Caring for your Tortoise
Caring for your Tortoise
What to feed your tortoise?
Tortoises are foraging creatures in the wild. They are herbivores, eating plants as their main diet. The natural environment for a tortoise can range from fertile areas where they are able to find food easily to other areas such as arid deserts where finding food is much more difficult.
In captivity tortoises can happily chomp on grasses where in the wild they would have eaten cacti. Ongoing research into the nutritional value of commercially available tortoise food will hopefully make the picture easier in years to come. However, for now it would be best to use fresh food rather than the commercially available pellet food. When deciding what and how often to feed your tortoise you must take into account the size age and species of tortoise we are caring for. As with all growing creatures the younger ones need a high nutritional value food due to growing and also their activity is greater when young.
Many naturally growing plants in your garden are fine for your tortoise to eat safely however, there are also some that are toxic for the tortoise, a full list is available in our new downloadable book “Top Experts Secrets to keeping and Caring for your Tortoise“. You can also feed your tortoise on other leafy green vegetables such as spinach, kale even carrots and chopped herbs such as parsley. They will enjoy potatoes, sweet potatoes and many really enjoy soft fruits such as strawberries and raspberries.
Whatever you decide to feed your tortoise on it must be nutritional and provide all the vital vitamins and minerals required to keep it healthy.
Always have fresh water available even for the desert habitat tortoise.
If your tortoise will not eat it may be due to a number of factors. It may be stressed following moving to a new home or habitat. A change in type of food may be the problem. Or an illness or injury even a parasite may have some impact on your tortoise’s appetite.
