What's in that leaf, grocery and garden, published nutrient list.

Kapidolo Farms

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Swiss (green) Chard, Beta vulgaris

USDA https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/...Chard,+swiss,+raw&ds=&qt=&qp=&qa=&qn=&q=&ing=

Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chard

The Tortoise Table https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/plant-database/viewplants/?plant=176&c=8#.XBlXU2hKhaQ

Feedipedia https://www.feedipedia.org/node/534

So more or less a 'variety' of beets which is interesting. High calcium, but I found it's very hard to find references to how much of that might already be bound (not available) with oxalate).

Surprised have not seen Chard on here. How about Green Chard?
 

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Have you done cilantro already? I looked through the thread and didn't see it, but I'm also catching up on last night's Saturday Night Live at the same time.
Thanks for this thread, it's great!
 

SPILL

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Are you able to find anything on mango leaves? How about fenugreek greens/methi?
 

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Hi, I see this thread has been dug up and I had a question if anyone knew the answer.

I see delonix regia listed here from a post in may 2018, but the feedipedia page only gives nutrient info on the seed pods. The seed pods on this tree are incredibly tough and I can't imagine a tort eating them. Does anyone happen to know if the leaves or flowers are edible for tortoises? And nutrient info on them? They are everywhere around here and I'd love to take advantage of that if I can. Thanks!
 

Kapidolo Farms

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I've neglected this thread for a bit, sorry about that. I'll seek to carve time out to answer info requests, and I made it a 'watched' thread now too.

What brings me back is that I found a rater rare composition of a commonly fed item, at least for folks in more tropical areas. I pulled it from a PhD thesis and only copied the two tables that get to the nutrient content of the item, Banana leaf, petiole, and stalk.

If you want more of the text let me know. I'll be watching this thread better.
 

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Yvonne G

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Bok Choy is one of the brassicas, like cabbage. It is quite nutritious with
vitamins A and C, and minerals such as calcium. Any cabbage is just fine used as
a part of a varied diet. Those with dark green leaves (such as bok choy) or the
especially the red cabbages provide excellent nutrition. So there is no reason
to avoid them.

The brassicas contain glucosinolates, in particular the goitrogens, so if it is
overused and iodine is not replaced in some way, there could be health issues
over many years, such as the growth of a goiter. Providing cuttlebone, or other
source of trace iodine (for instance, seaweed), solves the problem and allows
the tortoise to eat these excellent foods.

The "good foods / bad foods" paradigm for feeding tortoises is a highly flawed
concept that eliminates far too many excellent sources of high quality nutrition
and ignores how tortoises eat in the wild. Use all types of plants, always in
moderation, and provide calcium in a separate form so that the animals can
self-regulate. Cuttlebone is a very good choice for this, as it also provides
trace iodine.

Mary at the turtle Puddle
 

Kapidolo Farms

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Yeah, that!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The "good foods / bad foods" paradigm for feeding tortoises is a highly flawed
concept that eliminates far too many excellent sources of high quality nutrition
and ignores how tortoises eat in the wild. Use all types of plants, always in
moderation, and provide calcium in a separate form so that the animals can
self-regulate. Cuttlebone is a very good choice for this, as it also provides
trace iodine.

Mary at the turtle Puddle
 

RosemaryDW

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I The most important electrolytes (in humans at least) are sodium and potassium. Often absorbed as potassium chloride and sodium chloride. They are essential for neurological functions, cardiovascular functions, and overall energy levels. I think this might be why they eat dog poop, and carrion. So they can get micronutrients like this not commonly found in plants. I will sprinkle small amounts of both on my tortoise feed from time to time.

Did anyone else read this as @Stoneman sprinkles dog poop and carrion on his tortoise feed?
 

Yvonne G

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@Kapidolo Farms :

Years ago I received correspondence from HealX asking if I would be willing to try their palm oil on my giant tortoises. The product is called Sunshine Factor and it is certified organic Brazilian Dende (red palm fruit) oil. I said sure, what the heck, but for whatever reason, I never really gave it a good enough try to be able to give them any feedback.

I have a few jars in my pantry, and it got me to thinking. I'm seeing a lot of pictures of tortoises here on the Forum with very dry skin. We tell them to soak the tortoise, but what if there's an oral product that would work better than soaking? We give dogs oral supplements for dry coat, and we take oral supplements for healthy skin, so why not give the tortoise palm oil for his dry skin?

Can we have your opinion on this please? (the only ingredient is Brazilian dende (red palm fruit) oil)

This is the brain-washing article put out by the manufacturer:

SUNSHINE FACTOR – Here are the facts
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10TH, 2013


We feel it’s a good idea to go over the cover these bases from time to time as they are common questions regarding Palm Fruit Oil.

