Need help with food

[matheny00]

Ok I have the basic list of foods for our redfoot torts. What my question is we have this amazing garden and don't know what leaves they can eat. Bell Peppers, Beets, radish, Strawberrys, pumpkin, watermelon and cantaloupe leaves. We grow all our lettuce for them and us in a hydroponics system. We just don't want to toss something that can be food for them.

 

[nicoleann2214]

@ZEROPILOT

 

[Crush da Baum]

Wow, you are right that is an amazing garden. You can check https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/ for your plants.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Damn
That's pretty serious.
I'm however not a botanist.
I do know that the leaves of peppers and tomatoes are poisonous. But I can't vouch for most of the others, either.
I agree with @Crush da Baum about checking out that particular foods list.
Between that and good old GOOGLE, you should be able to find out what you can and can't feed.

 

[SPILL]

I don't have redfoots but do feed strawberry leaves occasionally and melon and pumpkin whole vines frequently.

 

[Maro2Bear]

Ok I have the basic list of foods for our redfoot torts. What my question is we have this amazing garden and don't know what leaves they can eat. Bell Peppers, Beets, radish, Strawberrys, pumpkin, watermelon and cantaloupe leaves. We grow all our lettuce for them and us in a hydroponics system. We just don't want to toss something that can be food for them.View attachment 297865View attachment 297866

Very cool hydroponics set up. I take it you add a fertilizer to the water as it circulates throughout the system.

 

[matheny00]

Very cool hydroponics set up. I take it you add a fertilizer to the water as it circulates throughout the system.

Correct we have an all natural organic mix that we use. Next year going to add a second unit just have to find the room and do strawberries.

 

[Toddrickfl1]

They can eat anything that you posted. The only thing I'm not sure of are the strawberry leaves.

 

[RosemaryDW]

I probably wouldn’t offer the bell pepper leaves; they are in the nightshade family, which are generally not recommended.

The rest are all good to great! Your might not eat strawberry leaves but if you keep offering them they might develop a taste for them; mine sure did.

 

[JMM]

Your garden is indeed lovely! Here is some guidance regarding commonly grown vegetables/plants in backyard gardens:
Don't feed any leaves or flowers from the nightshade family--eggplant, tomato, potato, peppers, tomatillo.
Feed only in moderation (if at all) leaves of beet family--beets, swiss chard, spinach.
Do not feed any part of the rhubarb plant.
Do not feed any part of wild, perennial or sweet peas and legumes.
Ok to feed--strawberry leaves, very young squash leaves (avoid leaves with rough prickers), squash blossoms, pea leaves and stems and flowers, any brassica (kale, broccoli, cabbage, etc.), lettuces, mizuna, mustards, escaroles, frisee, dandelions, very young sunflower leaves (no rough leaves), marigold flowers, violet flowers, raspberry/blackberry leaves, very young radish leaves (i.e. no rough leaves).

 

[Tom]

Your garden is indeed lovely! Here is some guidance regarding commonly grown vegetables/plants in backyard gardens:
Don't feed any leaves or flowers from the nightshade family--eggplant, tomato, potato, peppers, tomatillo.
Feed only in moderation (if at all) leaves of beet family--beets, swiss chard, spinach.
Do not feed any part of the rhubarb plant.
Do not feed any part of wild, perennial or sweet peas and legumes.
Ok to feed--strawberry leaves, very young squash leaves (avoid leaves with rough prickers), squash blossoms, pea leaves and stems and flowers, any brassica (kale, broccoli, cabbage, etc.), lettuces, mizuna, mustards, escaroles, frisee, dandelions, very young sunflower leaves (no rough leaves), marigold flowers, violet flowers, raspberry/blackberry leaves, very young radish leaves (i.e. no rough leaves).

What is wrong with older rougher squash leaves or radish leaves?

 

[Tom]

They can eat anything that you posted. The only thing I'm not sure of are the strawberry leaves.

Strawberry leaves are good tortoise food.

 

[Tom]

Ok I have the basic list of foods for our redfoot torts. What my question is we have this amazing garden and don't know what leaves they can eat. Bell Peppers, Beets, radish, Strawberrys, pumpkin, watermelon and cantaloupe leaves. We grow all our lettuce for them and us in a hydroponics system. We just don't want to toss something that can be food for them.

What species and size tortoise are we talking about?

 

[JMM]

What is wrong with older rougher squash leaves or radish leaves?

They are rough and can abrade the GI tract. Abrasions to the soft palate, etc. can result in abscesses similar to what is seen in ruminants fed rough feed. It's possible the spines may even migrate into other tissues--no evidence of this. However, in horses, there is a condition known as mare reproductive loss syndrome. Ultimately it was determined to be associated with inadvertent ingestion of tent caterpillars. The caterpillars have spines and when ingested these spines migrated from the GI tract into other tissues. Transported along with the spines were bacteria that were either ingested or carried from the GI tract. This resulted in multiple abscesses throughout the abdomen, including the placenta which resulted in abortion. So by analogy, one should take great care in feeding rough materials to any animal.

 

[Tom]

They are rough and can abrade the GI tract. Abrasions to the soft palate, etc. can result in abscesses similar to what is seen in ruminants fed rough feed. It's possible the spines may even migrate into other tissues--no evidence of this. However, in horses, there is a condition known as mare reproductive loss syndrome. Ultimately it was determined to be associated with inadvertent ingestion of tent caterpillars. The caterpillars have spines and when ingested these spines migrated from the GI tract into other tissues. Transported along with the spines were bacteria that were either ingested or carried from the GI tract. This resulted in multiple abscesses throughout the abdomen, including the placenta which resulted in abortion. So by analogy, one should take great care in feeding rough materials to any animal.

I've never heard of this issue with tortoises. In the wild they eat fully spined opuntia cactus, among other things with thorns and spines, so this is new info for me.

@Kapidolo Farms
@Markw84
@Yvonne G
@zovick
@Sterant
@turtlesteve

Have you guys heard of anything like this for tortoises?

 

[JMM]

I'm not saying it does happen.....but from a comparative medicine standpoint, I am suggesting caution.

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

Nothing, they are good too.

What is wrong with older rougher squash leaves or radish leaves?

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

All the things are okay feeds, we are talking about redfoots, not Testudo. Nightshade family plants - many have D3 in the plant tissue, so much so that is in part why they can become toxic for mammals. Wholly $hit - right! https://kapidolofarms.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/19Espenshade-TTPGwithNOTES.pdf. page 16, if you want the whole article - note so here in a reply.

It's about moderation and variety. I challenge you'all to find one reference of tomato leaf toxicity in people, just one! Use pubmed https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/

All diets should consist of many many things. Most in-situ diet studies indicate that upto 1/4 of the food consumed is one thing in years of high primary productivity (lots of rain = lots of plant growth) for tortoises. Often the next thing on the list is in the teens for %. So 25% and 10% to 20%, That leaves everything else (35% to 45%) is made up of less than 10% each, but is often just a few % of many many things.

I don't know what's going on in their tortoise minds, maybe they are fickle, maybe its hedonism (they certainly like sex), maybe just tortoise weirdness. But variety is very important.