Nipper playing with a green tomato in her bed.
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Question by Nikki P: what are the best foods to feed a tortoise ?
i have a horsefield tortoise. at the moment i feed him things like greens,tomatoes,lettuce,dandelions but want to give him a little more variety.
Best answer:
Answer by inside_the_wood_dragons_lair
“Horsefield” tortoises are Russian torts.
They eat mainly grass and dandelions, In some species a little variety can cause a lot of problems…
I would not do the tomatoes, nothing with the word lettuce in it. and possibly a strawberry once a week, but no more than that.
As these tortoises are ones that hibernate,
they do not eat at all when hibernating.
Check out this website, www.Anapsid.org
for some very good info on this species.
If you are going to let them hibernate,
you will need to learn how to prepare them.
If you are going to keep them warm, and eating through the winter, you will need a nice warm place, and lots of grass, and dandelions.
A uv light check out www.ReptileUV.com
for lights on several species of reptiles.
If you give this tort any kind of “lettuce” Romaine is the best kind. but that should be sparingly too.
Stick to the grass, and dandelions. Your tort will stay healthy.
Also do a soak at least 2 times a week.
Add your own answer in the comments!
Russian torts will do best on a diet where their staple is weeds, so if you’re still finding dandelions at this time of year, you’re in luck! :o)
If you’re collecting dandelions, is there any chance of some clover and plantain? (Re: plantain – the lance leaved and broad leaved are both good…whatever you do, don’t confuse me recommending the common lawn weed with the banana type fruit of the same name.)
As mentioned in the previous answer, romaine lettuce is pretty good as far as lettuce goes, but avoid giving him it too much as it is too “wet” a foodstuff and too low in fibre to make a good staple.
Tomatoes (or any fruit) really shouldn’t feature in a horsfield’s diet at all.
The aim should be to go for a high fibre, high calcium, low protein, low phosphorous diet.
Watch out for foodstuffs that would seem to be good at first glance, with a good calcium to phosphorous ratio, if they also contain a lot of oxalaic acid. This binds with the calcium in the vegetable (spinnach being the most well known example, but also beets, parsley, chard) and renders it insoluble (and therefore, the tortoise cannot absorb it.) This carries 2 dangers – the fact that the tortoise isn’t getting as much usable calcium as you might think, and the fact that the calcium is in an insoluble form, so it can form kidney stones, or even result in crippling over calcification of their joints.
There’s a list of the oxalaic acid content of various veggies here: http://www.repticzone.com/articles/oxalicacidvegetablelist.html
I’d strongly advise completely excluding anything that is listed as 0.5g/100g, or above.
Then (information overload, I know, I’m sorry!) have a look at: http://www.repticzone.com/articles/Ca-P_ratios.html
and see what’s left (i.e. that hasn’t been excluded on the strength of its oxalaic acid content) that has the best calcium to phosphorous ratio.
Anything above 2:1 is what you’re looking for, but as long as it isn’t Ca:Ph negative (i.e. listed as zero-point-whatever :1) and ISN’T a fruit then it can probably form a useful addition to their diet, *provided* that adequate calcium supplementation is also given.
Hope this helps?
AlexD