What and how WE feed our baby tortoises

[Yvonne G]

I have a lettuce garden that I planted this past winter. Trouble is, I made the mistake of mixing all the seeds together before planting, and the turnips have crowded out the lettuces. So I take a bucket out to the garden and with the scissors, clip a bunch of turnip greens (might be a bit of lettuces in there too). Then I go to the mullberry tree and clip a few leaves from their to add to the bucket. Next I walk over to the grape vine and get a few of those leaves. While I'm there I look around for some plantain and chickory. I will also clip some weeds like fillaree and maybe some clover and prickly lettuce or sow's thistle.

I take the bucket into the house and fill it with water, and wash all this off. Then I put it on a paper towell.

I chop all these leaves up into small pieces. Then I add some grated carrots, yellow squash (or banana squash or zucchini) and some cactus.

I sprinkle a bit of Miner-all and mix it all up.

My 2010 South African leopard babies clean this up and don't leave a crumb. But I also feed the mixture to baby box turtles, Texas hatchlings, very young Manouria tortoises, young desert tortoises and baby yellowfoot tortoises.

 

[Tom]

RE: What I feed my baby tortoises

I do it pretty similar to Yvonne. Lately I've been using a lot of mallow, carrot tops, a few different things from a russian tortoise mix that I got from http://tortoisesupply.com/ , some mixed clover, some alfalfa, lots of fresh green grass of several types, dandelion, sow thistle, grape leaves, african hibiscus leaves and flowers, southern collard greens, squash leaves, gazania, etc... My stuff gets hit by the sprinklers everyday so I don't rinse it. I just chop it all up with scissors as it goes into the bucket and then mix it all up. Then I save it in the fridge in old spring mix tubs. I use this mix every other day or so, and I use Mazuri, ZooMed grassland or spineless opuntia cactus on the other, in between days.

I don't really have a routine. Everything is so variable at my place. I have so much stuff growing now, that I just grab whatever is in abundance to thin it out. They get a huge variety.

 

[DesertGrandma]

RE: What I feed my baby tortoises

My routine is similar to the above, except I really don't chop it up. My babies will eat it just as is, and I feel their little beaks get a good workout too. The only thing I chop is the cactus, which I cut into thin strips. Yesterday I threw in a tiny zucchini from the garden that was just broken in half and it was devoured as is. I have found that zucchini flowers are the most coveted of anything. They will leave hibiscus in favor of the zucchini. Yep, cactus, dandelions, ruellia, grape leaves, hibiscus, grazing mix, spring mix, and a whole bunch of stuff in the garden that I can't remember what it is (but I knew it was good when I planted the seeds). BTW, I finally got some dandelions to grow in a pot but learned that I am allergic to it, hmph. The tort babies get it anyway .

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Since they have been outside a lot lately they are also eating bermuda and old grass.

 

[EspenK]

RE: What I feed my baby tortoises

Thank you all for the information! I see I am feeding mine almost the same as you. Good to know!