What Do Tortoises Eat
When you decide on a particular type of tortoise to care for you will have a number of factors to consider if you want it to remain healthy.
One aspect to consider is what to feed your tortoise? This will to a large extent, depend on the natural environment in which your tortoise would live in the wild. For example some South American tortoises have a diet of soft fruits such as mangoes and flowers whereas desert tortoises have completely different nutritional needs. If you research in enough depth you cannot go wrong.
Most tortoises are herbivores and will require a mixed herbvorous diet plus some vitamin and mineral supplements and fresh water.
If you decide to keep your tortoise in an outside enclosure you will need to be aware of the natural plants growing in the environment. There are a number of plants and shrubs that are toxic to a tortoise (a full list is contained in my new book).
A short list of poisonous plants:
Amaryllis
Buttercup
Cherry (seeds)
Christmas cactus
Daffodills
Larkspur
Potato (leaves)
Tulips
And so on…..
Some Safe and Nutritious Plants for your Tortoise
Alfalfa
Banana
Broccoli
Carrots
Corn
Kale
Pumpkin
Soybean
Wheat
Zucchini
Be careful not to feed your tortoise too much from the cabbage family such as broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts as these can affect the thyroid function and calcium absorption in tortoises. Dont eliminate them all together but just be sparing.
There is a full list of poisonous or harmful plants for all different types of species of tortoise in my book.. for more information go to Tortoise Care Info
