Right kind of cactus?

[TKL]

Saw these in my local Asian grocery store. There was no label unfortunately, so just wanted to know if these are the same type of cactus pads that other people feed to their torts. Secondly, if they are suitable, how would I go about preparing them for my 4" leopard to eat?

 

[Yvonne G]

Yup - those are opuntia and edible. Watch out for those stickers (glochids)!

 

[Jodie]

Yummy. I dice them up into very small pieces. I also enjoy hand feeding a thin long strip of it.

 

[TKL]

OK thanks guys, good to know. Next time I'm out that way I'll be sure to pick some up.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

+1...Usually most or all of the spines have been removed. Those haven't! Be careful.

 

[Tyanna]

Would you pull those out when feeding?

 

[Amanda81]

I have found scraping them with a spoon is the easiest, quickest way to get rid of the prickles. Sometimes I will use my lighter and burn the little places first then scrape but u really don't have to

 

[Maro2Bear]

I agree, I take a kitchen knife and just scrape it back and forth over the pad until it pretty much feels smooth to my fingers. This process pretty much takes care of all large spines and most all of the small ones. I then give it a good rinse off in the sink to wash spines away, then a good pat down/rub with paper towel. Then, I'll take a slice and mince it up and our sully loves it.

 

[tortdad]

You may need to soften it up for the little guy (microwave). The larger pads are tougher which is why I pull the younger smaller pads off my cactus to feed. FYI, cactus is the easiest to grow just drop one of those pads on the ground and it will grow. If you really wanted too you could bury half of it in the ground.

 

[Tom]

I use heavy rubber glove and rub the glochids off under running water. Then, just put the pad, or a piece of it, in the enclosure and let your tortoise go to work on it. There is a good chance your tortoise has never seen cactus before an so won't recognize it as food. I'd skip a feeding day, then put the cactus pad in the normal food place and give hime a couple of days to nibble on it. Don't give up after one try. It might take weeks, but in the end this is a very good food for leopards.

The pads will store best if you leave them open to the air with good ventilation at room temp. Keeping them in the fridge or wrapped up will make them rot fairly quickly.

 

[Amanda81]

I give my big guys the pads whole and they tear them piece by piece but the baby's, I slice it up, For my leopard that's very small, I make the sliced thin enough that I can almost see through them, for my sully baby's, their six months old and about Palm size, I slice theirs about as thick as 5 sheets of paper, they have to pull at it but it's still thin enough they stay at it till its gone. I figure it helps w beak growth at that thickness.

 

[TKL]

I ended up taking a potato peeler to the pads that I bought, then I diced it up into manageable pieces. My little one ate it readily.

 

[Tyanna]

I had one growing in my russian's enclosure for a few months, then I finally fed him some store bought ones and once he realized it was good, he gobbled up the growing one before it even had a chance to give off new growth LOL.

My mother in law is Hispanic and is amazing and fast at removing the spines with a very sharp knife. When I watch her I'm always surprised she never cuts her fingers off, or never gets poked!

 

[Grandpa Turtle 144]

Please becareful keep that plastic away from the torts the smallest part of plastic is bad . I don't remove the spines they are high in fiber . Didn't you mothers tell you the skin of the Apple is the best part for the kids I've had my leopards eat 3 inch spines like they where candy canes . But have a great tort day !