My torts diet

1289Gabe

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So I’ve been feeding my tortoise store bought dandelions and weeds from my back yard (see photo). But I’ve seen a lot of threads saying to feed them grass, but Leo won’t eat grass, hay, or anything like that. Is this okay? I also want to add that he chews on tiles a lot, is this mineral deficienc?
 

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Tom

The Dog Trainer
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Many leopards don't seem to care for grass. If you've got a varied, weedy, high fiber diet, you don't need grass. With the notable exception of South African leopards, most regular leopards don't really eat dry hay. You can train them to, but its not their favorite.

Use lots and lots of variety, and I really like the mix-ins from Will @Kapidolo Farms and @TylerStewart at tortoisesupply.com. Will sells all kinds of great dried leaves, cactus powder and more. Tyler has great seed mixes that you can grow anywhere, and I love their herbal hay as a food topper/mix-in. Most importantly, my tortoises love their stuff too!

When spring returns look for mulberry and grapevine leaves, lavatera, hibiscus leaves and flowers, and much more.

Another great food item for leopards is spineless opuntia cactus pads. They eat a lot of succulents in the wild, and this is a good one to replace that role in captivity. Very easy to grow in SD too. There are many varieties. Try a few. Very easy to grow your own.
 

1289Gabe

Active Member
Joined
Mar 16, 2020
Messages
173
Location (City and/or State)
San Diego California
Many leopards don't seem to care for grass. If you've got a varied, weedy, high fiber diet, you don't need grass. With the notable exception of South African leopards, most regular leopards don't really eat dry hay. You can train them to, but its not their favorite.

Use lots and lots of variety, and I really like the mix-ins from Will @Kapidolo Farms and @TylerStewart at tortoisesupply.com. Will sells all kinds of great dried leaves, cactus powder and more. Tyler has great seed mixes that you can grow anywhere, and I love their herbal hay as a food topper/mix-in. Most importantly, my tortoises love their stuff too!

When spring returns look for mulberry and grapevine leaves, lavatera, hibiscus leaves and flowers, and much more.

Another great food item for leopards is spineless opuntia cactus pads. They eat a lot of succulents in the wild, and this is a good one to replace that role in captivity. Very easy to grow in SD too. There are many varieties. Try a few. Very easy to grow your own.
Thanks, I give him some pads I buy and I have a hibiscus plant, but I don’t know if its that African one you were talking about.
 

Tom

The Dog Trainer
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Messages
63,269
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Thanks, I give him some pads I buy and I have a hibiscus plant, but I don’t know if its that African one you were talking about.
Regular hibiscus is great too, but by all means you can grow the African type if you want. I also grow and feed them the blue hibiscus. I think that one is from Australia.
 
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