She ate toxic plants?!

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Linda137

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My desert torts eat spurge all the time. There isn’t that much and they do fine.
Hi! Being a desert tortoise owner as well, what else would you recommend I feed my tortoise? I am trying to give her a more varied diet and I'm not sure which foods are the best to feed her most of the time. Thank you!
 

queen koopa

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Hey! i think you are right, I have fed my tortoise purslane her entire life and I've read many places they are very good for her, but the tortoise table says its toxic. So now I'm not sure who is right hahaha. (I don't know if the right translation is purslane I'm a spanish speaker in spanish they are called verdolagas)
I was going to bring up purslane as well. Grows crazy here in nevada when its given any amount of water. Koopa (6yr old Sulcata) was obsessed with it her first year here and I noticed wet black loose stool from it as she was eating it in excess. This year she only eats a bit and moves on. Think it has to be spring purslane or grown with more shade for her to “like” it. She rarely eats the cuttings I give her anymore.
Also Koopa took a few large bites of Lantana which is toxic, had no reaction.
 

Yvonne G

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I thought I should say a word about my posts above: desert tortoises have evolved eating spurge. Manouria tortoises have evolved eating colocasia. Personally, I would not feed these plants to tortoises that don't come from geographical areas that these plants are native to.
 

Lokkje

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My desert tortoises primarily eat dandelion weeds, Bermuda grass, mulberry leaves, hibiscus leaves and flowers, spineless opuntia pads And various other desert weeds and plants growing in my back yard plus what I harvest from the desert. I supplement them with endive and escarole, periodic Romaine and spring mix, and I make an almost muddy looking mixture of various dried plants that I buy online from Will at Kapidolo farms. Sometimes I put wheat grass outside that my leopard messed up and the Desert tortoises outside will eat it. The lions share their diet is the grass, dandelion weeds and other weeds and hibiscus. This morning they were eating hibiscus, Bermuda grass, and I gave some wilted endive that my leopard didn’t ieat to them that was coated in various dried products from Will. They gobbled it up. All of them like the hibiscus so much that I now have to clip branches and flowers for them because they have eaten everything within reach.
 

Lokkje

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And I will note as a follow up agreeing with Yvonne that they don’t eat a lot of spurge but I don’t bother to pull it up and get rid of it because I have seen them eating it many many times and it’s never been poisonous to them.
 

C. Nelson

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I don't know what the first picture is, but the second one is spurge, a common plant found in the desert tortoises' natural environment, and something they always eat. I'm guessing the other one is also common for them to eat.

Don't worry about the tortoise eating these plants. Just be sure they also eat other healthy foods.

Thanks for identifying spurge. I have it all over my backyard as well.
 
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Linda137

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My desert tortoises primarily eat dandelion weeds, Bermuda grass, mulberry leaves, hibiscus leaves and flowers, spineless opuntia pads And various other desert weeds and plants growing in my back yard plus what I harvest from the desert. I supplement them with endive and escarole, periodic Romaine and spring mix, and I make an almost muddy looking mixture of various dried plants that I buy online from Will at Kapidolo farms. Sometimes I put wheat grass outside that my leopard messed up and the Desert tortoises outside will eat it. The lions share their diet is the grass, dandelion weeds and other weeds and hibiscus. This morning they were eating hibiscus, Bermuda grass, and I gave some wilted endive that my leopard didn’t ieat to them that was coated in various dried products from Will. They gobbled it up. All of them like the hibiscus so much that I now have to clip branches and flowers for them because they have eaten everything within reach.
Thank you that's very helpful.
 

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