So I know we should avoid tomatoes as it's a fruit but are the leaves and flowers of the plant edible for star tortoise ? Has anybody tried it ? Also are mint leaves safe ? If so , how frequently ? Thanks for the help !
Tomato leaves and mint ?
- Thread starter Kriti
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The Tortoise Table is always a good place to start. As i recall, tomato is part of the nightshade family of plants, so it’s best to not feed the leaves, stalks. Flowers are so small that it’s not significant.
Mint is probably safe, but the strong scent turns most torts off from eating it.
TheTortTable is back..
❌ - Tomato Leaves
✅ - Mint
Do not confuse these mints with Peppermint (Mentha piperita), Pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium) or Purple Mint(Perilla), which also belong to the Lamiaceae family but are not safe to feed.
Garden Mint (Mentha sachalinensis)
Spearmint (Mentha spicata)
Applemint (Mentha suaveolens)
Mint is probably safe, but the strong scent turns most torts off from eating it.
TheTortTable is back..
❌ - Tomato Leaves
- Common Name: Tomato
- Latin Name: Solanum lycopersicon; syn. Lycopersicon esculentum
- Family Name: Solanaceae
✅ - Mint
- Common Name: Mint (Garden Mint, Spearmint, Apple Mint)
- Latin Name: Mentha sachalinensis; M. spicata, M. sauveolens
- Family Name: Lamiaceae/Labiatae
Do not confuse these mints with Peppermint (Mentha piperita), Pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium) or Purple Mint(Perilla), which also belong to the Lamiaceae family but are not safe to feed.
Garden Mint (Mentha sachalinensis)
Spearmint (Mentha spicata)
Applemint (Mentha suaveolens)
Last edited:
iAmCentrochelys sulcata
Well-Known Member
You should not feed Tomato Leaves. Mint is safe but most likely they won’t eat it.
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So Tomato leaves and toxicity. There is no actual data, just an echo chamber of don't feed.
FWIW people have been known to add a few tomato leaves to soups and sauces because it imparts that flavor we like. Nick A, forgot his avatar here, been forever since he posted here, narrated that he allowed some tortoises to eat tomato leaves with no apparent ill effect.
If you search PubMed for toxicity to tomato leaves you will come up with a few inconclusive reports. There is non in any herp literature.
All that is not to say, provide them. However if your tortoise eats a leaf or two, no need to go chicken little on it either.
FWIW people have been known to add a few tomato leaves to soups and sauces because it imparts that flavor we like. Nick A, forgot his avatar here, been forever since he posted here, narrated that he allowed some tortoises to eat tomato leaves with no apparent ill effect.
If you search PubMed for toxicity to tomato leaves you will come up with a few inconclusive reports. There is non in any herp literature.
All that is not to say, provide them. However if your tortoise eats a leaf or two, no need to go chicken little on it either.
Agree 100%. But the original question is more along the line of “Is it ok to regularly feed tomato leaves/plants to my tortoise? I think the general response is its “ not recommended”. An occasional nip at a leaf, no problem . But regular, daily feeding - no.
Here’s a good source of info - https://www.botanical-online.com/en/food/tomatoes-toxicity
There are owners who don’t intentionally feed tomato but whose tortoises sometimes eat it from their gardens without obvious harm. That said, I wouldn’t intentionally feed it and I’m a pretty laid back feeder.
You can try feeding mint. As mentioned above it’s got a pretty strong scent and taste so your tortoise would have to be pretty hungry to eat it. You never know, see what happens!
You can try feeding mint. As mentioned above it’s got a pretty strong scent and taste so your tortoise would have to be pretty hungry to eat it. You never know, see what happens!
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I think we both know that echo chambers are as bead as arm waving chicken little alarmist. I think my post was about balance there yeah, did you not get that as the message? I responded to the OP.
Wow, weirdest thing today. I was reading this thread when the software provided a notice that I was ignoring content from @Kapidolo Farms; would I like to read it anyway? Wat? Why would I mark Will as a member to ignore? Plus, if I really wanted to ignore a member, I sure wouldn’t want a notice every time they had posted; how could I ignore them in that case? Lol. Additionally, his comments had not been pointed out yesterday as “ignored.” Complete mystery.
Checked my settings and there he was, checked as “ignore.” All is reset now but wow. I hope that was me somehow accidentally marking him as “ignore” and not some crazy system bug!
Yep, i hear you ? and to be very honest, i used to always feed our sully fresh tips of tomato greens that I would snip off while pruning. I’m sure there are a lot of “toxic” compounds in lots of plants. Anyhow, i personally don’t feed them anymore. But, the real question is,”Does @Tom routinely feed tomato leaves to his torts?” Yes or No, we need to know! ??
HA!
No I don't. Never. I read they were toxic, so I've never let them eat tomato plant parts. And the mint thing with all the different types is too confusing. If I'm worried at all about misidentification, like in the case of mint or wild mushrooms for example, I just don't feed them that food item. Truly a case of better safe than holding a dead tortoise in your hands. There are sooooooo many other good foods to feed our tortoises. Why risk it?
L
LasTortugasNinja
Guest
My tort likes mint leaves, but in small amounts mixed in with his weeds and greens.
