I wanted to make sure this yellow one wasnt an Oxalis. it grows out front so I didnt know if I had to kill it or if I would feed it occasionally.
I didnt know ALL clovers here moderation. I thought some they could graze on regularly. Guess I need to do more research before I plan their plant plots.
Oh I see, just because the flowers are yellow, like oxalis flowers? That is easy to check, once you get the hang of it. Take a look at the flowers on all the clovers you posted above. You see how there are multiple flower heads bunched together? And the flower peals point upward?
Oxalis has a single, wide open flower and the leaves tend to be purplish. Like this:
View attachment 241304
Clover is in the pea/bean family and is higher in protein than some plants. Some plant protein is fine, actually necessary for your tortoise. But you probably don’t want it to be the largest part of their diet.
You have leopards, I think? Why not try one of the grazing mixes sold by the companies mentioned above? Two out of three of them include some clovers.
If you already bought a big bag of the clover mix you could add grass seeds but I think it might be easier to try one of the pasture mixes @Tom knows about.
I just wanted to add to what @RosemaryDW said: My oxalis doesn't have purple leaves. They stay green. But all oxalis has the little yellow trumpet shaped flowers. The oxalis flowers that grow here are about 1 inch long. This is very different from any of the other flowers from the clover family like the one in the first post of this thread.
I just received more seeds from @TylerStewart and his lovely wife Sarah at tortoisesupply.com today. Their seed mixes make up a large percentage of my tortoises diets for about 7-8 months of every year and I highly recommend them. I've got 3 new planters going with two of their seed mixes right now and the more I cut and feed it out, the faster it grows back. One 4x8' plot is filling up a 5 gallon bucket with tortoise food twice a week. I'm already on my fourth and fifth cutting for the year with each plot and I only planted it in mid April! See it here:
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/spring-planting.165629/
That is a lot of variety. It sounds like a lot of flowers. I don't like flowers to make up more than 5-10% of the diet on any given day.
Another thing I like to do is to just use one of the things you've mentioned per day. Then something different the next day and so on… With babies or picky eaters, I find they pick their favorite things out of a mix, and don't eat the rest.
She’ll eat the grass eventually, keep trying! I like what Tom says about trying one thing per day.
I know how hard it is to read all the contradictory information, yes, even here we disagree. That said, I offer sweet clover and so does Tom and a lot of other keepers. If you want to try the four bee blend, I think it would be fine.
Ok this helps. so I'm understanding as variety as a whole. but as babies give them one option at a time so they learn to like multiple things? <snip> and then one day only do the fresh trimmed grass? or a few grass days in a row.
ok thank you. I really appreciate your time and responses. If you dont mind I might add you to a friend list so I can PM you come questions if I get some.
You've got the idea.Ok this helps. so I'm understanding as variety as a whole. but as babies give them one option at a time so they learn to like multiple things? I'm assuming they are not going to starve themselves. so if dandilion greens is all they have, eventually thats what they will eat, next day if hibicus leaves is it, thats what they will eat? and then one day only do the fresh trimmed grass? or a few grass days in a row.