CLAIM 1: Sunshine Factor is simple palm oil.
FACT-CHECK: Incorrect.
Sunshine Factor is made from red palm FRUIT oil. There is a very significant difference, and there are many commercially available sources of simple palm oil, but few of red palm fruit oil.
Palm fruit oil is a cholesterol-free member of the vegetable oil family. It has been erroneously grouped together with coconut oil and palm kernel oil under the “tropical oil family,” which are known as high-cholesterol or trans-fat oils. Palm fruit oil is one of the most nutritionally filled vegetable oils currently on the market.
Red palm fruit oil originates from the flesh of the fruit from the palm tree Elaeis guineensis. This oil is not hydrogenated or processed and contains no trans-fats. It has a dark orange to red color.
Palm fruit oil is naturally semi-solid at room temperature and does not require hydrogenation. It is an excellent replacement for partially hydrogenated fats for many reasons. Like other edible fats and oils, palm fruit oil is easily digested, absorbed and used to maintain a healthy metabolism.
http://www.trustedpartner.com/docs/library/000087/RedPalmOilweb.pdf

CLAIM 2: Use of Sunshine Factor results in high LDL cholesterol, clogs arteries, causes heart disease due to high levels of saturated fats and varying other negative claims.
FACT-CHECK: Incorrect.
In human studies, the general properties of red palm fruit oil include the following: decreased incidence of arteriosclerosis, lowered blood cholesterol, decreased occurrence of blood clots by increasing vasodilatation, lowered incidence of strokes and heart attacks and improved immune function. Red palm fruit oil has also been reported as a “chemopreventative drug,” because it has been shown to inhibit the growth of breast cancer cells and improve the effectiveness of tamoxifen therapy.

Red palm fruit oil is considered to be one of the richest natural sources of carotenoids. The benefits of carotenoids in humans include their antioxidant and anticancer effects. These antioxidants scavenge free radicals. The accumulation of free radicals in human medicine has been associated with heart disease, cellular aging, cancer, arthritis and Alzheimer’s disease. Carotenoids are needed for the growth and repair of body tissues, the formation of bones and teeth, the resistance to infection, the development of healthy eye tissues and proper cellular function and differentiation. Red palm fruit oil contains beta-carotene, alpha-carotene, lycopene and phytoene. Beta-carotene can be converted to vitamin A as required by the body. Alpha-carotene may also be converted to vitamin A and has been found in human medicine to be superior in the inhibition of some forms of cancer in cell-culture studies.

Red palm fruit oil is rich in multiple forms of vitamin E. Although it is often assumed that there is only one type of vitamin E, there are actually eight different forms. These include four tocopherols (alpha, beta, gamma, delta) and four tocotrienols (alpha, beta, gamma, delta). Most diets only contain alpha-tocopherol; however, the tocotrienols are considered to be far superior in their antioxidant effects. The general properties of the tocopherols and tocotrienols in human medicine include the following: inhibit the enzyme that controls the rate of cholesterol synthesis, decrease LDL and triglycerides, raise HDL, increase immune function, have anticancerogenic properties, lower risk of cataract formation and modulate the formation of prostaglandins controlling a component of the inflammatory cascade. Palm fruit oils are the richest natural source of antioxidants, such as tocotrienols, which may exhibit activity against tumor promotion and, in turn, inhibit certain types of cancer. Tocotrienols may also have the ability to reverse blockage of the carotid artery and platelet aggregation, which reduces the risk of stroke, arteriosclerosis and heart disease.

In one human study, 31 subjects took a palm fruit oil supplement every day for 30 days. No other changes were made to their diets. They continued to eat whatever they desired. The results showed that palm fruit oil supplementation lowered both total cholesterol and LDL (bad) cholesterol in all volunteers. The magnitude of reduction of total cholesterol ranged from 5 to 35.9 percent and the reduction of LDL cholesterol ranged from 0.9 to 37 percent. What was even more important was the effect the palm fruit oil had on the cholesterol ratio. The cholesterol ratio was reduced in 78 percent of the subjects, demonstrating a highly significant and favorable response to supplementation (Tan, 1991).

CLAIM 3: Sunshine Factor is associated with deforestation and the devastating loss of natural orangutan environments in Malaysia and other areas in the South Pacific.
FACT-CHECK: Incorrect.
Sunshine Factor is made using Brazilian farmed red palm fruit oil. Sunshine Factor is a sustainable agricultural product grown on long established farms. It is not harvested from tropical rainforests in locations where burning for new plantations continues to add to the destruction of tropical rainforests and threaten endangered wildlife. Our farms are members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

Changes of note seen in usage of Sunshine Factor in birds, reptiles, dogs, cats, and other small mammals.
– Improvement in coats/plumage
– Improvement in skin quality
– Increased and more consistent energy levels particularly in senior patients
– Decreased usage of arthritis medications
– Lowered blood cholesterol levels
– Improved weight gain and health in pediatric patients
– Increased the effectiveness of antihistamines for allergy patients
 
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Kapidolo Farms

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I have subsequently found that zucchini has D3 in it. Fruit and leaves. https://kapidolofarms.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/19Espenshade-TTPGwithNOTES.pdf. Page 16 has the reference.

