South African Succulent for Tortoise Food ?

[Len B]

I'm always looking for new food sources that I can grow for my tortoises, I have been trying to find cold hardy succulents from Africa, no luck yet. But I did find this one, Kalanchoe Luciae, native to South Africa.It's not hardy but gets big, grows pretty quick under the right conditions, and throws off baby plants like the hens and chicks. I am mainly thinking about my leopard tortoise.Since succulents are native to Africa and cactus is not maybe they are what they ate before cactus was introduced. Anyone ever offered these to a leopard tortoise? Len

 

[ticothetort2]

Never grown or fed this, but interested to hear if anyone has. I will have to look around to see if I can find some.

 

[Yvonne G]

portulacaria afra - elephant bush. The natives of South Africa call this plant "tortoise food."

 

[Len B]

Yvonne comes through again,I have seen elephant bush mentioned several times here on the forum and never looked to see what it actually was,and even said in one thread that I didn't grow it.well I do have several plants and they are easy to grow inside, and outside when weather is warm enough.Now that I know that dwarf jade = elephant bush, I will start growing more. Thanks for being persistent, I did a TFO search of elephant bush and it has been mentioned, many,many times for years.Len

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Len:

The picture you show isn't elephant bush. That's crassula or jade plant (which is also good natural food). Here's elephant bush:

I love your new avatar!

 

[Yvonne G]

This month's issue of the Tortuga Gazette (CTTC's newsletter) profiles leopard tortoises. Here's an excerpt from the article:

"S. pardalis is an herbivore. In the wild it feeds primarily on mixed grasses, the most plentiful plant material in its habitat. The tortoise also feeds on the fruit and pads of Opuntia sp., various other succulent species such as Cotyledon, Crassula and Portulacaria, as well as fungi, thistles, and the fruit of the Marula tree (Sclerocarya birrea) when these plants are available. Leopard tortoises appear to prefer succulent plants, possibly because of their substantial water content."