Red Yucca(hesperaloe parviflora) safe for desert tortoise?

[Hurang]

Hi all just trying to find out if this plant is safe in my tortoise enclosure? I can't find anything online or on the tortoise table about it, thanks!

 

[RosemaryDW]

You are not likely to find any desert tortoise foods in the Tortoise Table; it’s designed for owners in the UK. Best to poke around for lists of native desert tortoise foods.

At any rate it should be safe for an enclosure if its spines are relatively flexible. Some yuccas are native tortoise foods—possibly including this one—so he might eat it if super hungry, which would be fine.

 

[Hurang]

Thanks so much for the reply, I've read similar things about the tortoise table, I'll keep poking around online!

 

[RosemaryDW]

I usually type something like “california desert tortoise <plant name> and see what happens. This one was difficult because (a) there is a town named Yucca Valley; (b) the word “red” is everywhere when people talk about the desert and finally (c) another name for this yucca is Chaparral Yucca and chaparral is half of the desert’s terrain. Really hard to narrow down something with multiple common words.

I actually think the Latin name—Yucca whipplei spp—is listed as a desert tortoise food on a tortoise food sheet that won’t load, probably a dead link. Naturally the study was produced in... Yucca Valley.

You can also just search for “Arizona or California desert tortoise native diet” to find sites with food lists.

 

[Hurang]

I usually type something like “california desert tortoise <plant name> and see what happens. This one was difficult because (a) there is a town named Yucca Valley; (b) the word “red” is everywhere when people talk about the desert and finally (c) another name for this yucca is Chaparral Yucca and chaparral is half of the desert’s terrain. Really hard to narrow down something with multiple common words.

I actually think the Latin name—Yucca whipplei spp—is listed as a desert tortoise food on a tortoise food sheet that won’t load, probably a dead link. Naturally the study was produced in... Yucca Valley.

You can also just search for “Arizona or California desert tortoise native diet” to find sites with food lists.

Wow thanks for the update and in depth response! I also couldn't narrow it down, all I found was that red yucca isn't actually in the yucca family. Going to keep looking, and put something around the plant for the time being. there's never a shortage of food, when he's hungry he has a large portion of his enclosure covered in both naturally growing weeds and a grazing patch we grew with all safe seeds, plus he gets regularly fed romaine, red leaf, etc. Thank you again!