water lettuce

[rhflincoln]

Hi, I have a lot of water lettuce from my pond this year. I was trying to find out if it is safe to feed to my tortoises. I have two hermans and one sulcatta. I thought someone might know and be able to tell me. I thought it might be a good treat but I am unsure.

 

[dmmj]

Sorry I only feed water lettuce to my RES's, and when I say "feed", I just put the plant in there and it is gone the next morning.

 

[katesgoey]

Sorry I'm not familiar with "water lettuce" - but if you know the botanical name for it, you may find whether or not it is listed as edible for the sulcata by going to this site: www.africantortoise.com/edible_plants.htm. Hope that helps you a bit.

 

[Kadaan]

Water lettuce is known as "Pistia stratiotes", and I haven't been able to find it listed as good nor bad on any of the lists.

 

[Crazy1]

I have fed water lettuce, duckweed, cats tounge to my Greeks they love it and no ill effects have I found.

 

[katesgoey]

Water lettuce is known as "Pistia stratiotes", and I haven't been able to find it listed as good nor bad on any of the lists.

If it were me, I wouldn't feed it to a non-aquatic tortoise just to be on the safe side. I did some research (rather than pull weeds or clean house) and this is what I found: It is listed as "poisonous" in large amounts at this site: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/poison/Pistist.htm

But a study in Australia lists this plant as not toxic to animals http://www.hear.org/pier/wra/australia/pistr-wra.htm

Melissa Kaplan listed it under her reptile edible/nonedible list as "suitable" but its only listed under suitable for aquatics and prior to her "edible" listing of plants:
http://www.anapsid.org/pdf/plantlists.txt

I say better safe than sorry. I doubt that helps you much but thought I'd share what I learned anyway.

 

[rhflincoln]

I have fed water lettuce, duckweed, cats tounge to my Greeks they love it and no ill effects have I found.

Thanks, I have been feeding it to my applesnails at school. I will keep it that way.

Thanks to everyone that replied.