What 2 feed my tortoise?????????

Question

Im so so confused as what 2 feed my tortie,
The lady in the shop where i bought her from said fruit and veg, plenty of fruit everyday and lots of veg except lettuce.
Ive done lots of research on the web and it said fruit and veg should be given as treats - especially fruit!
Different websites say different things, im so confuddled :-(
At the moment shes eating kale, apple and cucumber, ive put carrot down and shes not so keen on that. She loves the kale!
Im also putting tortoise supplements on it aswell.
She seems fine, but am i feeding her the right thing??????
thanks
xXx

Im from the UK,
She's a Hermanns
and she's only a yr old
x

Answer 1

i feed my Herman on lettuce ( not iceberg) tomato, cucumber, greens, dandelions, very small amounts of cauliflower, broccoli, t-Rex tortoise food, kale, fruit should not really be given to tortoises i only give it every so often and they love pear, don't give your tortoise banana as this can cause colic, look on the tortoise web site or type in Herman tortoises on your Internet search and look at what they are meant to eat, the problem with feeding the wrong types of food is it will all look ok and the tortoise seems fine, but it is really important to feed the right food especially in the first 6 years, as they are doing most of their growing, and if fed wrong you will start to notice that their shell doesn't form in the right way, please do your research into the correct type of food and do not ever give your tortoise cat or dog food their system can't handle it, there are lots a Herman eats but you need to find out the full list to enable you to feed your tortoise in the correct way, you are doing the right thing in questioning what you were told, and i hope you have many years of fun with your new pet, welcome to the tortoise lovers, good luck.

Answer 2

That is one thing about keeping a Tortoise I find interesting - the conflicting advice given - no matter where you look.

A lot will be about commonsense - not too much of the same thing. You're not actually do so badly considering the conflicting 'menus' out there.

Apparently Tortoises food should be made up of this:

75-95% (normal diet) mixed crasses and weeds plus fresh sun-cured hay.

5% grated/chopped/boiled vegteables.

Fruit should not make up anymore than 5% of the diet in a month.

You must be careful when giving your Tortoise 'wild' food - weeds. crasses etc. These must be washed thoroughly but some can actuaully make your Tortoise extremely ill....possibly cuasing death, so be very careful.

Personally, I use fruits simply as treats and given extremely rarely. Vegetables/Salad: such as carrots, sweet potato, broccoli (tops), parsnips, lettuce, Savoy Cabbage, Watercress, Cress, Rocket, Parsley I will give more often. It is important to vary the diet since Tortoises have a habit of becoming used to certain ingredients and will avoid other nutrition food. So something a little different every few days....or simply chop a few ingrdients together everytime.....a mixed menu!

I can not stress this enough - go to your library and reseach and use the internet, buy books....read, read, read. By doing your research I promise you'll quickly get to know a whole lot more than leaving a question here...........you'll also pick up the do's and don'ts where food is concerned, again, extremely important.

I know the information can be conflicting but when you put it all together you get a good understanding of what you should be doing.

Keep adding those supplements...not to often and not too much! ;o)

PS: excuse any spelling errors the spell checker is not working!

Answer 3

Tortoise nutrition is an interesting field, and it is made more complicated by the fact that a keeper can follow a less-than-good diet for years with no bad effects- as shown by some of the answers posted.

The quick and dirty answer here is: High fiber, mostly dry stuff diet high in hays, grasses, and other 'fodder'- but no much alfalfa. Most of the rest of the diet should be dark leafy greens and some chopped yellow-orange veggies. An occasional strawberry for a rare treat is OK, but not much fruit at all.

A diet that is too sweet (most fruits), too wet (most leafy veggies), uses tomatoes, etc. will cause diarrhea and intestinal problems.

A lot of otherwise good foods have poor calcium levels, or have something called oxalic acid, which binds with calcium and messes it up. This includes spinach.

