephew who’s 6 (although now I’ll say we will cook them first)
But after knowing about then being highly toxic and too high in protein in torts I did have a quick read about it on humans. Without sounding weird it was honestly quite interesting. Have a little research. Hope this helps

It certainly does! Thank you. Love my cooked green beans. But...can I give them cooked to my tortoises? Just wondering...!

 

[Jemzfarm]

It certainly does! Thank you. Love my cooked green beans. But...can I give them cooked to my tortoises? Just wondering...!

Me too! We have them all the time especially the amount being grown outside, we pick a load and it seems they re grow overnight! We’re giving bags away!

I think it will be controversial with feeding topics haha! We all do our best as pet owners but doesn’t mean we will all agree.

But I’ll be honest, we’ve had our tort since we were young kids, he was originally bought for my mum.
When my mum passed away suddenly, obviously he came to me (a little over a year ago) My mum and her partner would feed him cooked runner beans weekly!! So me being me, went into full blown tortoise do/don't mode because I was so worried about getting it wrong with not having physically looked after him for many years apart from when they went on holidays.

He is a very fussy stubborn tort with food because of what he’s been used to for years (although not fed anything wrong as such just maybe too much of a good thing like chocolate etc for us) so I went back to basics with him, but I did kind of ween him off them if you like. He’s still as fussy as ever and it’s still a battle and I’ve tried everything! I was worried at one point for the amount of days he refused to eat. But the info on here was great so I calmed down!!

From what I’ve read on here and other places you will get ‘think what they’d have access to in the wild’ which yes absolutely but we can’t always recreate that especially in the UK. You will get ‘never ever feed them’ ‘moderation is fine’ and ‘mine have always been fine with having them’

They are very high in protein, for me it was the fact a raw one had fell in and I knew about the toxin. But cooked I have fed occasionally, sometimes once a month, sometimes once every couple of months as I just don’t think of it and he sees them as a treat now and usually it’s gone straight away. He loves the runner bean leaves...again a moderation feed but I’ve never seen him eat anything so quick! Again I know it’s all a very personal thing for owners but for me he is happy, healthy, vet checks are always great, no pyramiding, no health issues. Sounds awful but he is probably better looked after here and gets everything he needs, he has his soaks 2-3 times weekly and calcium on food etc. I’m not saying my mum didn’t do this but she probably had a much more relaxed approach (although she was very knowledgable with torts just maybe not with green beans!!)whereas I’m a panicky mess hahaha!!! And he’s 18-19 years old now and I’d say he has a much more varied diet now as I buy seeds from shelled warriors and learnt all about plants/flowers they could have and how much)

Sorry went off on a bit of a tangent there!!!