Opuntia cactus

[min]

I have bought my baby star a opuntia cactus, what is the best way to prepare it to feed to him?

 

[coreyc]

Just chop it up and feed it to him

 

[TortTopper]

Haha yep, Just chop it up, pretty much the simplest way to do it.

 

[min]

What about the prickly bits? Will it not hurt him?

 

[Yellow Turtle]

You should buy non prickly cactus pads. But if you already buy prickly ones, then remove all the pricks with knife or just simply burn them a bit.

 

[min]

Thanks for all your advice, I didn't realise they had non prickly ones. Ill get searching for them

 

[serphinox]

do these cactus give ur tort loose, wet stools? i notice evrytime i fed my tort with cactus, her stools kinda wet. so i only feed her once a week mixed with other stuff. hay mostly

 

[Yellow Turtle]

do these cactus give ur tort loose, wet stools? i notice evrytime i fed my tort with cactus, her stools kinda wet. so i only feed her once a week mixed with other stuff. hay mostly

They might give your torts loose stool if fed too much. I give it to my torts everyday as a varied diet and I see no problem with their poop.

 

[CtTortoiseMom]

do these cactus give ur tort loose, wet stools? i notice evrytime i fed my tort with cactus, her stools kinda wet. so i only feed her once a week mixed with other stuff. hay mostly

Yep, they sure do. My tort's love it but they alway's get loose stool after eating cactus.

 

[Melly-n-shorty]

do these cactus give ur tort loose, wet stools? i notice evrytime i fed my tort with cactus, her stools kinda wet. so i only feed her once a week mixed with other stuff. hay mostly

yea it does, but in a way its good to clear out the system a little every once in a while. Personally I never offer it more then one day in a row. it freezes really well and it is easy to break off a chunk when its frozen. for hatchlings and smaller tortoise chop it up.

 

[CLMoss]

Wow, I did not know that you can freeze the pads. Thanks for that info. My little Star's only receive the cactus as a treat, in the evening, every few days.

 

[Dizisdalife]

When I first started feeding spineless opuntia to my sulcata it cause him to have runny stools. Now that he gets it on a regular basis it doesn't seem to have that effect on him. I usually will scrape the spines off with a potato pealer.