If you have a tortoise what do you feed them?

[DontBiteTheBoobThatFeedsYou]

I was just googling whether I could give him celery or kale.

There's mixed opinions on what you can feed a tortoise on every website.

But I just found one which said cat/dog food is a good source of protein.

Surely not?!

It totally depends on the species of tortoise. Mediterranean's eat mostly weeds. Africans/Indians tend to be grazers and rainforest species rely on fallen fruit, weeds and mushrooms/carrion.

The best possible diet for your tortoise is one that grows from the ground. You can buy weed seeds on eBay from shelled warriors to grow weeds in your garden or go out foraging. Grazers need 50% grass, 40% weeds and 10% fruit/veg. Mediterranean needs 80% weeds and the rest fruit and veg and rainforest torts need 50% weeds 35% fruit and 15% chicken/ mushrooms.

I have kept and bred 12 species of tortoise and turtles and over 50 species of reptiles and exotics. I currently have Indian stars and marginateds. The shelled warriors forum is good, as is tortoise protection group.

@TixieLix thank you!

Should add, when I say fruit and veg I mean low sugar fruit such as a bit of apple, grated carrot, melon, pumpkin in autumn etc . A tiny amount of cucumber or strawberry's won't do any harm and can be good for finely slicing and mixing with weeds to tempt the fussy ones. And all food should be supplemented with calcium and reptile dust etc. Avoid kale, cauliflower,spinach as it's high in oxalic acid and causes issues with calcium. Always have fresh water too and give plenty of baths

That looks very similar to my mom’s tortoise, Chocolatecake12 who is about in his mid 60s. Grey rather than brown.
Any idea what breed it is?
He eats peas, beans, dandelion leaves, cucumber and whatever he can find in the garden. He hibernates in a box in the garage in winter and roams free in the garden in summer, where he sleeps in a specially made shelter or occasionally camps out under a tree.
He can move amazingly fast for a tortoise. My mom reckons he runs towards her when he hears her voice. Runs is pushing it, but he can certainly move when he wants to.

We have one and you get specific tortoise food from pet shops. They look like little pellets and you put them in a bowl then add water for him. He also eats a lot of greens, lettuce, cucumber, melon. I would avoid too much fruit as it can be very sugary.

There is some seriously bad advice on this thread. Please get proper advice from experienced tort owners before getting one. Each breed of tort requires different care.

Our family tortoise is aged over 100 years.
His firm favourites are peas and dandelions.
Cucumber and raspberry goes down well too

He's Mediteranean

Lettuce tomato cucumber apples pears banana strawberry's , mine Also loved sour thistle and dandelions - anything fruit or veg but stick to non citrus ,

So much advice here I'm now confused! I would give your vet a ring and ask what he should be having. Can't beat a professional opinion

Agree there is some very bad advice on here. Tortoises should only eat safe weeds and flowers from the garden - absolutely no shop bought veg, nothing at all that is intended for human consumption (including tomatoes, kale etc.). Hermann’s tortoises also do not eat fruit of any kind whatsoever, it upsets their stomach.

The Tortoise Table is great for putting in a weed/flower to see if it is a safe feed, as is the Tortoise Plant Addicts group on Facebook.

Some easily found things that they can have every day: plantain (the best tortoise food), sow thistle, forget me not, campanula, nipplewort, bristly oxtongue. They can have dandelions but only 2-3 times a week.

Please do not feed your tortoise anything from a shop and no fruit.

They also need heat and UV and should be kept in open tables when not outside, not glass vivariums. They need to be on topsoil, not woodchips or sand.

Sadly there is a lot of bad advice and misinformation out there about tortoises.

The above is for a Hermann’s Tortoise.

Oh a whole gaggle of tortoise experts. I wonder if you can advise. My friend has recently been gifted two tortoises. A male and a female. Her experience so far is that the male just constantly tries to mount the female. So much that she's now started to separate them during the day. Is this normal? Does it stress the female? Do they ever settle down or should she give one away? (Which she's considering as she wants to do what's best.)

Plenty of people will tell you they have an ancient tortoise that has been fed XYZ and has hibernated itself every year, in reality, these animals that should live 100-110 years usually die at 50-70 (usually of liver failure due to poor diet and husbandry)

We have got one of these! He looks exactly like chocolatecake's one. He's a mediterranean tortoise. I have just inherited him from my Mum. He has been in the family for 60 years and I don't know how old he was when he arrived. He is not interested in any of the things you say. He eats clover, lettuce (sometimes), used to like tomatoes but doesn't any more, loves sliced apple, Mum says he loves dandelion flowers but he doesn't seem to like them here (perhaps they taste different to the ones at Mum's house? Different soil?) Mum has always given him bread and milk, which they say NEVER to do but she didn't know this when she started and now he loves it. Mum said that he comes to the house to try to get your attention when he wants some . . . yeah right, I thought, but he does! He will storm around the patio for ages and when you give in and give him some he eats it in a frenzy and then goes straight to bed. If he doesn't want anything he stays up the top of the garden.

He is a lovely old character and I fret that I am doing him a mischief by not feeding him properly but if I offer him "the things tortoises eat" he just doesn't touch them.

I know that "survive" is not the same as "thrive" so I am worried and I scour these threads for ideas.

I think my tortoise might be the chelonian equivalent of the obese person who smoked 60 a day but lived to be 100.

Ours is very partial to snails

I have a hermans. A very reputable exotics vet told me that the uv lamps don't give any where near as much uv as they get on a cloudy day in the uk. He encouraged me to have mine outside as much as possible.

She eats rocket or watercress from the shop when I'm desperate but I grow both for her as well. She has a large raised bed running down the garden where I grow plants she can eat. The raised bed is escape proof much to her disappointment. Inside it's a lamp and tortoise table.she much prefers it outside.

I love how affectionate she is, enjoys a good head or shell scratching etc.

Ours has a UV lamp. She only goes into the garden when we're there to supervise and on very warm days. She has very little wet food and no fruit at all. We also feed her fresh food rather than pellets. She was in an awful state when we were given her (by someone who didn't know what they were doing at all) and we nursed her with specialist advice back to full health. She's doing really well, has grown, put on weight and her shell is developing as it should.

Agree with everyone saying that tortoises are specialist pets and need proper care, money, time and space - especially inside.

Omg so much conflicting advice on here.

My mom’s must be a Mediterranean too then, Balloon, as it looks like chocolatecake’s.
He has taken to coming down to the house, standing on his back legs and looking in the patio door when he wants my mom to feed him.
Considering he must only have a pea-sized brain, he is remarkably clever.