Radiated tortoises vitamins

[newtortmama]

Hiya ! I am getting very different answers from various sources… what are the best foods to give a radiated tortoises to make sure they are getting enough vitamins (especially vitamin A)? Can they eat sweet potatoes, squash, red peppers or watermelon?

Currently (I live on a tropical island, so a lot of weeds like dandelions for instance are not available), I am feeding them lettuce, cucumber, Bok Choy, Indian mulberry leaves, zucchini, papaya, banana, hibiscus leaves.

Any tips would be hugely appreciated

 

[zovick]

Hiya ! I am getting very different answers from various sources… what are the best foods to give a radiated tortoises to make sure they are getting enough vitamins (especially vitamin A)? Can they eat sweet potatoes, squash, red peppers or watermelon?

Currently (I live on a tropical island, so a lot of weeds like dandelions for instance are not available), I am feeding them lettuce, cucumber, Bok Choy, Indian mulberry leaves, zucchini, papaya, banana, hibiscus leaves.

Any tips would be hugely appreciated

I raised and bred Radiated Tortoises in the US from 1965 to 2019 and can tell you without reservation that the best supplements for your Radiated Tortoises are Ultrafine Rep-Cal (with Vitamin D) and Herptivite. The Herptivite has very good Vitamin A content.

 

[TammyJ]

Hi and welcome to the forum! Mauritius looks like a beautiful place to live! I am in Jamaica in the Caribbean Sea. How about some pictures of your tortoises?

 

[Tom]

what are the best foods to give a radiated tortoises to make sure they are getting enough vitamins (especially vitamin A)? Can they eat sweet potatoes, squash, red peppers or watermelon?

Most tortoise foods contain an abundance of Vitamin A, so this really isn't a concern. Yes, they can eat all of those things as a small part of a varied diet.

Currently (I live on a tropical island, so a lot of weeds like dandelions for instance are not available), I am feeding them lettuce, cucumber, Bok Choy, Indian mulberry leaves, zucchini, papaya, banana, hibiscus leaves.

Any tips would be hugely appreciated

I would go very light with sugary fruits, or eliminate them entirely. I don't feed any fruit at all to my Radiata.

Grocery store produce: In short, avoid grocery store produce when possible. Grocery store greens are not the best tortoise foods. They tend to lack fiber, calcium, and some of them have deleterious compounds in them. If you must use foods from the grocery store, favor endive and escarole as the main staples. Add in cilantro, arugula, collards, turnip and mustard greens, lettuces and many others for variety. You will also need to add some sort of amendment to improve the quality as tortoise food. Calcium is good to add a couple of times per week and soaked horse hay pellets are a good way to add fiber for any species. Soaked ZooMed tortoise pellets of any type are good to add, as is Purina Organic Lay Crumbles for chickens, oddly enough. When possible skip the expensive grocery store greens and use a wide variety of weeds, leaves, flowers, and succulents, that are all free.

If you are going to be a tortoises keeper, it is very advantageous to also learn to be a farmer. Or at least a gardener and pasture grower. And if you don't want to grow your own, then learn to be a scrounger. The best foods you can feed to your tortoise are free. You just have to spend time learning your local plants and weeds, and then spend time collecting your free tortoise food. I'd rather spend time on a nature walk collecting tortoise food than driving to the store, fighting traffic and waiting on red lights, and waiting in line to pay for expensive greens, wondering the whole time what chemicals, insecticides and other industrial farming stuff is on those items.

Feeding:
So much contradictory info on this subject. Its simple. What do they eat in the wild. Grass, weeds, leaves, flowers, and succulents. Feed them a huge variety of these things, and you'll have a healthy tortoise. All of these species are very adaptable when it comes to diet and there is a very large margin of error, and many ways to do it right. What if you don't have this sort of "natural" tortoise food available for part of each year because you are in the snow? You will have no choice but to buy grocery store food. What's wrong with grocery store food? It tends to lack fiber, some items are low in calcium or have a poor calcium to phosphorous ratio, and some items have deleterious compounds in them. All of these short comings can be improved with some simple supplementation and amendments. A pinch of calcium two times per week will help fix that problem. You can also leave cuttle bone in the enclosure, so your tortoise can self-regulate its own calcium intake. What about fiber? Soaked horse hay pellets, soaked ZooMed Grassland pellets, Mazuri tortoise chow, "Salad style", "Herbal Hay" both from @TylerStewart and his lovely wife Sarah at Tortoisesupply.com, or many of the dried plants and leaves available from Will @Kapidolo Farms. If you must use grocery store foods, favor endive and escarole as your main staples. Add in arugula, cilantro, kale, collard, mustard and turnip greens, squash leaves, spring mix, romaine, green or red leaf lettuce, butter lettuce, water cress, carrot tops, celery tops, bok choy, and whatever other greens you can find. If you mix in some of the aforementioned amendments, these grocery store foods will offer plants of variety and fiber and be able to meet your tortoises nutritional needs just fine. I find it preferable to grab a few grapevine or mulberry leaves, or a handful of mallow and clover, or some broadleaf plantain leaves and some grass, but with the right additions, grocery store stuff is fine too. Grow your own stuff, or find it around you when possible. Tyler and Sarah also sell a fantastic Testudo seed mix that is great for ALL tortoise species and also super easy to grow in pots, trays, raised garden beds, or in outdoor tortoise enclosures. When that isn't possible, add a wide variety of good stuff to your grocery store greens to make them better.

Supplements:
I recommend you keep cuttle bone available all the time. Some never use it and some munch on it regularly. Some of mine will go months without touching it, and then suddenly eat the whole thing in a day or two. Sulcatas and leopards grow a lot. This requires a tremendous amount of calcium assimilation over time. A great diet is paramount, but it is still a good idea to give them some extra calcium regularly. I use a tiny pinch of RepCal or ZooMed plain old calcium carbonate twice a week. Much discussion has been given to whether or not they need D3 in their calcium supplement. Personally, I don't think it matters. Every tortoise should be getting adequate UV exposure one way or another, so they should be able to make their own D3. I also like to use a mineral supplement. "MinerAll" is my current brand of choice. It seems to help those tortoises that like to swallow pebbles and rocks. It is speculated that some tortoise eat rocks or substrate due to a mineral deficiency or imbalance. Whatever the reason, "MinerAll" seems to stop it or prevent it. Finally, I like to use a reptile vitamin supplement once a week, to round out any hidden deficiencies that may be in my diet over the course of a year.