cpl1307
Active Member
Can I put potted pansies in with my 1 year old Horsefield. Say 2 plants each time. It's obvious he's gonna each them, but is that ok?
Pansies
- Thread starter cpl1307
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PollyAda
Active Member
Pansies as a feeder food are fine, but before you feed or place in the enclosure you'll need to be confident that the plants you have haven't been in contact with insecticides/harmful chemicals, which many supermarket/garden centre plants are exposed to.
I add a couple of pansies to the fresh leaves and weeds I feed my tort on an ad-hoc he prefers dandelions so worth trying that . It really depends on your tortoise enclosure and the size if you have space. I prefer walking, basking space with no hides and rocks and provide fresh food every morning. They are grazers.
cpl1307
Active Member
I'm also minimal. I thought a couple of potted plants would look good in it, but not sure which ones?
Correction with hides and rocks incorrect no in the sentence.
Spider plants are great for tortoise enclosures as they are not poisonous to tortoises, but tortoises do tend to leave them alone...unlike for example an aloe vera which although is not poisonous and is a pretty good plant to feed, will cause loose stools and lead to dehydration if the tortoise eats the whole plant at once, which given access to it, will!!
cpl1307
Active Member
Could I put pansies in their if they where out of reach. He can have some obviously, but I wouldn't want him eating the whole plant all in one go. And he would! He loves food 😋 😍. I'm definitely going to get a spider plant. I ordered a sample of AstroTurf from amazon for a couple of pounds and that's now his basking spot. He loves it. I made his hide up with his heat matt. Not being able to touch, so we won't get burnt and he literally made his own home between 2 pieces of komodo natural bark. I've put a couple of pictures to show you. It does really look cozy it took him hours and now I've had to secure it at each end, so it doesn't fall on him
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ShellingtonTheFirst
Active Member
That heat mat really doesn’t look safe!
cpl1307
Active Member
Why doesn't it look safe? It's been safe for over a year. There's a 2 inch gap and an extra 6" x 6" in square piece of glass at the end if the hide
cpl1307
Active Member
I'm desperately intrigued on your concerns now??
Heat mats put to the side on a thermostat aren't as unsafe as having it on the floor covered. This looks like a habi stat mat...did you by it from Pets at Home? They tend to be fairly reputable (the specific mats, not pets at home who sell several products for tortoises aimed at making profit not tortoise health)...
Just remember, not sure if you know how a microwave works? It target and heats the water content of an object...so anything with limited water content won't heat, and the air around the object in the microwave would feel cold. Well a mat doesn't work on microwaves but on infrared waves and it's not quite the same but what is the same is it doesn't heat air, and doesn't feel like heat on the mat...you can easily hold your hand against it, it feels luke warm. But as with a microwave it hits items nearby and heats them up from the inside. So beware that touching a mat is no indicator of how warm the inside of the wood or the tortoise is getting.
I think pansies would be fine then. The only thing is they are such short term plants and don't regenerate.
I am not a mad fan of AstroTurf just in case they ingest any of it, but yiu can keep an eye in that.
Something that comes in the sort of 3 for £7 type deals in b&q or wherever with pansies and that type is campanula. Its an annual instead of an annual so doesn't flower once and die like pansy, is a bit more hardy and spreads a bit, you may be able to eventually get rid of the AstroTurf an have that instead. Maybe you could pick up pansy, campanula and violas (again one of the hanging basket 3 for 2 type efforts from b&q that is safe).
I've had no issue with my tortoise eating lots of campanula.
Violet is another one that my tortoise doesn't seem to want to eat lots of.
cpl1307
Active Member
To be honest it come as a starter
I am conflicted now because so many people on this forum repeatedly told me not to put it on the floor and to place it on the side of the tank, so not to burn him. If I'm honest it came with his kit when I purchased it as a package, so very well could be a Habi stat mat. The room he is in as silly as it's sounds is where when we had our central heating put in, the main pipe work is under the floor, So it's the warmest room in the house. I very rarely use the mat and the last time I did was when we had the deep freeze. That being said, what would you suggest I get and where would you place it. For nights that I would be turning it on ❤️
cpl1307
Active Member
That's exactly what I'm going to get then. Sounds like a great idea. Ordered a little spider plant aswell. Astro turf is tortoise safe, but he hates it, so I've taken it out anyway. I think like you. They may say safe, but surely anything eating in large amout like astro turf can't be good for even us to eat, never mind his little belly
Sorry if I wasn't clear you putting it on the side is much lower risk than on the floor. The only change I would make is to keep the cable higher up...
But also consider that in a centrally heated house, (well I assume as I keep mine heated all night and the house at 22 for a different type of tortoise and other animals) the room temperature is around 17 or 18 isn't it?
How hot is your enclosure totally unheated at 4 in the morning at the nights coldest when you have your normal central heating set up on? Because if the enclosure stays over 13 degrees it doesn't need heating. You may find the tortoise a but slower in the morning but generally they benefit from night temperatures that are lower than day, and technically that can be as low as 13c.
I agree you need might need it when it's super cold if you don't have heating on and don't have upvc windows or whatever.
The other cute thing to do is see if any friends have spider plants as they have lots of "babies" every year and you can get some from your friends that way!
I quite like treating my tortoises to bits I buy then though!
Also if randomly you can't find campanula (little tiny green kind of lily pad leaves with tiny purple bell flowers), they are sometimes put with alpine plants but invariably I see them on racking outside b&m, tesco and homebase with the rest of the favourites for hanging baskets.
Give the plants a good hose to get off/ leave them out in the rain for a few days to get off anything put on them (though they stay outside anyway in shops)..there is a lot of discussion about not using plants from shops due to pesticides and fertilisers, but we either tend to have UK grown or imported from Northern Europe and the treatments, yes can be bad, but nowhere near as significant as what is allowed in the US.
cpl1307
Active Member
Good advice. I've just noticed that it wasn't even you that originally even brought up the subject of the heat mat. I'm sorry for that. You have been so helpful to me
ShellingtonTheFirst
Active Member
It looks well within touching distance of the tortoise and I was always under the assumption that any heat source touching substrate, near wires etc, are a fire hazard. Also, tortoises need overhead warmth.
