I'm picking my horsfield up on Saturday so I just wondering what fo you feed daily and weekly? I know which foods are safe but what do you feed together on a usual day? What goes into your variation? What do you feed when weeds aren't available?
Hi, thanks for the reply. When would you first soak it? Would you soak the day I get it or wait?Try to rotate everything out and provide a variety of foods. Here are some food suggestions also complied by Tom:
Mulberry leaves
Grape vine leaves
Hibiscus leaves
African hibiscus leaves
Blue hibiscus leaves
Rose of Sharon leaves
Rose leaves
Geraniums
Gazanias
Lavatera
Pansies
Petunias
Hostas
Honeysuckle
Cape honeysuckle
Leaves and blooms from any squash plant, like pumpkin, cucumber, summer squash, etc...
Young spineless opuntia cactus pads
Weeds:
There are soooooooo many...
Dandelion
Mallow
Filaree
Smooth Sow thistle
Prickly Sow thistle
Milk thistle
Goat head weed
Cats ear
Nettles
Trefoil
Wild onion
Wild mustard
Wild Garlic
Clovers
Broadleaf plantain
Narrow leaf plantain
Chick weed
Hawksbit
Hensbit
Hawksbeard
Other good stuff:
"Testudo Seed Mix" from http://www.tortoisesupply.com/SeedMixes
Pasture mixes or other seeds from http://www.groworganic.com/seeds.html
Homegrown alfalfa
Mazuri Tortoise Chow
ZooMed Grassland Tortoise Food
If you do not have these types of weeds and flowers available at the moment, you can also get dandelion greens, mustard greens, cilantro, turnip and radish greens, bok choy, wheatgrass, and collard greens from most grocery stores. Make sure to rotate each item out every day to provide a variety. As a staple, you can buy chicory, endive, and escarole. Although, your tortoise needs a wider variety than this. Maybe try to order some seed mixes online or walk around your neighborhood and find some weeds that you can feed.
Here is the care sheet for your species:
The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise
I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...www.tortoiseforum.org
Another helpful site:
The Tortoise Table - Home
The Tortoise Table plant database and resource site for Tortoise ownerswww.thetortoisetable.org.uk
Soak on day one.Hi, thanks
Hi, thanks for the reply. When would you first soak it? Would you soak the day I get it or wait?
OK great thanks, I wanted to check but I was pretty sure it would be day 1. I've been in Facebook groups and reading up on their care for a couple months now and it just seems the right time so I'm just double checking all the care info and asking anything im not sure about. Better safe than sorry.Soak on day one.
Most of the care info you receive will be wrong. Read the thread that Happytort linked for the correct care, housing and feeding info. Questions are welcome.
FB groups are about the worst possible place to get tortoise care info. They have al sorts of crazy wrong ideas, and ban anyone who tries to set them straight. If you listen to those people, harm is very likely to come to your tortoise. Know what's funny? They will probably tell you the same thing about us. So how do you know who to listen to? Listen to the people who've been keeping dozens of tortoises of different species for decades and doing experimental work to see what works best in the real world. FB tends to perpetuate a lot of the old wrong info, and they even come up with new wrong info sometimes.OK great thanks, I wanted to check but I was pretty sure it would be day 1. I've been in Facebook groups and reading up on their care for a couple months now and it just seems the right time so I'm just double checking all the care info and asking anything im not sure about. Better safe than sorry.
If I'm honest I don't take much notice of alot some people off Facebook say. The only things I like to actually listen to is stuff that has came from here. I've just had a chance to read through the rest of the care sheet and everything I'm going to be doing seems to line up with your care. They have quite a few discount codes for places like bioactive herps, swell reptiles and Internet reptile too so that doesn't hurt. I'll have everything ready after I go to the store today, just have to pick up a couple things like a plug timer.FB groups are about the worst possible place to get tortoise care info. They have al sorts of crazy wrong ideas, and ban anyone who tries to set them straight. If you listen to those people, harm is very likely to come to your tortoise. Know what's funny? They will probably tell you the same thing about us. So how do you know who to listen to? Listen to the people who've been keeping dozens of tortoises of different species for decades and doing experimental work to see what works best in the real world. FB tends to perpetuate a lot of the old wrong info, and they even come up with new wrong info sometimes.
Ask questions. Because of where you've been getting your info, you will get lots of contradictory info here, and you should prepare to be frustrated and confused by it. We will help you sort it all out and explain the contradictions and why hat is right is right.