I may be over reacting but WHAT IF I OVERLOOK SOMETHING!!!!?????

[TheTortoiseWhisperer]

OMG…..I was just looking into the plant identification pictures and now I'm scared…WHAT IF I DON'T NOTICE THE LITTLE TOXIC PLANTS???? No kidding but I feel like I want to uproot my entire back yard and just plant bermuda grass and hibiscus and I don't even have a tortoise yet!!!!! isn't there a black and white list or a rule of thumb?? I'm not a plant person so a lot of them kind of look the same to me.

 

[dmmj]

Sorry no rule of thumb, plants that are toxic to mammals seem to sometimes be ok for tortoises.

 

[Jacqui]

First you need to relax, okay? We can only do what we can do to protect the tortoises. There comes a point when you have to trust that Mother Nature gave them a tremendous ability to survive and a lot of that is because they can handle eating things that other animals may not. Plus you have to take blind leaps sometimes that they know what to eat and what not to eat. There is no real list, there are ones saying what is safe for humans and mammals. Each day with our sharing, we start to add to our knowledge of what plants atleast some of the species can tolerate.

 

[Laurie]

I wouldn't be worried about it. I've read that if you have a nice variety available , they will instinctually know what to and what to not eat.

 

[Edna]

We humans like to grow plants in monocultures and have a lot of control, but nature kind of embraces chaos. If you try to eliminate every possible threat, you create a completely artificial environment. Let go and let God.

 

[Arizona Sulcata]

I have plants in my backyard that aren't good for tortoises and I've had lettuce mixes that contain things that aren't good for them as well, they avoid it like the plague. Their instincts are sharp, in most cases they know what they should and shouldn't eat better than we do.

 

[wellington]

I would imagine that's why they have lasted so long on this earth and can live so long. Instincts are better then anything we can do. I pulled what I new was bad. Then left it alone. Just don't purposely plant was is known to be bad.