Horsfield/Russian diet

MacyC05

New Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2021
Messages
7
Location (City and/or State)
Widnes
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?
 

Happytort27

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Apr 10, 2020
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Location (City and/or State)
CA
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:


Another helpful site:

 

MacyC05

New Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2021
Messages
7
Location (City and/or State)
Widnes
Hi, thanks
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:


Another helpful site:

Hi, thanks for the reply. When would you first soak it? Would you soak the day I get it or wait?
 

Tom

The Dog Trainer
10 Year Member!
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Messages
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Location (City and/or State)
Southern California
Hi, thanks

Hi, thanks for the reply. When would you first soak it? Would you soak the day I get it or wait?
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.
 

MacyC05

New Member
Joined
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Messages
7
Location (City and/or State)
Widnes
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.
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.
 

Tom

The Dog Trainer
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 9, 2010
Messages
63,264
Location (City and/or State)
Southern California
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.
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.
 

MacyC05

New Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2021
Messages
7
Location (City and/or State)
Widnes
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.
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.
On a different note, I saw a completely ridiculous video yesterday with a tortoise living outside on a balcony with just a hide and Cyprus mulch. Nothing to stop birds or squirrels getting to the poor thing. Worst part is, some people were applauding the care in comments. There wasn't even any heat? It was awful.
 

Lyn W

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Messages
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UK
HI and welcome,
It's quite hard for us in the UK to get a lot of the weeds suggested at this time of year so we usually have to resort to shop bought mixed leaves. Here's a few ideas.

Florette Classic Crispy is the best and Sainsbury also have a good selection but at about £1.50 a bag both are expensive. However, you can get a good mixed leaf salad to use as a base in Aldi - pale green bag (green and red mulitleaf with radicchio) 57p, or in Morrisons ( 2 for £1 at the moment) with has red multileaf, escarole and frisee. Lidl also has a decent mix in an orange bag, I've not looked at Asda's lately.

Use these as a base and for variety add things like pak choi leaves, romaine, lambs lettuce (Sainsbury and some Tesco stores sell bags of that). Kale and spring greens are also ok but my tort isn't keen on those and I end up throwing most of the bags away. Iceberg lettuce and little gems aren't great as far as nutrition is concerned and can have a laxative effect.
My tort also likes the trays of living salads from Sainsbury and Lidl but they tend to only be available in the summer. Handy as a back up if you've not managed to get weeds.

I always soak all shop bought mixes to remove any chlorine they are washed in before bagging, and to rehydrate them.

Your tort will probably love cucumber but again this has little nutritional value and acts as a laxative so shouldn't be fed regularly. I only use the flesh grated to a mush if I think my tort may need help pooping.
Tomatoes and fruit shouldn't be fed as torts can't deal with the sugars. Carrot is OK occasionally but don't feed chunks as they can be a choking hazard - I usually grate some - the carrot leaves are fine to mix in but again my tort isn't too keen.

When the weeds come back my tort loves clover, dandelions, ribwort and broadleaf plantains sow thistle etc - all from chemical and fume free sources.


Use the link to the Tortoise Table as a guide to tort safe plants for food and enclosures.
 

Lyn W

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Jul 22, 2014
Messages
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Location (City and/or State)
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With regards amount - food and fresh water should always be available.
I was told to think of the tort shell as an upturned bowl and feed that amount full, but if the tort eats it all offer more, let the tortoise be your guide. He will stop eating when he's had enough and will often return later for more because they are grazing animals.
I use a pinch of calcium a couple of times a week, and the same for a product called Nutrabal to supplement his diet.
There are dried pellets you can buy which already have supplements in them, but these should not be the sole or main diet. My tort won't touch them but many people use them successfully.
 

hecurl

New Member
Joined
Feb 11, 2023
Messages
4
Location (City and/or State)
Osaka
80% Repcal
20% vegee and wild grass
my hors is about 35yrs old as of 2023 with above diet
 
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