Zucchini as a stand alone item is well mixed in with other things based on how grocery stores and seed packet sellers have come to use the word. I have seen "yellow Zucchinni" to describe sorta straight crook neck squash, and now I see "mexican gray squash" for what looks like zucchini to me. These values are for what gets hits for zucchini in the databases listed.

USDA https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/3180?manu=&fgcd=&ds= they call is summer squash which can mean a few things. One, that it readily grows and is available in summer months, but also it is one of the thin skinned squashes where ingesting the skin is common. Winter squashes tend to have thicker skin, often not consumed, and have a later growing season, so with both the thicker skin and later growing season can be stored better and are often consumed throughout the winter.

Good news is they tend to have more C : than : P or a positive C: P ratio

Feedipedia only lists "pumpkin" which is a term used in many languages to describe all squashes.
https://www.feedipedia.org/node/44 already shown in https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/w...-published-nutrient-list.161833/#post-1541331 via the USDA link.

Crook neck squash https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/3173?manu=&fgcd=&ds=

All summer squash varities as one item, I have no idea how they did the match to merge them all. https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/...sc&qlookup=squash&ds=&qt=&qp=&qa=&qn=&q=&ing=

Needless to say yet again, squash is good and can even be fed out frequently as the season change which one you add to the diet, AT A LOW RATE of inclusion. I use about 5% as that rate which will also mean not squash for vegetable inclusion a few times each week. Sometimes I will use carrots at about 1-2 %, or okra, or sweet potato at the 5% amount, or less of each for a total of 5%. These things are represented in wild diets in one form or another.
 

sorciere

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Hi Will,
Can you please check the Clitoria ternatea, or bluebellvine? I’m planning to plant them to get shade for my tort enclosure.
Here is a picture of the plant.27876A44-65A2-4F24-8E06-9A230CE12C32.jpeg
 

Kapidolo Farms

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Damn good find!
https://www.feedipedia.org/node/318. You will see tabs near the top of the window, under the name of the actual plant.
Butterfly pea (Clitoria ternatea)

Datasheet

Look at each tab for the information related to the particular plant as that aspect of it.



Hi Will,
Can you please check the Clitoria ternatea, or bluebellvine? I’m planning to plant them to get shade for my tort enclosure.
Here is a picture of the plant.View attachment 296043
 

Kapidolo Farms

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Why Nigeria? Because that's where the study was done. All the other labs around the world focus myopically on the super nutrient aspects.

GINKGO
Ginkgo biloba

No nodes or links in the USDA food database, Feedipedia, TTT, anywhere else that I found. That paper linked above is what I could find. Organic will land at www.KapidoloFarms.com soon.
 

Kapidolo Farms

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Mimosa aka Silk Tree, has many common and latin names.

it's been abused by taxonomists (LOL) from the wiki "Albizia julibrissin is known by a wide variety of common names, such as Persian silk tree and pink siris. It is also called Lenkoran acacia or bastard tamarind, though it is not too closely related to either genus. The species is called Chinese silk tree, silk tree or mimosa in the United States, which is misleading - the former name can refer to any species of Albizia which is most common in any one locale. And, although once included in Mimosa, neither is it very close to the Mimoseae. To add to the confusion, several species of Acacia, notably Acacia baileyana and Acacia dealbata, are also known as "mimosa" (especially in floristry), and many Fabaceae trees with highly divided leaves are called thus in horticulture."

Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albizia_julibrissin
genus info. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albizia

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.954.5961&rep=rep1&type=pdf. jump to page 74. But also consider all the other food tree sources listed, it's a great deal of reading.

Feedipedia:
Chinese albizia (Albizia chinensis). Click on the tabs I inserted here, the four categories of info.
Datasheet


And TTT: https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/plant-database/viewplants/?plant=246&c=4#.XuIym55Kgbk. list it as highly toxic, even though the tree, its pods and leaves are routinely used for fodder in many food animals. Again, the result of someone using 'BIG WORDS' that does not know what they mean. I am pretty close to suggesting TTT is useless.

This addition to this thread was by request @Yvonne G has one in the sulcata yard, and he never eats any of it. This would tend to indicate herbivores, like carnivores tend to specialize what they eat based on familiarity, not abundance. Lions, as an example, become habituated to preying on certain hoof stock, almost to the point of ignoring other edible animals in their range.
 

Kapidolo Farms

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Hosta, aka Plantain lily. I did not know these were called Plantain Lily, never heard that term until I recently bought some for a non-tortoise part of the yard. The nursery guy said I'd want to get some snail bait. I told no-thanks, I'll harvest snails from them for my tortoises.

Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosta. look specifically at the note on toxicity, it is considered a vegetable plant for people.

Commonly eaten by rabbits, deer, squirrels and voles. I have rabbits and squirrels in abundance, damn it.

TTT Says :Feed in moderation - High in saponins; so only feed in moderation as part of a varied diet. Said to be toxic to dogs, cats and horses.

Feedipedia has no entry for the genus of plants.

And, so what's in. that's good?
It looks like the C: P ratio is upside down for our tortoise wants.
 

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