How many is too many?

[akp022]

Since it's dandelion season and Aggie loves em I just thought I'd ask...how many dandelions are tortoises allowed to have a day? Aggie ate 4 big ones and his eyes were wide open and he was running into the walls and moving non-stop for almost 3 hours, then he slept for the next 24 hours (he's perfectly fine now...that was over the weekend). He's had dandelions before but only 2 at a time so I was wondering if this had anything to do with it?

 

[wellington]

Interesting question. I have never heard of a limit. I don't get enough of them in my yard to worry about my leopard eating too many of them. I wouldn't think there would be a limit, but will be interesting to see what others say.

 

[WillTort2]

I've got a female Russian named Lucy that develops pink urates when she has more than one or 2 dandelions. I try to give each of my russians 2 or 3 on each Wednesday and Sunday. They really focus on the flowers but also eat the leaves and stems.

All told they need a variety of different weeds and greens for best nutrition.

Good luck.

 

[pfara]

Check out http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/site/tortoise_home_1.asp

Says dandelions are high in oxalates. Also is a diuretic.

 

[Levi the Leopard]

When you say you feed 2 or 4 does this mean flowers, leaves or complete plant?

I have tons of dandies and sometimes my leopard will eat 30 or more leaves in one sitting. (I'll pluck a bunch and feed it to him indoors) I have never seen any difference in anything on these days.

My Russians eat the flowers, my leopard does not.

 

[Cowboy_Ken]

I've never worried about dandelions. I encourage the growth by spreading the seeds in my tortoises enclosures. For me, the key is variety. If you feed a broad spectrum of weeds and grasses, you should not have concerns,(providing the variety has no poisonous plants in it!).

 

[Joanne]

I feed the leaves along with salad bag leaves. Occasional flowers. The flowers are like tortoise crack!

 

[akp022]

I pick everything for him to eat (as its still too cold for him to go out much and graze yet) and he tries hard to eat the stems and leaves but just spits them out...I'm not sure how he'd do if I mixed them in...so for now he will only eat the flowers even though the whole thing is available to him