Other good foods are low in iodine and can cause thyroid problems if used too much- this includes cabbage, kale, cauliflower, and all related plants.

No turtle or tortoise on Earth should get ANY milk, too much grains (bread, rice, oats, corn, soy, etc.), or too much light colored head lettuce, like the dread Iceberg.

A good site with rock-solid research behind its diet recommendations is http://www.tortoisetrust.org

Answer 4

It completely depends on what kind of tortoise you have. Iceberg lettuce is absolutely unacceptable to feed to any tortoise. Depending on what kind of tortoise you have a little romaine lettuce, or red leaf lettuce can be given in moderation. Lettuce in general in a pretty nutritionally worthless food. Some kinds of tortoises eat greens such as collards, kale, mustard greens, and dandelion greens along with a small amount of other fruits and vegetables. Other kinds of tortoises eat mainly grasses and hay. Also don't forget the calcium, it's very important! Also the right temperature and humidity are important along with a UVA/UVB bulb.

The Tortoise Trust website offers care sheets for several kinds of tortoises, hopefully you can find yours there. http://www.tortoisetrust.org/care/care.html

Answer 5

What Do Tortoises Eat

Answer 6

yes it would be OK to change her diet as you are already eating some of the things she should be, just introduce the food slowly and do not worry if she does not eat it straight away, we got given a Herman that often ate cat food, now this is something that you should never give to Herman's, and for a week she would not eat the food then one day she just started eating it so do not panic too much they will eat the food you put down just use the fruit as a treat i give it once a month and use it when i hand feed them as a treat mine loves a bit of pear, so just introduce the correct food and she will be fine, well done you are already doing a great job with her and with the research on how to look after your pet properly i am sure you will have many years enjoyment with your healthy tortoise.

For the best answers, search on this site https://smarturl.im/aDCqH

Answer 7

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The truth is that the Paleo Diet will never be considered a fad because it's just simply the way that humans evolved to eat over approximately 2 million years. And eating in a similar fashion to our ancestors has been proven time and time again to offer amazing health benefits, including prevention of most diseases of civilization such as cancer, heart disease, alzheimers, and other chronic conditions that are mostly caused by poor diet and lifestyle. One of the biggest misunderstandings about the Paleo Diet is that it's a meat-eating diet, or a super low-carb diet. This is not true

Answer 8

What kind of tortoise?

Google has plenty of care sheets that will tell you exactly what to feed and how to care for her.

Variety is the best thing you can offer her. Each food has different health benefits, and a wide range offers better nutrition. Get powdered vitamins at the pet store and sprinkle it on her food twice a week.

Answer 9

I checked your queston history to see that you are asking about a Hermann's (try to remember to mention the species with every question).
A captive diet should try to mimic her natural diet as much as possible. The fruit should be kept as a treat for Mediterranean tortoises like Hermann's and Russian's. They would not normally encounter much in the wild and the high sugar content can cause digestive problems for them.
She needs a high fibre, low protein diet. If you have access to natural grasses, dandelions and clover then try that. Mulberry leaves are a good choice. The kale has to be varied with other greens that are not in the same family, like escarole. Kale, collards and other greens in the cabbage family can cause thyroid problems if they are fed exclusively.

Answer 10

Hi
I keep and rescue Hermanns torts,unfortunatley when torts are sold in pet shops alot of poor advice is given
he/she should be kept on a tortoise table or large drawer with a heat lamp at one end and a hide at the other,newspaper is fine as a substrate(they wont be in danger by swallowing it) a shallow water dish not too deep but deep enough for him to fully emmerse his head to drink,they should also have a uv light,his diet should be mainly weeds,I wouldnt give a baby any fruit!the weeds should be dusted with calcium powder or cuttle fish,try to avoid tomatoe and cucumber as they do not contain much goodness,also cabbage isnt very good for babies,on sunny days get him out in a rabbit run but make sure he can get into the shade,hope this helps :)i have one that is about 100 years old