Yellow foot safe plants

[astronaut42069]

im building my rescue tortoise Shelby a outdoor enclosure . Shelby is 20yrs old and came from a old dude who had her and a couple red footed tortoises he died and his family didn’t want them and i got her she was severely neglected im pretty sure she ate dog/cat food most of the time cause she goes at the cat/dog foos constantly when shes inside i never let her eat it cause im working on building her gut bacteria and her digestive health back to what it should be she likes to eat rocks to so i had to lay burlap in her enclosure so she cant get to any ive dug her a pond to soak in and was wondering what plants i should plant i have a list that mt vet gave me but am a little unsure about what to plant a have a couple in mine but i see issues like she will eat the stems and get a blockage

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Hello and welcome!

As I can tell, they don't really like to tear apart stemmy plants (which are good source of fiber which helps against the blockage). The list of tortoise safe plants is more or less the same across species. There are specifics as well (e.g. redfoots and yellowfoots are told to be able to chow elephant's ear).

I would get hibiscus and mulberry as a "bulk" source of leaves and great shade source. Spider plants, hosta and pothos for shade and decoration (safe to eat, too).

Eating rocks can be a hint for mineral deficiency - sprinkle a pinch of calcium powder once or twice a week and complex mineral amendment (like Miner-All) once a week.

Here is some information on diet plans and plants:

Omnivore Diet - Tortoise Library

There are many ways to put the basic nutrition ideas into place for omnivorous turtles and tortoises (and you should probably read that section before this one). Some typical plans will be listed here but be sure to check the ‘Notes for Various Species’ section below to see how to adjust the...

tortoiselibrary.com

Can you post photos of your tortoise and its enclosure? And thank you for helping it!

 

[astronaut42069]

Hello and welcome!

As I can tell, they don't really like to tear apart stemmy plants (which are good source of fiber which helps against the blockage). The list of tortoise safe plants is more or less the same across species. There are specifics as well (e.g. redfoots and yellowfoots are told to be able to chow elephant's ear).

I would get hibiscus and mulberry as a "bulk" source of leaves and great shade source. Spider plants, hosta and pothos for shade and decoration (safe to eat, too).

Eating rocks can be a hint for mineral deficiency - sprinkle a pinch of calcium powder once or twice a week and complex mineral amendment (like Miner-All) once a week.

Here is some information on diet plans and plants:

Omnivore Diet - Tortoise Library

There are many ways to put the basic nutrition ideas into place for omnivorous turtles and tortoises (and you should probably read that section before this one). Some typical plans will be listed here but be sure to check the ‘Notes for Various Species’ section below to see how to adjust the...

tortoiselibrary.com

Can you post photos of your tortoise and its enclosure? And thank you for helping it

Dawg i have like 5 different supplements for her i got 2 different calciums with d3 and without i got a reptilian probiotic supplement and tortiose salad topper she gets fresh collard greens and lettuce kate and blackberries sometimes even apples and a banna once in a while u was already leaning towards a mulberry bush mainly cause i love the berries and ik she can eat them too as for spider plants i have countless around the greenhouse so I’ll throw some pots of it in there cause its not cold hardy come winter time one thing im going for is plants that will reseed themselves or go dormant during the winter months(shes gon come inside during the winter)

 

[astronaut42069]

I was also thinking about adding like a salt rock or something like that in there since shes low on minerals but idk ill get better pictures when i get back home from work the picture of her is when i first brought her home she looks a little bit better darker skin stuck shed is coming off everyday ive given her close to 20 shots of a medicine to help her gut i actually gave her the last one lastnight (the vet prescribed)

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Collards and kale are fine in moderation. They should not be fed as a daily staple food. They are high in calcium and with calcium powder you can overdo with calcium supplementation. This inhibits intake of other minerals.

Endive and escarole make good staple greens, but wild growing leafy greens are better like broadleaf plantain, lavatera, mallow, filaree. Sorry, I'm not familiar with your climate and seasonal plants but if you list some growing available to you - we can figure it out. A great resource to check plants for safety is thetortoisetable.org.uk (while it's UK-centric and a bit conservative it's still a great source of information).

You may feed more fruit as well (up to 50% of the diet) - papaya and mango are great. Some mushrooms and animal protein would be great too.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Thought I’d drop the list of stuff we feed our red foot to help give you some ideas

These are some greens to feed(bear in mind the lettuce isn’t the most nutritional but fine to add as part of a varied diet);

Lambs lettuce
Romaine
Red leaf lettuce
Frisèe lettuce
Endive(chicory)
Spring greens
Kale
Rocket
Cress on occasion
The odd Brussel sprout on occasion

There’s also plenty of different weeds you can add! Providing you’re sourcing them from an area that is free of any harmful chemicals like pesticides and fertiliser, so be WARY! There’s lots of lookalikes that can be toxic, it might be best to grow your own from seeds online. We add dandelions and broadleaf plantain, I’ll add the link below to the site Alex mentioned.

The Tortoise Table - Home

The Tortoise Table plant database and resource site for Tortoise owners

www.thetortoisetable.org.uk

Now let’s talk fruit! We remove any pips/seed/stones that are either toxic or a chocking hazard, so for my list, we’d remove the mango stone, plum stone, peach stone, nectarine stone, cherry stones(chocking hazard!), apricot stones, appel&pear seeds(toxic)

Ones we feed more regularly(but rotate cause variety is key):
Mango
Papaya
Pineapple
Raspberries
Melon
Strawberries
Watermelon(not super nutritional but a good hydration boost)
Plum
Peach
Nectarines
Cherries
Apricot
Blueberries
Figs
Guava
Prickly pear

Ones we feel less regularly:
Appel
Banana
Blackberries
Grapes
Pear

Those last ones are more of a treat basis. You can also try cherry tomatoes on occasion but not often.
We also sometimes grate a bit of carrot on our red foots food(not a lot) or some courgette, you can also add bell peppers on occasion, and they’ll also enjoy some mushroom once a week or so!

Hope this helps give you some ideas for variety we try not to give ours too much of just the one type of fruit in any given week, however she gets papaya pretty much daily, it makes up a large majority of their diet in the wild so definitely get your hands on some!

Also they’ll need some protein every 7-10 days, we personally give ours a head sized protein of steamed chicken breast, or a mouse we defrost from the reptile shop.
Calcium power can be added on 3 feeds a week.

Hope all this helps