Tortoise Food

Confused what to give for your tortoise?

like human, sometimes tortoise also get bored with their daily foods..

Before giving food to your tortoise, please research what kind of habitat your tortoise species lives in the wild? 

For example, grassland tortoise such as African Spurred Tortoise, Leopard Tortoise and Russian Tortoise which eats leafs and grass primarily or forest tortoise such as tortoise such as Forsten's Tortoise, Red Foot Tortoise and Asian Black Tortoise which loves to eat fallen fruit, leafs and grass.

I personally not recommend you to give your grassland tortoise any kind of fruits, because not all tortoise are able to digest fruits. a Pet African Spurred Tortoise which belong to a friend of mine dies after eating a banana. It is lethal for African spurred, but it is not to other tortoise such as Forsten's Tortoise.

Below are the guidelines for foods for Tortoises

Note
Very Good	Very recommendable for your tortoise
Good	Can be given once per-week
Okay	Can be given once per-month
Bad	Must not give this to your tortoise

Food	Recommendation	Description
Opuntia Cactus	Very Good	Shred it
Hibiscus leaf and flower	Very Good	Cut it soft
Aloe vera	Good	Remove the thorn, dice it.
Salad	Okay	Too much nitrate, affects the digestation system
Lettuce	Very Good	Cut it soft
Chinese Broccoli	Very Good	contains calcium, good for tortoise growth
Carrot	Very Good	Shred it
Watercress	Very Good	Cut it soft
Water Spinach	Very Good	Cut it soft
Zucchini	Very Good	Shred it
Cosmos caudatus leaf & flower	Very Good	Cut it soft
Clover	Very Good	BEST FOOD!
Fern	Very Good
Corn	Very Good	For adult tortoise, give it together with the cornhusk
Cucumber	Good	Dice it
Tomato	Okay	Dice it
Fruits	Okay	less fiber, too sweet.
Long bean	Good	Too much protein, causes pyramiding
Beansprout	Good	Too much protein, causes pyramiding
Snap pea	Good	Too much protein, causes pyramiding
Common bean	Good	Too much protein, causes pyramiding
Cabage	Prohibited	Causes digesting problem
Cauliflower	Prohibited	Causes digesting problem
Broccoli	Prohibited	Causes digesting problem
Spinach	Prohibited	Undigestable
Turnip	Prohibited	Undigestable
Winged Bean	Prohibited	Undigestable
Meat	Prohibited	Undigestable

Hays such as alfalfa hay, timothy hay also very good for your tortoise, i personally recommend alfalfa hay for grassland tortoises.
Commercial tortoise pellets are good as an extra nutrition for your tortoise.

Daily Notes

1. Do not keep your vegetable in the refrigeration  for more than 2 days, fresh vegetable is the best.
2. Feeding can be given every morning 9 AM and afternoon 2 PM.
3. Cut the vegetable according to tortoise mouth size.
4. Good feces is a solid feces, you might need to check for worms in the feces.

Re-hydration

1. if you keep your tortoise in a small enclosure, i suggest you don't put any water dish inside because it causes the enclosure to be wet and damp.
2. Tortoise have a water stock mechanism, so giving drink everyday is not a must. Soak the tortoise in a shallow water, about the height of it's lower jaw every twice a week for 5 minutes.
3. For bigger tortoise, you might need to consider to build a small shallow pond in the enclosure.