Tortoise Decided to Eat an Onion

[Mackinz]

Title says it. I woke up this morning to move my tortoise out of the rain and found she smelled like onion. After putting her in her dry shelter, I looked over in the flowerbed and noted that an onion had been bitten into quite a bit. I pulled it up and threw it away, but not before snapping some pictures.



My tortoise seems fine for now, chomping away at her actual food, but I am not sure what I should do now since I am a relatively new tortoise owner and the info I have read online has indicated that onions are toxic to tortoises.

What should I do now? Call a vet?

My tortoise:

 

[Tom]

Onions aren't toxic to tortoises. I have fed small amounts mixed in with left over salads to mine for years. Red, white and green onions. We have a wild onion variety that grows here too and my tortoises eat that all up as well.

I would soak your tortoise every day for a while and not worry too much about it.

 

[Mackinz]

By the looks of your avatar, you keep much larger tortoises, however, so there may be a higher difference in size of onion to body weight of tortoise. Mine is maybe three times the size of the onion I showed, and she ate quite a bit off of the bulb. While your post is somewhat reassuring, I am still worried, so I put her in a larger soaking container to soak in today.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

My little Greek Tidgy won't eat onion, she hates the smell, I think, but another tortoise in my district ate some and got terrible wind and diarrhoea, so I never offer it.
http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/site/plants_19.asp?st=true&mode=main&catID=629
is also rather negative, so I, personally wouldn't risk any more in the future.
Having said that, Tom has a huge amount of experience with many different types and sizes of tortoise, so I wouldn't panic, as the Tortoise Table does seem to be basing it's opinion on the effects on other species of animal.

 

[Tom]

Well I wouldn't offer a whole raw onion as a meal, but eating some isn't toxic.

I also keep russians and many other species. Many of my tortoises are small and they all eat onion in small amounts.

I hope your tortoise is fine. That the appetite is still three is a good sign. You might offer some cucumber or romaine lettuce to push the onion through and dilute it a bit. Most tortoises will pig out on romaine. That and daily soaks will help push it through faster.

 

[Hilda1221]

Onions aren't toxic to tortoises. I have fed small amounts mixed in with left over salads to mine for years. Red, white and green onions. We have a wild onion variety that grows here too and my tortoises eat that all up as well.

I would soak your tortoise every day for a while and not worry too much about it.

Can they eat only the green part of the green onions?

 

[Tom]

Can they eat only the green part of the green onions?

I wouldn't intentionally feed them any kind or any part of any onion. They can eat it, but I don't think its a good tortoise food.

 

[RosemaryDW]

Zombie thread! It's from 2015.