Tortoise diet + growing plants

[Shelldog]

Hi guys, I would appreciate some advice on my tortoises diet. I have a box in my garden where I have grown plants from this seed pack I got off Amazon, but my tortoise is barely eating any. My parents keep giving her lettuce and those tortoise diet balls and she runs over and eats them straight away. But that’s the only thing she eats and that’s not ideal. Additionally, plants in my garden keep dying so I end up with less and less as I remove the dead plants. It’s getting closer to winter and I don’t want all of them to die. Any advice on what to feed her, how to get her to eat the plants I give her or advice on how to keep my plants alive and have a good food source over winter. I also pick plants near where I live for her to eat. I live in the uk though so as it gets cold all the plants will begin to die out. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Hello!
1. While you or parents keep feeding pellets and lettuce there are no chances to enrich diet with "wild" weeds. Tortoises eat what they've got used to eat. You can try to finely chop and mix new foods with lettuce or pellet mush (start with one-two small leaves) or try to hand feed.
2. Plants are dying out either because of growing conditions (lights, soil, planting density) or because these are annual plants (they grow, produce and release seeds and die off). How do you grow them? If you can bring planter box inside and place by the window on the sunny side - maybe you will have some fresh weeds through the winter.
3. If things go wrong with growing plants, you can resort to better grocery produce like radicchio, rocket (ruccola, arugula), endive, frisee and such. And amendments like Agrobs Pre Alpin, Arcadia Optimized52 Tortoise Food and others for more fiber and variety.

 

[Shelldog]

Hello!
1. While you or parents keep feeding pellets and lettuce there are no chances to enrich diet with "wild" weeds. Tortoises eat what they've got used to eat. You can try to finely chop and mix new foods with lettuce or pellet mush (start with one-two small leaves) or try to hand feed.
2. Plants are dying out either because of growing conditions (lights, soil, planting density) or because these are annual plants (they grow, produce and release seeds and die off). How do you grow them? If you can bring planter box inside and place by the window on the sunny side - maybe you will have some fresh weeds through the winter.
3. If things go wrong with growing plants, you can resort to better grocery produce like radicchio, rocket (ruccola, arugula), endive, frisee and such. And amendments like Agrobs Pre Alpin, Arcadia Optimized52 Tortoise Food and others for more fiber and variety.

I grow my plants in a wooden box outside. They were growing fine and I had a lot but slowly parts kept turning brown. I would remove those parts and then a new part would turn brown

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

There are some grocery options If you’re struggling over winter, you could also give this stuff a go? Soak each cube in water(quantities is on packaging) our red foot loves it🙂just add some on top of the feed

 

[Tom]

There are some grocery options If you’re struggling over winter, you could also give this stuff a go? Soak each cube in water(quantities is on packaging) our red foot loves it🙂just add some on top of the feed

I just tried this food for the first time recently. I think its good stuff. My tortoises all ate it right up. I like to soak it and then mix it all up with the chopped greens.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

I just tried this food for the first time recently. I think it’s good stuff. My tortoises all ate it right up. I like to soak it and then mix it all up with the chopped greens.

Same here! It’s great for sneaking some more variety in🙂