Prickly Pear Fruit for Desert Tortoise

[lizhill4545]

I live in Tucson, AZ and it's prickly pear fruit season! My ~7 year old desert tortoise, Marshmallow, LOVES the fruit. Can I give Marshmallow one per day while they're ripe here? Or is that too much? I also read you're supposed to remove the seeds, but that doesn't seem realistic as in the wild desert tortoises will eat them off the plant. Marshmallow is in an outdoor enclosure here and we try to feed him as much native/wild food as possible, so this is pretty much the only fruit we've given him. He eats a lot of timothy hay, globemallow, senna, dandelion, kale and mulberry leaves as his main diet with other random (but safe/approved) wild plants as we find them.
Thanks for your advice!

 

[Tom]

I live in Tucson, AZ and it's prickly pear fruit season! My ~7 year old desert tortoise, Marshmallow, LOVES the fruit. Can I give Marshmallow one per day while they're ripe here? Or is that too much? I also read you're supposed to remove the seeds, but that doesn't seem realistic as in the wild desert tortoises will eat them off the plant. Marshmallow is in an outdoor enclosure here and we try to feed him as much native/wild food as possible, so this is pretty much the only fruit we've given him. He eats a lot of timothy hay, globemallow, senna, dandelion, kale and mulberry leaves as his main diet with other random (but safe/approved) wild plants as we find them.
Thanks for your advice!

All you will get is opinions on this. I don't think once a day would do harm, but I prefer to give them less than that. Once or twice a week I where my comfort level is.

Timothy hay is too stemmy. Orchard grass hay or Bermuda hay works better. When feeding dry hay, I also like to give them ample opuntia since it is so wet. I feel like it keeps the GI tract moving better. I also bump up the soaks when feeding dry hay.

 

[lizhill4545]

All you will get is opinions on this. I don't think once a day would do harm, but I prefer to give them less than that. Once or twice a week I where my comfort level is.

Timothy hay is too stemmy. Orchard grass hay or Bermuda hay works better. When feeding dry hay, I also like to give them ample opuntia since it is so wet. I feel like it keeps the GI tract moving better. I also bump up the soaks when feeding dry hay.

Thank you!
We tried orchard hay at first, but he didn’t eat it so tried Timothy and he will so we went with that. May go back to Orchard for the next bag.

 

[Tom]

Thank you!
We tried orchard hay at first, but he didn’t eat it so tried Timothy and he will so we went with that. May go back to Orchard for the next bag.

Try chopping it up, re-hydrating it, and mixing it with favorite greens. Start with very small amounts at first.

Another easy way to get them eating more hay is to get hay pellets for horses and soak them. They break down ad can be mixed with greens for more fiber. Again, start with just a single pellet at first.

 

[EppsDynasty]

@lizhill4545 the fruit (which is actually a berry) should be fed in moderation but I do believe you can feed the pads themself in abundance @Tom will know better about this.