What to feed during winter? Not hibernating; new owner

[sashabower]

Hi! I’m new to the tortoise ‘community’ and only recently got a baby tortoise but I am 100% committed to keeping it. However there is one thing; I’m not sure what to feed my tortoise during winter if I’m not able to get hold of garden weeds and flowers any foods that you can recommend.
Many thanks
Sasha (Horsfield Tortoise owner)

 

[LaLaP]

Hi and welcome!
If you live in a place where you can't gather weeds and greens from outside you can search your grocery stores for endive, escarole, radicchio, mustard greens, turnip greens or cactus pads. The cactus can often be found in Mexican markets and is called nopales. Some grocers have dandelion greens too. You can also grow some weeds and greens indoors. You can get a testudo seed mix from tortoisesupply.com or grow pansies or another edible flower. You could also supplement with a food pellet like mazuri (get original formula and soften with warm water). Just make sure you are still feeding a variety and not giving the same thing all winter.
Good luck!

 

[RosemaryDW]

Welcome!

@LaLaP, this member live in the UK so is unlikely to have a Mexican market nearby.

@sashabower, you will be able to find many of the things LaLa mentioned. You can also get Mazuri supplement in the UK, it maybe be sold under the NutraZu brand. Make sure you get the “regular” tortoise food, not the “LS” tortoise food as they sell many different kinds of animal foods besides tortoise. There is also a brand called “Pre-Alpine” that we can’t get here that is good.

When you are ready to think about seeds, the Shelled Warrior shop in the UK sells good tortoise mixes for your area.

A good resource for people living in the UK is a site called “The Tortoise Table.” They have a database that will help you find healthy foods around you. If you check the top of the home page, you’ll also find the have good basic information on tortoise keeping there.

For more help shopping in your specific area, you can send a direct message to @JoesMum, who is a knowledgeable member from the UK.

 

[JoesMum]

Hello and welcome to another Brit I live in Kent.

Write a list of the greens that grow around you and the ones you can buy and look them up on The Tortoise Table Plant Database for suitability to feed. It's a fabulous online search facility that tells you what is and isn't suitable and why and the frequency that you can use it. Go on your supermarket website and look the greens up there.
https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk

Few of us manage in the winter months without supplementing with a pellet feed softened with water. I used Komodo.

Have you seen the TFO care sheets? They're written by species experts working hard to correct the outdated information widely available on the internet and from pet stores and sadly from some breeders and vets too. I recommend giving them a read and comparing them with your setup. We are always happy to look over photos of an enclosure and lighting to see if there are any tweaks we would recommend.

Beginner Mistakes
https://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/

Baby Russian Tortoise Care
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/b...or-other-herbivorous-tortoise-species.107734/