Tortoise Food

[UpsideDownTort]

Hi again! I was just curious about food for my Russian tort. He is approximately 5 years old and his diet consists of dark leafy greens which is from walmart. It includes spinach, kale, red leaf lettuce, and arugula. It seems to mainly consist of spinach. I sprinkle calcium powder with d3 on it and he eats perfectly fine. It is colder in wisconsin (about 28F at the moment). He does seem to be settling down and sleeping more often? I have only had him for a year and I believe this to be hibernation, or brumation. Just curious about his food and if it sounds ok as there aren't many other options for dandelion greens around here. I try to include blueberries in moderation. Any other ideas? Any advice would be great! Thank you

 

[wellington]

No fruit and very little spinach if any. Try mustard and collard greens, endive, ridicchio and check this site for more approved things and why you shouldn't feed spinach https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/

 

[UpsideDownTort]

Thank you so much. Will pick some up tonight and switch over immediately. I dont think he's too picky

 

[Tom]

Their diet should be primarily weeds. Don't think you will ind a lot in Wisconsin this time of year, so you'll need to amend your grocery store greens to make them better for your tortoise.

Grocery store produce has four main problems:

1. It lacks fiber.
2. Low calcium for some items like lettuce.
3. Poor calcium to phosphorous ratio for some items.
4. Who knows what chemicals and pesticides it was grown with?

You can fix at least some of this and get through winter by adding some finely blended grass hay, chopped grass, or some soaked ZooMed Grassland pellets to the mix. Original Mazuri is a good supplement too. Using much more variety form the store will help too. Favor endive and escarole as your staples, but mix in kale, cilantro, mustard, turnip and collard greens, celery tops, carrot tops, parsley and whatever other greens you can find.

Russians are not grass eaters, but read this for more explanation and a good starter list of food items to look for or grow in spring.
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/for-those-who-have-a-young-sulcata.76744/