What’s Everyone Feeding With the Lettuce Shortage?

[Toddrickfl1]

How far down in FL are you? I'd drive a couple hrs. to get to this Fresh Mkt. for dandelion greens for my leopard torts…

I'm in Atlanta now actually.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

It looks like Romaine is back on the shelves here

 

[Saltwater60]

It's only romaine which shouldn't be relied on so much anyway. There is all kinds of other better greens to feed. If anyone is having a problem feeding them your feedingtoi much romaine.

I’m having the same problem as the OP. My tortoise was neglected and I’m have troubles too. I have a great wegmans by me, but nearly everything is gone off the shelves. I’m trying to branch her out and get her eating more items. She hate mustard green, collard greens, and turnip greens, she won’t touch them. I’ve only had her about a month now and the last people only fed her cucumbers. I bought some muzuri pellets and she doesn’t like them much either. I was able to find spring mix this week and it’s about 15 different mixed greens and she readily eats that. That’s my main feed for her now. I fed some orchard grasses, but she won’t touch that either. There were only about 2-3 types of greens she could eat on the shelf. It’s hard when you live in ny and leafy greens only have a few day shelf life. Also the recall has people scared to buy this stuff.

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

Does anyone truly like kale?

I do, I like it? Many of the tortoises do too.

 

[RosemaryDW]

Mine has been hibernating since mid-October so I don’t have this problem!

Me also, thank goodness.

 

[RosemaryDW]

Does anyone truly like kale?

I do but my Russian would have to be awfully hungry to eat it.

 

[Viola B]

Here, some of the stores pulled almost everything, while others only pulled romaine. I have been able to fine kale, endive, cactus, and radicchio. I found some collard greens, today.

 

[Jaid10]

As I’m sure everyone has noticed the ecoli outbreak has greatly reduced grocery store offerings. For those in warm climates this is an easy solve but for us northerners I’m struggling. Week one I bought a bunch of radicchio, arugula, endive, and some micro greens. Expensive for one tort and most of it rotted before it was eaten. He also did not eat as well but it is cooling off so I wasn’t worried. Friday I went back to stock up and now EVERYTHING except spinach, kale, and chard was gone. Sooo I bought it but I’ve never fed kale and spinach so Saturday he went on feeding strike because it’s new. This morning I emptied his bowl and he’s happily feeeding on Mazuri but I really rarely give Mazuri and don’t want to turn him into a monster and have him refuse greens later.

So what is everyone else feeding? He’s a Redfoot so I stocked up on fruit but I’m struggling with allowing him all the fruit and Mazuri he wants. When is this recall ending and does anyone know any indigenous Maryland plants still growing? My outdoor staples are rose of Sharon, hasta, clover, dandelion, mulberry, and plantains which are mostly gone.

I have the same problem. I’m in Utah and the area I’m in is covered in snow. Pretty much nothing is growing. Sadly I’ve had to convert to Iceberg lettuce. I’m not sure what to buy. My torts won’t eat Mazuri. I have Sulcatas.

 

[Cheryl Hills]

Iceberg is the worst one. There is no nutritional value in it.

 

[William Lee Kohler]

As I’m sure everyone has noticed the ecoli outbreak has greatly reduced grocery store offerings. For those in warm climates this is an easy solve but for us northerners I’m struggling. Week one I bought a bunch of radicchio, arugula, endive, and some micro greens. Expensive for one tort and most of it rotted before it was eaten. He also did not eat as well but it is cooling off so I wasn’t worried. Friday I went back to stock up and now EVERYTHING except spinach, kale, and chard was gone. Sooo I bought it but I’ve never fed kale and spinach so Saturday he went on feeding strike because it’s new. This morning I emptied his bowl and he’s happily feeeding on Mazuri but I really rarely give Mazuri and don’t want to turn him into a monster and have him refuse greens later.

So what is everyone else feeding? He’s a Redfoot so I stocked up on fruit but I’m struggling with allowing him all the fruit and Mazuri he wants. When is this recall ending and does anyone know any indigenous Maryland plants still growing? My outdoor staples are rose of Sharon, hasta, clover, dandelion, mulberry, and plantains which are mostly gone.

The staple of 6 of my 8 tortoises is Romaine. Same desperate search as others here. Decided to try Butter Lettuce as looked similar to Romain in stiffness of leaves. After one head of it is out of stock. Doing some looking back and forth I found Green Chard very similar to Romain and my critters take it very well. YAY! Maybe will use it some after Romain is back in stock but it's more expensive. Could use mazuri but all of my tortoises are smart enough to reject it after I wasted $15 on it to give it a try. Good for them!

 

[Yvonne G]

Have you seen this thread? https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/w...ry-and-garden-published-nutrient-list.161833/ Will does some comparisons for us. He shows romaine, and if you look further down, he shows red and green leaf plus butter lettuce.

Since "lettuce" is not good to use as a main part of a tortoise's diet, I've been using green leaf in place of romaine, but it only makes up a very small part of the daily food.

 

[astock64]

My staple is endive and escarole. I usually buy it in bags called Santa Barbara Mix. But last week even those bags were not available. I stocked up on green leaf lettuce. Nice thing about having that in the fridge is I really like the taste of it, and will eat it too. Red leaf lettuce is good too, but the heads are a lot smaller and I don't feel I get my money's worth.

I found small bags of orchard hay at tractor supply is that acceptable for our adult sulcata

 

[Bambam1989]

I found small bags of orchard hay at tractor supply is that acceptable for our adult sulcata

That's great food for them[emoji106]

 

[Cowboy_Ken]

Here is a list to drive your local nursery a bit nuts when asking for any. Y’all will need to make your own list from here .
http://africantortoise.com/AfJEcoPardalis2001-1.pdf