Leo's Diet this week...

[Keith D.]

Hi all, Leo has asked me to share with y'all what he will be eating this week. This week he has organic kale, organic collard greens, organic dandelion greens, organic bok choy, organic Napa cabbage, home grown prickly pear cactus pads, dried alfalfa, organic carrots and a tiny bit of organic romaine lettuce.
Today it is topped off with prickly pear apples and a hookbarrel cactus flower.

 

[Tom]

Are you looking for feed back, or just sharing?

 

[Keith D.]

Are you looking for feed back, or just sharing?

Just sharing, but I always welcome feedback.

 

[Tom]

Grocery store type foods are not the best. All of those things you are feeding are ok, but only the dandelions and cactus pads should be fed with any regularity. Weeds, grasses and leaves are much better for them. If you must feed grocery store stuff, look for endive and escarole.

Here are some suggestions:
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

 

[Keith D.]

Grocery store type foods are not the best. All of those things you are feeding are ok, but only the dandelions and cactus pads should be fed with any regularity. Weeds, grasses and leaves are much better for them. If you must feed grocery store stuff, look for endive and escarole.

Here are some suggestions:
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

I can only feed what I can get my paws on, I buy everything organic and grow and gather what I can this time of year, which isn't much due to the extreme heat (115+ ATM). I have zuchinni planted and growing in the garden. Oh and I forgot organic redichio in his food as well.

 

[Dragonight1993]

ya I know the pain of not being able to find wild plants for my tort. I live in arizona so I can get lots of prickly pear cactus paddles but it hard to get other stuff.

 

[Keith D.]

ya I know the pain of not being able to find wild plants for my tort. I live in arizona so I can get lots of prickly pear cactus paddles but it hard to get other stuff.

I live in SW AZ. Where are you Dragon?

 

[Dragonight1993]

I live in SW AZ. Where are you Dragon?

mesa az

 

[Grandpa Turtle 144]

ya I know the pain of not being able to find wild plants for my tort. I live in arizona so I can get lots of prickly pear cactus paddles but it hard to get other stuff.

I live in Phx. AZ and the one thing that does grow great is weeds and they grow real well after every rain . You can't find any weeds to feed your 1-2 torts or Evan any to mix in your store vegys ?

 

[Dragonight1993]

I live in Phx. AZ and the one thing that does grow great is weeds and they grow real well after every rain . You can't find any weeds to feed your 1-2 torts or Evan any to mix in your store veggies ?

I live in a apt and they spray the weeds here. I'm probably going to grow some weeds myself. I just got my first tort.

 

[Keith D.]

I live in Phx. AZ and the one thing that does grow great is weeds and they grow real well after every rain . You can't find any weeds to feed your 1-2 torts or Evan any to mix in your store vegys ?

Here I harvest as much as I can as fast as I can when it starts growing cause after a few days the sun has done its job and turned everything to dust lol only thing that grows decently is the globe mallow and even that is done now lol Wish I could figure out what other weeds are OK, its just hard to identify when they don't get a chance to grow lol. We have a ton of creosote bushes, pallo verde trees and mesquite trees, I know they can't eat creosote, don't know about the others.

 

[Dragonight1993]

Here I harvest as much as I can as fast as I can when it starts growing cause after a few days the sun has done its job and turned everything to dust lol only thing that grows decently is the globe mallow and even that is done now lol Wish I could figure out what other weeds are OK, its just hard to identify when they don't get a chance to grow lol. We have a ton of creosote bushes, pallo verde trees and mesquite trees, I know they can't eat creosote, don't know about the others.

I've never heard of globe mallow but I to lived in Minnesota must of my live so i don't know all the plants that grow in Arizona lol

 

[Tom]

You can grow most of the stuff on that list yourself. If you did a 4x8 raised planter bed in a shady spot, or just use some shade cloth over it, you get keep somethings alive in AZ.

Mulberry trees, grape vines, spineless opuntia and Lavatera bicolor, will all do well there with some attention to water. I don't think you can plant these things in the mid summer heat though. I have the same problem here.

The tested mix should do well there is you start it in early spring and then offer some shade cloth for its first summer. Once the roots are established, it will live just fine over summer in the sun.

 

[Dragonight1993]

You can grow most of the stuff on that list yourself. If you did a 4x8 raised planter bed in a shady spot, or just use some shade cloth over it, you get keep somethings alive in AZ.

Mulberry trees, grape vines, spineless opuntia and Lavatera bicolor, will all do well there with some attention to water. I don't think you can plant these things in the mid summer heat though. I have the same problem here.

The tested mix should do well there is you start it in early spring and then offer some shade cloth for its first summer. Once the roots are established, it will live just fine over summer in the sun.

I was thinking of getting the SEED MIX: BROADLEAF TESTUDO MIX from http://www.tortoisesupply.com

 

[Tom]

I was thinking of getting the SEED MIX: BROADLEAF TESTUDO MIX from http://www.tortoisesupply.com

That is the best stuff ever.

See it here:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/tortoisesupply-com-testudo-seed-mix-thread.71890/

This same table is up and running to this day, still producing buckets of tortoise food for me.