Virginia Creepers

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The three Gs

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A few days ago, when I was playing with Gamera and Guess outside, Guess was just kind of chilling, but Gamera came over to the Virginia Creeper we have and started eating it. He seemed to enjoy it, but I took him away from it just in case. Are Virginia Creepers poisonous to red foot tortoises?
 

Yvonne G

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Virginia Creeper is on most toxic lists, however, tortoises seem to eat it ok. I had a nice plant on my fence in the Manouria pen. It didn't even last a season once the tortoises discovered it.
 

Madkins007

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I've got a ton of it growing in my tort pen, and my guys won't touch it.

Huh... just did a quick research on it. It turns out it is a member of the grape family and that the berry is considered poisonous because of high levels of oxalates- which most tortoises are at least resistant to. The rest of the plant is not listed as a concern.

It also mentions that many fruit-eating birds eat the berries, so they are not toxic universally. Based on this, I would not worry about it in my tort pen.
 

The three Gs

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Yeah, they don't seem to like the berries, but they love to eat the leaves.
 
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